Tímea

Tímea is a Hungarian female given name created by the prominent Hungarian author Mór Jókai for a character in his 1873 novel The Golden Man (original Hungarian title: Az arany ember). The name is derived from the Greek word εὐθυμία (euthymia), meaning "good spirits, cheerfulness".

In Jókai's novel, the name originally appeared as "Timéa" (pronounced [ˈtimeːɒ]), but it soon spread in a slightly altered form, "Tímea" ([ˈtiːmɛɒ]), which became the standard spelling. The character Timéa is a beautiful and virtuous woman, central to the novel's plot. The novel's original title in Hungarian, Az arany ember (The Golden Man), is sometimes translated as The Man with the Golden Touch in English. The name gained popularity in Hungary after the novel's publication and remains common today.

There are conjectures that Jókai may have been influenced by historical forerunners from antiquity, such as Timaea, Queen of Sparta, or a feminine form of Timaeus. Etymologically, a derivation from Latin "Timaea" to Hungarian "Timéa" would be straightforward, matching the Latin regional pronunciation of Hungary.