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The original version of this name is ancient, perhaps among the most ancient of all Indo-European names, since it corresponds with a tribe of people who lived in the Pontic Steppes as one of the ancient Indo-European/Aryan tribes called by the Greeks 'Dareitai'. Accordingly, the name Δᾱρεῖος is the Greek version. A very noble name, it appears in the Achaeonid (Ancient Persian nobility) as the name of one of the greatest kings of the EhranShahr, 'the Empire of Ehran' or Iran, as Dārayauš shortened form of Dārayava(h)uš. The evolution of the meaning of this name mirrors the evolution of linguistic development of human languages. In the period in which it is borne by the tribe in the Pontic Steppes, it probably had a meaning of something to do with wood and trees. Since the ancient people were atavistic and worshipped nature, from this we get the meaning of 'given' or 'gift' possibly from the connotation of 'gods give' or 'tree/wood gives blessings' that carries on in the European branch families, in the Greek 'doron', as a gift, in the Latin 'do/dare' to give, in the Slavic 'dar' for gift, and so on. In the period in which the name was borne by Darius I and II, the Kings of Persia, as Dārayauš, it meand 'possessed' or 'in possession of' 'goodness' from 'vahu' confirming the likely origins in atavism and tree worship, as the divergent meaning of giving and possessing likely have something to do with tree spirits giving or taking away (life, prosperity). By the time of the common era, the most common meaning is the one still captured today, where a man with this name is said to be a 'gift' to or from his mother.