Etymology of the word "aravindam"

[suresh at bocaraton.ibm.com]

I would like to know the etymology of the word "aravindam" !

For whatever the reasons, the ancient poets of India seemed have a great
fascination for this "lotus" flower. Do you  notice the phenomenon of 
describing every part of the body using "lotus" flower like :-

		mukhaaravindam (lotus face), 
		karaaravindam (lotus-hand),
		paadaaravindam (lotus-feet),
		nayanaaravindam (lotus-(petals like)-eyes),
		and even, kuchaaravindam  (lotus-(buds like)-breasts).

A suprabhaatam on Lord Vishnu goes as follows :

			kaantaa kuchaambhuruha kuTmala lOla drishTE

I would like to know if the word "aravindam" has some 
straight forward etymology, something like, "ara" and "vindam" ?

Let me add my wild guess :

	vindam ?= friend  (or a relative)

		I know gOvinda refers to SrI krishna !

			Is the etymology for this word is 
			gO + vinda = friend(?) of cows 

and 

	ara ?= Sun. (I know "arka" means "sun")

Thus aravinda = friend of sun, thus lotus.

This is my sheer speculation and knowledgeable people may be able to 
prove me totally wrong.

Regards,
Suresh.

PS : Is there any standard transliteration scheme followed by
these list-members to represent the Sankrit (and other text indian 
languages) text in English  alphabets ?