One of the most amazing things about the internet is how you can find people and things at virtually any place in the world. This is how Paul Kosara (who lives in the US, while I am in Austria) found me, and got me interested in finding more people with this rather unusual name (or so I still assume).

On the Meaning of Kosara

Kosara, in Serbian and Bulgarian, means "female blackbird" (the male blackbird is called Kosar). There are also the Kosara (or Kozara?) Mountains between Kosovo/Yugoslavia and Albania.

Kosara seems to be a rather uncommon male and female first name. At least in the case of the male first name, there also are the two variations Kossara and Cossara.
According to this FAQ, Kosara (the female name, this time) is actually a biblical name. A search in the King James Bible did not reveal any hits, but the names vary in the different language versions, of course.
That name also seems to play a role in Serbian Mythology.

Occupation

I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC), where I am also a member of the Charlotte Visualization Center. I teach courses in visualization, visual analytics, introduction to programming, and – as of Fall 2009 – virtual environments.

Research

My research is in information visualization, where my current interests are especially in improving the theoretical foundations of the field. I am also interested in the visualization of large data sets, categorical data visualization, and empirical studies. In addition, I am exploring the role of the arts, aesthetics, and communication in visualization. My website EagerEyes.org deals with the latter topics.

Name

My last name is fairly unusual, and has lead to some interesting and unexpected encounters.

Kosara, in Serbian and Bulgarian, means "female blackbird" (the male blackbird is called Kosar). There are also the Kosara (or Kozara?) Mountains between Kosovo, Serbia, and Albania. Kosara is also a rather uncommon male and female first name. At least in the case of the male first name, there also are two variations: Kossara and Cossara, and there are probably more (Serbian and Bulgarian use the Cyrillic alphabet, so there are different transcriptions into the Latin one). According to this FAQ, Kosara (the female name) is also a biblical name. That name also seems to play a role in Serbian Mythology.

Having an uncommon name has a lot of advantages, like being able to get reasonable email addresses and domain names. When I was still living in Austria, my website was found by one of the few other people I know with that last name, Paul Kosara in the US. Between the two Kosara families, there are only about ten people with this last name that we know of.