Shana (given name)

Shana is a feminine given name of multiple origins. The pronunciation of the name varies depending upon the context and source.

According to Bruce Lansky, Shana occurs as a familiar diminutive or form of Shannon, a Gaelic name, meaning "small and wise." It relates to the longest river in Ireland, the Shannon, which earned its namesake from Celtic goddess Sionna, who sought the enchanted hazelnuts of wisdom. Legends vary about the creation of the river, but they all recount the drowning of the Sionna, granddaughter of the great sea god Lir, usually at an undersea well. Some derive the denomination of the name Shannon, known by the Irish as Sionnain, from the phrase sean-amhan or "old river." An alternate spelling for Shana is Shanna.

Beyond its Irish roots, Shana is also often used as a nickname for Shoshana, an ancient form of Susannah, and means "lily" or "rose" in Hebrew. The name Shaina, sometimes spelled Shayna or Shana, is of Yiddish origin, and implies "beautiful."

Given name

A given name (also known as a personal name, first name, forename, or Christian name) is a part of a person's full nomenclature. It identifies a specific person, and differentiates that person from other members of a group, such as a family or clan, with whom that person shares a common surname. The term given name refers to the fact that the name is bestowed upon, or given to a child, usually by its parents, at or near the time of birth. This contrasts with a surname (also known as a family name, last name, or gentile name), which is normally inherited, and shared with other members of the child's immediate family.

Given names are often used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations. In more formal situations the surname is more commonly used, unless it is necessary to distinguish between people with the same surname. The idioms "on a first-name basis" and "being on first-name terms" allude to the familiarity of addressing another by a given name.

Relationship to other names

Shana

Shana may refer to:

Places

Fictional uses

Shakugan no Shana

Shakugan no Shana (灼眼のシャナ, lit. Burning-Eyed Shana), also known simply as Shana (シャナ), is a Japanese light novel series written by Yashichiro Takahashi with illustrations by Noizi Ito. ASCII Media Works published 26 novels from November 2002 to November 2012 under their Dengeki Bunko imprint. The story focuses on Yuji Sakai, a high school boy who inadvertently becomes involved in an age-old conflict between forces of balance and imbalance in existence. In the process, he befriends a fighter for the balancing force and names her "Shana". The series incorporates fantasy and slice of life elements into its tale.

Two manga adaptations were published by ASCII Media Works in Dengeki Daioh and Dengeki Maoh. Between 2005 and 2012, the series was adapted by J.C.Staff into three 24-episode anime television series, a four-episode original video animation (OVA) series, an animated film and an additional stand alone OVA episode. A PlayStation 2 video game was released in March 2006, and it was ported to the Nintendo DS in March 2007. Viz Media licensed the novels and the first manga series for release in North America, but stopped publishing both prematurely. Geneon originally licensed the first television series for release in North America, but the license later transferred to Funimation, who also licensed the remaining anime properties. Critics praised the series for its execution of typical story elements and how it continuously becomes better over time. However, the series is described as having issues with pacing.

The Legend of Dragoon

The Legend of Dragoon is a role-playing video game developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It was released in Japan on December 2, 1999, in North America on June 11, 2000, and on January 19, 2001 in Europe.

Despite mixed critical reception, the game has amassed a very large fanbase following, including several online petitions for a remake or prequel/sequel. The game was rereleased on PlayStation Network in Japan on December 22, 2010 and in North America on May 1, 2012.

Gameplay

The Legend of Dragoon features three modes of play: the field map, a battle mode, and an overworld map. The field map is used whenever the player enters a town, dungeon, or landmark. It consists of a pre-rendered background image overlaid with real-time 3D character models and animated effects, such as the movement of water or light shafts. Battle mode is a real-time 3D environment that resembles the current field map. Turn-based battles occur between playable characters and CPU-controlled enemies. Standard actions such as attack, defend, item and escape are present. The world map is used when the player moves between towns or other geographical locations. The World Map doesn't allow for free movement, and instead the player follows a guided path between destinations.

.name

The domain name "name" is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is intended for use by individuals for representation of their personal name, nicknames, screen names, pseudonyms, or other types of identification labels.

The top-level domain was founded by Hakon Haugnes and Geir Rasmussen and initially delegated to Global Name Registry in 2001, and become fully operational in January 2002. Verisign was the outsourced operator for .name since the .name launch in 2002 and acquired Global Name Registry in 2008.

On the .name TLD, domains may be registered on the second level (john.name) and the third level (john.doe.name). It is also possible to register an e-mail address of the form john@doe.name. Such an e-mail address may have to be a forwarding account and require another e-mail address as the recipient address, or may be treated as a conventional email address (such as john@doe.com), depending on the registrar.

When a domain is registered on the third level (john.doe.name), the second level (doe.name in this case) is shared, and may not be registered by any individual. Other second level domains like johndoe.name remain unaffected.

Name

A name is a term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies, not necessarily uniquely, a specific individual human. The name of a specific entity is sometimes called a proper name (although that term has a philosophical meaning also) and is, when consisting of only one word, a proper noun. Other nouns are sometimes called "common names" or (obsolete) "general names". A name can be given to a person, place, or thing; for example, parents can give their child a name or scientist can give an element a name.

Caution must be exercised when translating, for there are ways that one language may prefer one type of name over another. A feudal naming habit is used sometimes in other languages: the French sometimes refer to Aristotle as "le Stagirite" from one spelling of his place of birth, and English speakers often refer to Shakespeare as "The Bard", recognizing him as a paragon writer of the language. Also, claims to preference or authority can be refuted: the British did not refer to Louis-Napoleon as Napoleon III during his rule.