Nigella as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Nigella

What is the meaning of the name Nigella ?

The baby name Nigella is a Female name , 3 syllables long and is pronounced ni-JEL-ə (IPA: /nɪˈdʒɛlə/).

Nigella is Latin in Origin.

Dating to Medieval Latin Nigella, the feminine of Nigellus, a diminutive of Latin niger “black,” originally a byname for dark hair or complexion. The name also overlaps with the botanical genus Nigella - most famously Nigella damascena (“love‑in‑a‑mist”) and Nigella sativa (black cumin) - borrowed from the same Latin root and lending gentle floral and spice associations.

Use as a given name is chiefly British and comparatively modern; while the masculine Nigel established itself from the Middle Ages, Nigella appeared sporadically in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and gained wider notice through British writer and television cook Nigella Lawson from the 1990s onward. Variant and related forms include Nigel (m.), Nigellus (Lat.), and rare French Nigelle; nicknames range from Nella and Nell to Ella and Gigi. Meanings cited: “black; dark,” with a secondary botanical sense via love‑in‑a‑mist.