given name · isiZulu
Nothando
An isiZulu given name, given to women.
Nobody has checked this one yet.
What This Name Means
-
Mother of love, with love, or she who has love.
From the brief, which names no source. Carried as the brief's own reading, not as corpus fact.
How The Word Is Built
- no- the prefix the brief glosses as maternal or associative, the part that turns 'love' into 'mother of love' or 'with love'. Which of the two it is was not settled.
- -thando the stem, from uthando, 'love', itself off the verb root -thanda. Wiktionary
Where The Word Comes From
The name is 'love' carried behind a prefix. The stem uthando is attested off the verb -thanda, 'to love'; the prefix no- is read either as 'mother of' or as 'with', and the brief does not choose between them. Wiktionary
How The Name Is Given
Given to women, and read as a name about compassion and affection. Used in South Africa, Eswatini and Zimbabwe, though the spread was not measured.
Where This Came From
One person wrote this down.
- Research briefs on twenty Nguni given names, supplied one at a time on 1 October 2026: Ntando, Nothando, Babalwa, Nomanqoba, Musawenkosi, Nomvelo, Thubelihle, Nombulelo, Nobubele, Nozithelo, Nonjabulo, Melusi, Mlondi, Thandoluhle, Thingoluhle, Methembe, Mthandazo, Nompilo, Mehluli. Not every name is in every file; the language each brief named decides where it is filed. supplied to this corpus by Themba, 1 October 2026 View source
Are You Nothando?
Put your name on the launch list.
Tell Me When It Opens Send This To Your Family
We write to you about Wozekhaya, and nothing else.
If You Carry This Name
A family that uses a name knows it better than any dictionary does. If this one is yours, tell us what it means at home.