Arabic name meaning white antelope or gazelle; also a Sanskrit word for short poem.
Rima is a name of striking geographic range, carrying distinct meanings across Arabic and Latin cultures while remaining immediately melodic in both. In Arabic, rima (ريما) means 'white antelope' or 'gazelle,' the creature being a classical symbol of beauty, fleetness, and grace in Arabic poetry stretching back to the pre-Islamic odes. The name appears in verse as a metaphor for the beloved, and it retains that association with delicate natural beauty in Arabic-speaking cultures today.
H. Hudson's 1904 novel Green Mansions, in which Rima is a wild, bird-like girl living in a South American forest — a spirit of untamed nature who speaks to birds and belongs entirely to the natural world. Hudson's Rima captured the Edwardian imagination so thoroughly that Jacob Epstein's controversial bronze memorial to her in Hyde Park (1925) sparked a genuine public scandal.
The figure became a touchstone for debates about modernity, wilderness, and what civilization destroys. In contemporary use, Rima functions cleanly across many linguistic communities — it requires no translation and carries no awkward phonetic burden. In Spanish it also means 'rhyme,' lending the name a literary bonus for poetry-loving parents. Short, two-syllable, ending in that open vowel that makes a name feel warm and approachable: Rima is a name that travels well and wears lightly across a lifetime.