Soul English name of Latin origin. Actually the word anima, means anger, courage, essence, feeling, mind, passion, spirit It derives from PIE root ane-, meaning to breathe, the same root from which the words animal and animation were derived. But in Christian contexts, the word anima was used to translate the Greek word psykhe into soul (not spirit which is a different word), and this is the same anima from which the personal name was derived.