Entry № 918 · Greek origin

Arsinoe Arsinoe — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ ar-SIN-oh-ee /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Greek
Meaning
"Lifter of minds (Ptolemaic queens of Egypt)"
Syllables
4
First recorded
Ancient (Greek)

A name that means "lifter of minds (ptolemaic queens of egypt)".

Arsinoë (Ἀρσινόη) is from the Greek arsis (lifting up) + noos (mind). The name of seven Ptolemaic queens of Egypt — most famous Arsinoë II Philadelphus (c. 316-270 BCE), who married her own brother Ptolemy II Philadelphus, was deified during her lifetime as Thea Philadelphos ("Sibling-Loving Goddess"), and became the most powerful woman in the Hellenistic world. Arsinoë IV (c. 68-41 BCE) was Cleopatra VII's younger sister — exiled to Ephesus by Caesar, executed there by Mark Antony at Cleopatra's request — among the most notorious sibling rivalries of antiquity.

Subject of Grace Macurdy's Hellenistic Queens (1932).

Lifter of minds. Seven Ptolemaic queens of Egypt; Arsinoe II became a living goddess.

The name in its native script.

Ἀρσινόη
Transliteration
Arsinóē
Pronunciation
/ ɑːrˈsɪn.oʊ.iː /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Arsinoe stands.

Arsinoe does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Arsinoes before her.

Real people
Arsinoë II Philadelphus
Ptolemaic queen of Egypt.
c. 316 – 270 BCE
Arsinoë IV
Cleopatra VII's sister.
c. 68 – 41 BCE
In fiction
Arsinoë
Molière's The Misanthrope.
1666

Names connected to Arsinoe.

The number behind Arsinoe.

9

The Giver

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Arsinoe reduce to 9, The Giver. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.