While most of us have the image of a sleek Ms. Thurman brandishing a sword in tight yellow track pants, as soon as we hear the name UMA; its origin and history are something of a delight. UMA (pronounced as oo-mah) is one of the oldest words first ever used as a name.

There are multiple meanings for the name Uma in Hindi (the language used widely in Indian peninsula). It means light’ and sometimes mother’ and sometimes flax or turmeric’. Each as vividly different from the other as can possibly be.
The easiest one to explain is “mother”. U means Lord Siva (A great God of the Hindus) and ma’ is the Hindi word for mother. However in no way Uma was simply, as it seems from the above, mother of Siva. No. In fact, she was his wife! So why, in God’s name, pun intended, does Uma mean mother? We’ll come to that in a while, as of now let’s suffice by understanding that most of the connotations and meanings of the word Uma have to do with Lord Siva, at least as far as Hindu Mythology and the origin of the word goes. As Uma was also designated the Goddess of Light, thus Uma sufficiently came to mean Light.
Now, Uma means flax or turmeric as well that, is just the literal translation of the word in Sanskrit. Most historical references indicate, this meaning came into existence much later, not till the 10th Century, which is almost like something happening yesterday if you take the Hindu Civilization and especially birth of Hindu Mythology in consideration. However it has a link to the story of Lord Siva as well. Read on!

Since we have already tackled origin above, I will go directly into history. Lord Siva, the Great Hindu God, was actually an ascetic. He was a fearsome loner, mighty & powerful, and lived and ruled over the Himalayas. Dreaded by all, he was also known to have a kindly heart. But this was not so always. He once fell in love too. No wrong guess, not with Uma but with a woman called Sati. History books and references actually indicate Siva to be a Dravidian King and Sati to be an Aryan princess. Sati’s father was against the marriage (origin of the inter-caste divide) and her father once publicly humiliated Siva by not calling him for a prestigious Yagna (Holy Rites). So humiliated was Sati that she jumped into the pyre and committed suicide.
Siva came and collected her ashes and draped his hair and his forehead with this ash of his beloved and retired to the Himalayas to become an ascetic and loner (as previously indicated) in grief.
Sati meanwhile was re-born as Parvati. She had one look at Siva and fell in love with him. After much persuasion (and technical interference from Kama the god of love, but that’s another story) Parvati lured Siva into marriage, he became a householder, and she, became UMA. Simple, really, for two reasons. While she was doing the luring - Parvati’s mother addressed her as this “U (meaning O Child’ in Sanskrit) “Ma” (meaning Do not practice austerities)”, and she was called Uma from then on. Also since Siva called her his Cosmos or the Mother of the Universe the name stuck on. However since Siva himself is called “Kailasa” which alternatively means the Universe as well hence the confusion. Whew, difficult interpretations, but now it makes sense, does it not?

Unfortunately, the name is not very popular. The 1990 U.S. Census indicates it is a rare first and last name. It doesn’t even come in the top 5000. What is surprising is, it’s not even very popular in India, from where the name originates. It’s used there, but even Indians think first of Uma Thurman, rather than Goddess Parvati first!

The most interesting aspect of the name is that even though it is a rare name it can be found both in the West and the East. It’s a name that can be found in the Americas, Britain and also found in Indonesia, India, Srilanka and Malaysia. A few other such names are Anita, Tina, and Althea but unlike the name Uma’ none of these have their origin, in the Indian Subcontinent.

Also, remember when I said Siva collected Sati’s ashes on her committing suicide this as the story goes was bright yellow in color. This effectively, came to be called Turmeric. Yellow, powder like substance, which when burnt, gets a coal like color.

The simple name UMA has as its constituents, three syllables: u, ma and a. The same three syllables in a different order, though, constitute the most important mantra of Hindu philosophy, AUM, which indicates spirituality, peace, cosmos it has a hundred connotations at least! So everything that is connoted by AUM, according to the scriptures, is also indicated by the word UMA hence, technically, it can also have a hundred different meanings!

Oh, also, the name always indicates the female gender. Only when prefixed, like in UmaSankar (Sankar meaning Lord Siva again) does the gender change.

This name surprisingly founds way in Hebrew as well. In Hebrew it means “Nation”. This is why sometimes the name Uma is taken to mean “peace of the world” combining both properties of the Hebrew and Hindu translations.

As far as namesakes are concerned, of course, Ms. Thurman is our favorite. I need not say any more about her, except that she was named so, not on the Hindu Goddess, but because her parents brought her up as Buddhist. Uma is named after the Uma Chenpo (in Tibetan; meaning “Great Middle Way”).
UMA also is the acronym for a telecommunication system (Unlicensed Mobile Access) which helps in the convergence of mobile, fixed and internet telephony.

This name has variants, not many, but some. The most common variant is Ooma. Some other that are uncommon, but are not exact variants are Ama (Ghanaian name meaning Born on Saturday’!), Ima (Variant of Emma, German, meaning embracing everything’) and Oma (Commander’ in Arabic).
In Africa the name Ummi is used, again, surprisingly, it means My mother’.