6), no little ingenuity has been spent on it, as well as on the primitive conception underlying his personality.
Etymologically, his name means Twin, and this is probably the real meaning, for his twin sister Yami is also a Vedic personage.

The later age, regarding Yama as a restrainer and punisher of the wicked, derived the name from _yam_ the restrainer or punisher, but such an idea is quite out of place in the province of Vedic thought.

The Iranian Yima also has a sister of like name, although she does not appear till late in the literature.
That Yama's father is the sun, Vivasvant (Savitar, 'the artificer,' Tvashtar, x.10.

4-5),[5] is clearly enough stated in the Rik; and that he was the first mortal, in the Atharvan.

Men come from Yama, and Yama comes from the sun as 'creator,' just as men elsewhere come from Adam and Adam comes from the Creator.