ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 940
http://www.s-gabriel.org/940
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From: 
20 May 1998

Greetings,

Here's the information we found about the name "Stasia."

Your information about <Stasia> is basically correct--it is a short
form of the Greek name <Anastasia>.  However, there are two problems
with using <Stasia> as a name meaning "reborn."

First, given names in most European languages (including Greek) were
generally not chosen because of their meaning.  Although most names
came from ordinary words, by the Middle Ages those meanings were no
longer relevant to the names.  The modern "name books" that include
meanings for first names are the work of modern authors who
reconstructed "meanings" that had, in many cases, been forgotten or
ignored for hundreds of years.  This is definitely the case with
<Anastasia>.  The Christians of the 3rd and 4th centuries probably
considered the meaning of the name, but by your period the meaning
would have been irrelevant.

But even if you changed to a 4th-century Greek Christian persona who
might well have considered the meaning of her name to be important,
<Anastasia> doesn't mean "reincarnated."  It comes from the word
<anastasios>, which means "resurrected."  This is the term applied to
the resurrection of Jesus, and as such <Anastasia>, when it was used,
had the specific meaning of Christian resurrection and rebirth.

In Arabic, it was somewhat more common for names to be associated with
meaning.  However, we didn't find any period Arabic name with meanings
that were even remotely close to what you were looking for--perhaps
because Islam does not believe in reincarnation, nor in resurrection
as Christians understand it.

So we really don't have a suggestion for you because your name really
can't be translated into Arabic--in fact, it's meaning probably wasn't
recognized in the original Greek.  If you're interested in a list of
Arabic women's names, we have a Web page at 

http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/arabicwomen.html

You also asked about a device including a phoenix.  The only animals
(mythical or otherwise) that we have found in Islamic heraldry are the
lion, eagle, falcon, and occassionally the horse.  The phoenix is an
uncommon theme in Islamic art, and we do not think that it would be
a likely charge in an Islamic heraldic design.  The symbolism of
Islamic heraldry wasn't nearly as developed as the symbolism of
Western heraldry, so we can't suggest a good alternative.  As far as
we can tell, Islamic heraldry wasn't used to convey connotations of
abstract ideas like "rebirth."

Arval Benicoeur, Walraven van Nijmege, Da'ud ibn Auda, Teceangl Bach,
Aryanhwy Prytydes merch Catmael Caermyrdin, Giulietta di Venezia,
Zenobia Naphtali, and Talan Gwynek contributed to this letter.

We're sorry we couldn't give you a more positive answer, but we hope
that this information is useful.  If we can continue to work with you,
please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel