Last updated: March 2026

Character Name

Anjali

Meaning — From the Sanskrit anjali, the word for the gesture of joining both hands together in offering or salutation — from añj meaning "to anoint, to honor". The anjali mudra (hands pressed together at the chest) is the fundamental gesture of respect, prayer, and greeting across Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions, making this name an embodiment of devotion and reverence.·Sanskrit origin·Female·AHN-jah-lee

Anjali Anjali carries the sacred gesture of the anjali at its core — a name that literally means an act of devotion, making its bearer someone whose identity is expressed through giving rather than taking. In Sanskrit devotional poetry the anjali represents the soul's orientation toward the divine, but in everyday South Asian culture it captures the ethic of hospitality and honor that structures social life. It suits characters whose natural mode is generous offering, who create community through acts of recognition and welcome.

Best genres for Anjali

Literary FictionHistorical FictionRomanceFantasy

Famous characters named Anjali

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Variations & nicknames

AnjaliAnjalyAnjlee

Pairs well with

Anjali CraneAnjali VossAnjali MercerAnjali AshfordAnjali WhitmoreAnjali Langford

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Related names


More Sanskrit names

Anita

Derived from Sanskrit "anita" meaning "grace", "favor", or "one who has been led". It is also used as a diminutive form of the name Ana across South Asian languages, and is common across India, particularly in Hindi-speaking regions.

Kali

From the Sanskrit Kāli, the feminine form of Kāla, meaning "black," "time," or "death." Kali is one of the most powerful deities in Hindu theology — the goddess of time, change, and destruction, but also of liberation and transformation. As a given name it is used in Indian and Hindu communities, and also in Finnish as a masculine form of Kalle (Karl).

Jyoti

Derived from Sanskrit "jyotis" meaning "light", "flame", or "radiance" — particularly the light of a lamp or sacred fire. In the Upanishads, jyoti is the inner light of Brahman (the divine), making this a name with profound spiritual resonance.

Anand

Derived from Sanskrit "ananda" meaning "bliss", "happiness", or "joy" — specifically the transcendent bliss that, in Advaita Vedanta, is the third attribute of Brahman (sat-chit-ananda: being, consciousness, bliss). The name describes the highest form of happiness.

Meera

Derived from Sanskrit, possibly meaning "ocean" or "sea", or alternatively from the root meaning "prosperous" and "full of light". The name is inseparably associated with Mirabai, the 16th-century Rajput princess and devotional poet who renounced royal life to worship Krishna.

Shakuntala

Derived from Sanskrit "shakunta" meaning "bird" — the name means "one who was cared for by birds". In legend, Shakuntala was abandoned by her mother and raised by birds in the forest hermitage of the sage Kanva. She is the heroine of Kalidasa's celebrated Sanskrit play.


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