Entry № 9332 · Greek origin

Semele Semele — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ SEH-meh-lee /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Greek
Meaning
"Mother of Dionysus (consumed by Zeus's true form)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Ancient (Greek)

A name that means "mother of dionysus (consumed by zeus's true form)".

Semele (Σεμέλη) is from the Phrygian zemelo (earth). Theban princess, mortal lover of Zeus, mother of the god Dionysus. Tricked by the jealous Hera into demanding to see Zeus in his true form, she was incinerated by his lightning — but Zeus rescued the unborn Dionysus from her ashes and sewed him into his thigh until birth. Later raised from Hades by her son to become the goddess Thyone on Olympus.

Featured in Euripides's Bacchae and Handel's opera Semele (1744).

Theban princess. Incinerated by Zeus's true form; her son Dionysus raised her from Hades to Olympus.

The name in its native script.

Σεμέλη
Transliteration
Semélē
Pronunciation
/ ˈsɛm.ə.li /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Semele stands.

Semele 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.

Semeles before her.

Real people
Semele
Theban mortal princess.
In fiction
Semele
Handel's opera Semele.
1744

Names connected to Semele.

The number behind Semele.

5

The Seeker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Semele reduce to 5, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.