Noor
Singer and actress Noor Jehan — born Allah Rakhi Wasai — passed away on December 23, 2000 at 74 years old. Noor is considered one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent, performing in Indian and Pakistani Bollywood cinema.
Noor holds the record for singing the largest number of film songs (about 30,000) over her 60-year career. Noor is also considered to be the first female Pakistani film director.
Noor is an Arabic name meaning “light”, and is a popular unisex (but more commonly girl) name amongst modern Muslim families — Jehan was born into a Muslim Punjabi family herself.
Today Noor is beginning to cross over into Western culture, appearing in the US Top 1000 for girls for the first time in 2015, and now at #773 — that translates to 367 baby girls named Noor in 2022, as well as 54 baby boys.
It is sleek, chic, not overly frilly, and is reminiscent of the popular Eleanor and Nora. In fact, Noor is a Dutch variation of Eleanor as well.