Halcyon

Meaning: (Calm, Peaceful, Tranquil, Happy, Carefree, Derived from the name of a Greek mythological sea bird. Commonly used in the expression 'halcyon days. It is derived from Alkyon meaning 'Kingfisher'; Halkyon 'Kingfisher'; Hals 'Sea'. Halcyon is a genus of kingfisher birds; the name thus means 'kingfisher'. Etymologically, the name is Latinized from Halkyone (Greek), which is itself a variant of 'Alkyone'. The root elements are the Greek Alkyon and Halkyon, with the 'h' added by mythological associations. Ovid wrote in Roman mythology that Alcyone's father Aeolus, the god of the winds, held back the storms whenever Alcyone, as a kingfisher, laid her eggs on the beach. This gave rise to the term 'halcyon days', the mythical seven days in winter when storms do not occur.)

Origin: (Greek)

Pronunciation: (HHAELSiy-ahN, HAL-see-uhn)

Gender: Female, Possibly Uni-Sex

Alcyone *see on list of posts* has the same meaning and comes from the same root and associated the same mythology but looks different so authors may wish to use one over the other for a character. Look at Alcyone on this blog to get more of the mythology associated with both names. I was listening to music and Ellie Goulding has a CD from a few years ago called Halcyon Days and I became interested in that phrase as I had literally never heard of it before so I had to Google it. The meaning of this and the mythology behind the phrase is really quite lovely and I like it all a ton. Both Alcyone and Halcyon have great meanings and interesting looks about them.

Halcyon seemed a name of a chemical or something when I first saw it so others may assume the name is something odd at first but again if used just right by an author this could be really great in a story, whether used as character name or the Halcyon Days phrase used to mean something in the story.