Place name from the Peruvian capital; derived from the Rímac River or Latin 'limus' (threshold).
Lima is a name of multiple independent origins, each lending it a different cultural texture. Most prominently, Lima is the capital city of Peru, a name derived from the Quechua and Aymara word Rimaq or Limaq — meaning "the speaker" or "the talker" — referring to the Rimac River and the oracle deity associated with it. The city founded by Francisco Pizarro in 1535 has lent its name a New World grandeur, conjuring colonial plazas, Pacific mists, and one of Latin America's great metropolitan cultures.
The lima bean takes its name from the same city, having been cultivated in the region for thousands of years. Independently, Lima exists as a given name in several West African traditions, and in Arabic the word lima (لِمَ) means "why" or "for what reason" — a philosophically suggestive etymology that has appealed to parents in Arabic-speaking communities. In Scandinavian countries, particularly Sweden and Finland, Lima appears as both a place name and occasionally a feminine given name with a clean, Nordic minimalism.
As a personal name in the contemporary landscape, Lima benefits from the same forces driving interest in short, place-inspired names: Luna, Nova, Florence, Adelaide. It is geographical without being obviously so, international without being unpronounceable, and carries a subtle exoticism that wears lightly. The name has a natural openness to it — two simple syllables that feel like a beginning rather than an ending, which is perhaps exactly right for a name given at the start of a life.