Larissa

Larissa comes from Greek, and behind it stands a real place. In several ancient towns the fortified height at the center, the citadel where people sheltered under attack, was called Larissa, and one such city still sits in the plain of Thessaly. The old word meant citadel or fortress, twierdza in Polish. So a girl named Larissa answers to the name of a stronghold.

The name traveled well beyond Thessaly. In Poland it settled into the spelling Larysa, while the short form Lara does the daily work of it, fitting onto a school register or a name-day card. Lara is brisk. Larysa keeps the fuller shape.

Greek myth also gave the name to a nymph, and much later astronomers borrowed it back from her for a small moon of Neptune. Under all of that the sense holds firm: a walled height, forteca, a place built to hold.