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  The name of the range hails from the Sanskrit Himālaya (हिमालय 'abode of snow'), from hima (हिम 'frost/cold') and ālaya (आलय 'dwelling/house'). They are now known as " the Himalaya Mountains ", usually shortened to "the Himalayas".
  
  The mountains are known as the Himālaya in Nepali and Hindi (both written हिमालय), Hinvāl (हिंवाळ) in Garhwali, Himāl (हिमाल) in Kumaoni, the Himalaya (ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡ་) or 'The Land of Snow' (གངས་ཅན་ལྗོངས་) in Tibetan, also known as Himālaya in Sinhala (written as හිමාලය), the Himāliya Mountain Range (سلسلہ کوہ ہمالیہ) in Urdu, the Himaloy Parvatmala (হিমালয় পর্বতমালা) in Bengali, and the Ximalaya Mountain Range (simplified Chinese: 喜马拉雅 山脉; traditional Chinese: 喜馬拉雅 山脉; pinyin: Xǐmǎlāyǎ Shānmài) in Chinese.
  
  The name of the range is sometimes also given as Himavan in older writings, including the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. Himavat (Sanskrit: हिमवत्) or Himavan Himavān (Sanskrit: हिमवान्) is a Hindu deity who is the personification of the Himalayan Mountain Range. Other epithets include Himaraja (Sanskrit: हिमराज, lit. ' king of snow ') or Parvateshwara (Sanskrit: पर्वतेश्वर, lit. ' lord of mountains ').
  
  In western literature, some writers refer to it as the Himalaya. This was also previously transcribed as Himmaleh, as in Emily Dickinson 's poetry and Henry David Thoreau 's essays.