guasguendi's Personal Name List
Zyrenia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Rare, Archaic), English (American, Rare, Archaic)
Pronounced: tsuy-RAY-ni-a(German)
Rating: 65% based on 10 votes
Zvjezdana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Croatian
Pronounced: ZVYEHZ-da-na
Rating: 30% based on 6 votes
Derived from Croatian zvijezda meaning "star".
Zujenia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Romani (Caló)
Rating: 34% based on 7 votes
Caló form of
Martha, possibly from Romani
zhulyi, "lady, woman". Alternatively, it could be derived from Caló
zujenia, meaning "flower".
Zoriana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ukrainian
Other Scripts: Зоряна(Ukrainian)
Rating: 68% based on 8 votes
Zoisite
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Rating: 30% based on 6 votes
From the name of the mineral zoisite, which was named after Carniolan naturalist Sigmund Zois (1747-1819). This is the name of a character from the manga and anime 'Sailor Moon'. He is male in the source material, but was changed to female in several international dubs of the anime.
Zimraphel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 24% based on 5 votes
Means "jewel daughter" in Adûnaic, from Adûnaic
zimra, "jewel" and
phel, which probably means "daughter". Zimraphel is a translation of the Quenya name
Míriel. In
The Silmarillion (1977) by J. R. R. Tolkien, Ar-Zimraphel (Queen Zimraphel) was Míriel's Adûnaic royal name.
Zezilia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Basque
Rating: 40% based on 6 votes
Zetta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Archaic)
Rating: 50% based on 7 votes
Short form of names ending in -zetta, -cetta and -setta.
Zerlina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, Theatre, Yiddish (Rare, Archaic), Danish, German (Rare)
Pronounced: tser-LEE-nah
Rating: 48% based on 6 votes
The name of a character in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera 'Don Giovanni' (1787), to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, which was based on the legend of Don Juan.
It is not entirely clear where Mozart found this name: either he (thought he) invented it (possibly based on the Italian surname Zerla) or he adopted and adapted the old Yiddish name Zerline and Zerlina.
Zerline and Zerlina themselves are elaborated forms and diminutives of the Yiddish names Zerle and Zaerle, all of which have first been recorded, in the German-speaking world, between the late 1300s and early 1500s. They have been occasionally used up until the late 1800s and early 1900s, although their later uses might have been inspired by the opera.
Zerelda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Archaic), American (South, Archaic)
Rating: 54% based on 7 votes
Variant of
Serilda. It was regionally popular in the Midwestern and Southern United States in the 19th century, borne by the Kentuckian mother of Jesse James, outlaw, as well as her husband's niece, whom Jesse later married. Another known bearer was American suffragist Zerelda G. Wallace (1817-1901).
Zerabel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Rating: 34% based on 5 votes
Zephyria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek, Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Ζεφυρια(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 50% based on 6 votes
Derived from Greek ζεφύριος (zephyrios) "of the West". This was an epithet of the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
Zenobia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek [1]
Other Scripts: Ζηνοβία(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: ZDEH-NO-BEE-A(Classical Greek) zə-NO-bee-ə(English)
Rating: 54% based on 7 votes
Means
"life of Zeus", derived from Greek
Ζηνός (Zenos) meaning "of
Zeus" and
βίος (bios) meaning "life". This was the name of the queen of the Palmyrene Empire, which broke away from Rome in the 3rd-century and began expanding into Roman territory. She was eventually defeated by the emperor
Aurelian. Her Greek name was used as an approximation of her native Aramaic name.
Zenith
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Rare)
Rating: 62% based on 5 votes
From Middle English
senith, from
cinit, from Old French
cenit and/or Latin
cenit, a transliteration of Arabic
سمت (
samt, "direction, path") which is in itself a weak abbreviation of
سمت الرأس (
samt ar-ra's, "direction of the head").
In modern English, zenith means "the highest point or state; peak" and in astronomy, refers to "the point in the sky vertically above a given position or observer" or "the highest point in the sky reached by a celestial body."
In the English-speaking world, this name has been in occasional use from the late 19th century onwards.
Zemfira
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Azerbaijani, Tatar, Bashkir, Literature
Other Scripts: Земфира(Tatar, Bashkir)
Rating: 59% based on 8 votes
Meaning unknown, possibly of Romani origin. This name was (first?) used by Aleksandr Pushkin in his poem The Gypsies (1827).
Zeltia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Galician
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
Zelpha
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical Latin, Biblical Greek
Other Scripts: Ζελφά(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 57% based on 6 votes
Zarina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajik, Urdu, Malay
Other Scripts: Зарина(Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajik) زرینہ(Urdu)
Rating: 64% based on 7 votes
From Persian
زرین (zarīn) meaning
"golden". According to the 5th-century BC Greek historian Ctesias, this was the name of a Scythian queen.
Zamora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: American (Modern)
Rating: 52% based on 6 votes
Meaning unknown, possibly from the Spanish surname
Zamora (itself from the name of a Spanish city), perhaps used because of its similarity to
Amora. It is not used as a feminine given name in the Spanish-speaking world.
Zabella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ligurian
Rating: 54% based on 5 votes
Yuvalor
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Hebrew (Modern, Rare)
Other Scripts: יובלאור, יובל-אור(Hebrew)
Pronounced: yoo-və-LAWR
Rating: 53% based on 6 votes
Means "stream of light", a combination of the names
Yuval and
Or.
Yulianna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Russian
Other Scripts: Юлианна(Russian)
Rating: 55% based on 6 votes
Yspania
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Occitan
Rating: 42% based on 6 votes
Ysolde
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Quebec, Archaic), Dutch (Rare)
Rating: 59% based on 9 votes
Yseult
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare)
Pronounced: EE-ZUU
Rating: 57% based on 7 votes
Ysavel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Galician (?), Louisiana Creole (Archaic)
Rating: 46% based on 5 votes
Medival Galician form and Louisiana Spanish variant of
Isabel.
Ysabeau
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval French, Louisiana Creole
Rating: 40% based on 6 votes
Ypolita
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval French
Rating: 43% based on 6 votes
Medieval variant of
Hippolyta, recorded in 16th-century French-speaking Switzerland.
Yocasta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Hispanicized), Spanish (Latin American)
Pronounced: yo-KAS-ta(Greek Mythology, Latin American Spanish)
Rating: 54% based on 7 votes
Spanish form of
Jocasta, particularly used in the Dominican Republic.
Ygritte
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: EE-grit(English)
Rating: 50% based on 7 votes
Created by author George R.R. Martin for a character in his series A Song of Ice and Fire (1996) and its television adaptation Game of Thrones (2011-2019). It was borne by a character of the Free Folk.
Ygrayne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arthurian Cycle
Rating: 40% based on 4 votes
Variant of
Igraine used in 'Le Morte d'Arthur', a 15th-century Middle English prose reworking by Sir Thomas Malory of tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table—along with their respective folklore.
Yevpraksiya
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Russian (Rare)
Other Scripts: Евпраксия(Russian)
Pronounced: yif-PRA-ksyi-yə, if-PRA-ksyi-yə
Rating: 48% based on 6 votes
Russian form of
Eupraxia. This was the name of a daughter of Vsevolod I, grand prince of Kyiv, who became the wife of the Holy Roman emperor Henry IV.
Yerussa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Judeo-Spanish
Rating: 57% based on 7 votes
Of uncertain origin and meaning. One theory considers this name a variant of
Jerusha.
Yennefer
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Pronounced: YEN-e-fer
Rating: 40% based on 5 votes
In the fantasy series
The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski (and the TV series adaptation), Yennefer is a powerful mage who, embittered by a cutthroat and ungracious society, leaves the Brotherhood of Northern Mages and goes rogue. Sapkowski likely based her name on the Polish pronunciation of
Jennifer.
Yemayá
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Afro-American Mythology
Rating: 50% based on 4 votes
Spanish form of
Yemọja, used in various Afro-American syncretic religions in the Caribbean and South America. In Cuba she is identified with Our Lady of
Regla, an aspect of the Virgin
Mary.
Yavanna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: yah-VAH-nah
Rating: 61% based on 7 votes
Quenya (High-Elven) for "giver of fruits." Was the Valie (female "angelic spirit") of plants.
Character in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Silmarrilion."
Yanvarina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Russian (Rare, ?)
Other Scripts: Январина(Russian)
Rating: 56% based on 7 votes
Yalyane
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Siberian, Nenets
Other Scripts: Яляне(Nenets)
Rating: 60% based on 6 votes
Means "light woman". It is given to baby girls as a comparison between them and the sun.
Xynthia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: KSUYN-tee-ah
Rating: 53% based on 4 votes
Modern variant of
Cynthia.
Xynthia is the name of a notable cyclone in 2010 in Western Europe.
Xylia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: ZIE-lee-ə
Rating: 55% based on 6 votes
Possibly an elaborated form of
Xyla.
Xénie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Xanthippe
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek [1]
Other Scripts: Ξανθίππη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: KSAN-TEEP-PEH(Classical Greek) zan-TIP-ee(English) zan-THIP-ee(English)
Rating: 45% based on 6 votes
Feminine form of
Xanthippos. This was the name of the wife of
Socrates. Because of her supposedly argumentative nature, the name has been adopted (in the modern era) as a word for a scolding, ill-tempered woman.
Xanadu
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Modern)
Pronounced: ZAN-ə-doo(English)
Rating: 30% based on 4 votes
From the name of the summer capital of the 13th-century Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, located in Inner Mongolia, China. It is an anglicized form of Chinese 上都 (Shangdu), derived from 上 (shàng) meaning "above, upper" and 都 (dū) meaning "city".
Wisteria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: wis-TEHR-ee-ə, wis-TEER-ee-ə
Rating: 50% based on 6 votes
From the name of the flowering plant, which was named for the American anatomist Caspar Wistar.
Winifreda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 48% based on 6 votes
Viviette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Rating: 55% based on 6 votes
Diminutive of
Vivienne. William John Locke used this name for the title character in his novel
Viviette (1910).
Viridiana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Roman, Spanish (Mexican), Galician (Archaic), Corsican (Archaic), Italian (Archaic)
Rating: 64% based on 7 votes
Virgo
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Astronomy
Pronounced: WEER-go(Latin) VUR-go(American English) VU-go(British English)
Rating: 24% based on 5 votes
Means "maiden, virgin" in Latin. This is the name of a constellation and the sixth sign of the zodiac.
Villana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Italian, History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
Derived from Latin
villana "villein, feudal tenant" (compare
Villanus). Villana de' Botti (1332 - 1361) was an Italian Roman Catholic professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. She turned to the Dominicans after a sudden conversion from a dissolute life and was noted for her simplistic life born out of her conversion. De' Botti had fierce detractors due to her stating she had religious ecstasies at Mass - which was true - and these opponents had even acknowledged her as a true living saint. She was beatified on 27 March 1824.
Vidumavi
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 40% based on 4 votes
Latinized form of Gothic *
Widumawi meaning "wood maiden", composed of the elements
witu "wood" and
mawi "girl". This name is mentioned in the appendices of J. R. R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' as belonging to a princess of Rhovanion who marries King
Valacar of Gondor and becomes the mother of
Eldacar. Due to her non-Dúnadan blood, Vidumavi's life is much shorter than that of her husband (despite living to a great age for one of her own people) and many Gondorians are not willing to accept her son as their king.
Viatrix
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman
Rating: 57% based on 7 votes
Vesperina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare, Archaic)
Rating: 72% based on 6 votes
Vespera
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: vehs-PEH-ra
Rating: 64% based on 8 votes
Means "of the evening", derived from Esperanto vespero "evening", ultimately from Latin vesper.
Vesper
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Roman Mythology, Dutch (Modern)
Pronounced: WEHS-pehr(Latin) VEHS-pər(American English, Dutch) VEHS-pə(British English)
Rating: 47% based on 7 votes
Latin
cognate of
Hesperos. This name was used by the British author Ian Fleming for a female character, a love interest of James Bond, in his novel
Casino Royale (1953). She also appears in the film adaptations of 1967 and 2006.
Vervaine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: American (Rare, Archaic)
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
Variant of
Verbena, the Latin name for the plant known in English as
vervain. The spelling of the name might have been influenced by
verveine, the French word for the plant.
Veritas
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: WEH-ree-tas(Latin) VEHR-i-tahs(English)
Rating: 46% based on 5 votes
Means "truth" in Latin, a derivative of verus "true". The Roman goddess Veritas was the personification of truth.
Verdiana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Venetian, Medieval Italian, History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 70% based on 6 votes
Contracted form of
Veridiana. This was the name of an Italian saint from the 13th century AD.
Verbena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Rare)
Pronounced: vər-BEEN-ə(American English) və-BEEN-ə(British English)
Rating: 61% based on 8 votes
From the name of the verbena plant, which is derived from Latin verbena meaning "leaves, twigs".
Vendetta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American)
Pronounced: ven-det-aa(American English)
Rating: 47% based on 6 votes
Transferred use of the surname
Vendetta or from the word
vendetta, from Italian
vendetta "a feud, blood feud," from Latin
vindicta "vengeance, revenge."
Venatrix
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: weh-NA-treeks(Classical Latin)
Rating: 42% based on 5 votes
Means "huntress" in Latin. This was an epithet of the goddess
Diana.
Velvela
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Yiddish (Rare)
Other Scripts: װעלװעלע(Yiddish)
Rating: 52% based on 6 votes
Velouria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: və-LAWR-ee-ə
Rating: 10% based on 1 vote
Possibly derived from English velour, which refers to a fabric that is similar to velvet. This is also the name of a 1990 song by the American alternative rock band Pixies.
Valora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: va-LO-ra
Rating: 63% based on 6 votes
Means "valuable" in Esperanto.
Valmai
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, Welsh, English (Australian), English (New Zealand)
Rating: 45% based on 6 votes
Derived from Welsh fel Mai meaning "like May". It was invented by best-selling Welsh author Allen Raine for her popular romance novel By Berwen Banks (1899). The first Valmais in the UK birth records appear in the year of the book's publication, and alternate Welsh spellings Falmai and Felmai arose some years later.
Raine sold over two million books in the UK and colonies, which may explain the name's Australian and New Zealander usage. A film was made of the book in 1920 (as By Berwin Banks), directed by Sidney Morgan and starring Eileen Magrath as Valmai.
Valkyrie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Rare)
Pronounced: VAL-ki-ree(English)
Rating: 55% based on 6 votes
Means
"chooser of the slain", derived from Old Norse
valr "the slain" and
kyrja "chooser". In Norse
myth the Valkyries were maidens who led heroes killed in battle to Valhalla.
Urania
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Οὐρανία(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: yuw-RAY-nee-ə(English)
Rating: 59% based on 7 votes
Undómiel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 43% based on 7 votes
Undómiel means 'Evenstar, Evening Star' in Quenya Elvish. Undómiel is the sobriquet of Arwen the beautiful half-elf in Tolkien's books.
Undine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: UN-deen(English) un-DEEN(English)
Rating: 46% based on 8 votes
Derived from Latin unda meaning "wave". The word undine was created by the 16th-century Swiss author Paracelsus, who used it for female water spirits.
Ulyssa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: yoo-LIS-ə
Rating: 63% based on 6 votes
Ulalume
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: oo-lah-LOOM
Rating: 52% based on 6 votes
Possibly from Latin ululare "to wail" or lumen "light". This was the title character of Edgar Allen Poe's poem 'Ulalume' (1847).
Uindilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Gaulish
Rating: 48% based on 5 votes
Derived from Gaulish uindos "white".
Turquoise
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Rating: 40% based on 5 votes
From the opaque blue-green mineral whose name is derived from French
pierre turquois "Turkish stone".
In the English-speaking world, it was occasionally used from the late 19th century onwards.
Tulippa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Finnish (Rare), Literature, Polish
Rating: 43% based on 4 votes
Tulippa is a name worn by a minor character in the Moomin series. It was created by
Tove Jansson and probably is derived from
tulippaani, "tulip" in Finnish. She was a girl who lived in a tulip flower before she joined
Moomintroll and
Moominmamma on their journey to find
Moominpappa.
Trivia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Rating: 23% based on 4 votes
Derived from Latin
trivium meaning "a place where three roads meet, a crossroads". In Roman mythology this was the name of a goddess of the night and crossroads, usually associated with witchcraft and sorcery as well as ghosts and childbirth. She was the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess
Hecate (who was called in Greek Ἑκάτη Τριοδῖτις
(Hekate Trioditis) "Hecate of the crossroads", from τρίοδος
(triodos) "a meeting of three roads").
Tristessa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, Popular Culture
Pronounced: tri-STES-ə(English)
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
Used by the 20th-century writer Jack Kerouac for the title character in his short novel 'Tristessa' (1960), in which case it was intended to be an Anglicization of the Spanish word
tristeza meaning "sadness" (from Latin
tristis; compare
Tristan). It was subsequently used by American rock band The Smashing Pumpkins for 'Tristessa' (1990), the title of which song is a direct allusion to Jack Kerouac's 1960 novella of the same name.
Tristana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, Breton, Provençal
Rating: 58% based on 6 votes
Feminine form of
Tristan. This is the name of the main character in Benito Pérez Galdós' eponymous novel
Tristana (1892).
Tranquillitas
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Rating: 14% based on 5 votes
From Latin tranquilitas which means "tranquility, serenity, calm".
Tranquilitas was an ancient Roman goddess and personification of tranquility, security, calmness, peace.
Tourmentine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 25% based on 4 votes
From the name of a mythical herb that is supposed to cause people to repeatedly run around in circles if stepped on (the name of the herb is derived from the French tourment meaning "torture"). This is the name of the wicked ogress who raises Aimée in Madame d'Aulnoy's fairy tale The Bee and the Orange Tree (1697).
Tourmaline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Rating: 38% based on 4 votes
From the name of a type of crystal.
This crystal's English name is derived from Sinhalese tòramalli, via French tourmaline. The meaning of this word seems to be not entirely certain, although one theory suggests that it simply means "cornelian".
As a name, Tourmaline has been in use since the late 20th century.
Toscana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Italian
Rating: 59% based on 7 votes
Meaning "Tuscany" in Italian.
Toscana is the name of a 13th century Italian saint.
Tondra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: TON-dra
Rating: 63% based on 8 votes
Means "thunderous", from Esperanto tondro meaning "thunder".
Tinúviel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 58% based on 6 votes
Means "daughter of twilight, nightingale" in the fictional language Sindarin. In the Silmarillion (1977) by J. R. R. Tolkien, Tinuviel was another name of Lúthien, the daughter of Thingol the elf king. She was the beloved of Beren, who with her help retrieved one of the Silmarils from the iron crown of Morgoth.
Thora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Norwegian, Danish
Rating: 60% based on 7 votes
Théodwyn
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 54% based on 5 votes
Means "joy of the people" in Old English, a combination of the elements
thiod meaning "people" and
wynn meaning "joy" (compare
Éowyn). This name was invented by J. R. R. Tolkien for his novel
The Lord of the Rings (1954), where it is borne by a noblewoman of Rohan, who was the sister of
Théoden and the mother of
Éomer and
Éowyn.
Thalassa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Θάλασσα(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: TA-LAS-SA(Classical Greek)
Rating: 67% based on 7 votes
Means
"sea" in Greek. In Greek
mythology she was the personification of the sea. A small moon of Neptune is named for her.
Thaddea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare), Filipino (Rare), German (Rare)
Pronounced: THAD-ee-ə(English)
Rating: 54% based on 5 votes
Tempest
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: TEHM-pist
Rating: 50% based on 6 votes
From the English word meaning "storm". It appears in the title of William Shakespeare's play The Tempest (1611).
Tauriel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture, English (Modern)
Pronounced: tow-ree-el(Popular Culture)
Rating: 54% based on 5 votes
Means "young woman of the forest" in Sindarin, from taur "forest" and riel "maiden". It was created by Peter Jackson for the last two films of 'The Hobbit' trilogy, for the name of an elf.
Tanaquil
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Etruscan (Latinized), Ancient Roman
Other Scripts: 𐌈𐌀𐌍𐌙𐌅𐌉𐌋(Etruscan)
Pronounced: TA-na-kweel(Classical Latin)
Rating: 34% based on 5 votes
Latinized form of the Etruscan name
Thanchvil which meant "gift of
Thana 1", composed of the name of the goddess Thana and
cvil meaning "gift". This was the name of the wife of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome in the 7th century BC. In modern times it was borne by prima ballerina Tanaquil Le Clercq (1929-2000).
Tamesis
Usage: Brythonic (Latinized)
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Derived from Proto-Celtic *
tamēssa possibly meaning "dark". This was a Latin name for the English River
Thames.
Talaitha
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Romani
Rating: 59% based on 8 votes
Means "damsel" and "maiden" in Romani.
Synclétique
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 40% based on 4 votes
Sylvestra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare, Archaic)
Pronounced: sil-VES-tra
Rating: 58% based on 6 votes
Sylvanna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare), French (Rare), Dutch (Rare), Spanish (Latin American, Rare)
Rating: 68% based on 6 votes
Swanhilde
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Rare)
Rating: 63% based on 6 votes
Supplicia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Latin, Medieval French
Rating: 20% based on 4 votes
Derived from Latin supplex meaning "supplicant".
Sunday
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: SUN-day
Rating: 52% based on 6 votes
From the name of the day of the week, which ultimately derives from Old English sunnandæg, which was composed of the elements sunne "sun" and dæg "day". This name is most common in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.
Strelitzia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Obscure
Pronounced: streh-LIT-see-ə(English)
Rating: 47% based on 6 votes
From the name of the flower native to South Africa, also known as bird of paradise flower due to its resemblance to the animal. The genus was named by Joseph Banks in honour of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen consort of George III.
Stelara
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: steh-LA-ra
Rating: 63% based on 8 votes
From Esperanto stelaro meaning "constellation", ultimately from Latin stella "star".
Sprita
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: SPREE-ta
Rating: 49% based on 7 votes
Means "witty, lively" in Esperanto, ultimately from Latin spiritus "breath, energy".
Splendora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval English, Italian
Pronounced: splen-DAWR-ə(Middle English)
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Medieval English name (found in a Curia Regis Roll item dated 1213), derived from Latin splendor meaning "brilliance, brightness, lustre, distinction". (It was listed in 'A Dictionary of English Surnames' by Dr Reaney, who noted: 'In the Middle Ages there was a fashion for fanciful feminine names, few of which have survived, or given rise to surnames.') This is also the name a small town in the U.S. state of Texas.
Speranza
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian
Pronounced: speh-RAN-tsa
Rating: 47% based on 6 votes
Italian
cognate of
Esperanza. Edmund Spenser used it in his epic poem
The Faerie Queene (1590) for the sister of
Fidelia. It was also assumed as a
pen name by the Irish poet Lady Wilde (1821-1896), the mother of Oscar Wilde.
Spectra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Rare)
Rating: 45% based on 6 votes
Spania
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Occitan, Medieval Italian
Rating: 40% based on 5 votes
Derived from Latin Hispania "Iberian peninsula, Spain", itself possibly derived from Punic אישפן "coast of hyraxes".
Sothis
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Egyptian Mythology (Hellenized)
Other Scripts: Σῶθις(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 40% based on 1 vote
Solomonia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Judeo-Christian-Islamic Legend
Other Scripts: Соломония(Russian)
Rating: 43% based on 4 votes
Apparently a feminine form of
Solomon. According to Eastern Orthodox tradition, Solomonia was the unnamed woman with seven sons described in 2 Maccabees 7 of the Old Testament. It was borne by Solomonia Saburova (c.1490-1542), a Russian royal consort and Orthodox saint.
Sollemnia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman
Rating: 57% based on 6 votes
Soleil
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various
Pronounced: SAW-LAY(French)
Rating: 69% based on 8 votes
Means "sun" in French. It is not commonly used as a name in France itself.
Solaris
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare)
Rating: 80% based on 2 votes
From the Latin word solaris meaning "solar, sunny".
Sojourner
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: so-JUR-nər, SO-jər-nər
Rating: 55% based on 6 votes
From the English word meaning "one who stays temporarily (sojourns)", which is ultimately derived from the Latin elements sub "under, until" and diurnus "of a day" (from diurnum "day"), via the vulgar Latin subdiurnare "to spend the day". It was borne by the American abolitionist Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree, 1797-1883), who took the name in 1843, believing this to be the instructions of the Holy Spirit, and became a traveling preacher (the combined meaning of her new name).
Sirena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: sə-REEN-ə
Rating: 60% based on 8 votes
Derived from Spanish sirena "mermaid". The Spanish dramatist Jacinto Benavente used this name in his play 'Los intereses creados' (1907), where it belongs to a poor widow and matchmaker called Doña Sirena.
Silmariën
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 40% based on 6 votes
From silma meaning "silver, shining white, crystal white" and rien, a variant of ien, meaning "maiden". This name was used by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Silence
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (African), English (Puritan), Romani (Archaic)
Pronounced: SIE-ləns(English)
Rating: 40% based on 5 votes
Simply from the English word
silence, from Middle English from Old French, from Latin
silentium, from
silere "be silent". A popular virtue name amongst the Puritans in the 17th century, it was usually given to girls (very occasionally to boys), ultimately taken from the admonition of Saint Paul: "Let the women learn in silence, with all subjection." Translated into Latin it became
Tace, which "in its turn developed into
Tacey". It was used by Pamela Belle for a Puritan character in her novels
Wintercombe,
Herald of Joy and
Treason's Gift.
Signora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Judeo-Spanish, Judeo-Italian
Pronounced: see-NYOH-rah(Judeo-Spanish) si-NYOH-rah(Judeo-Italian)
Rating: 54% based on 5 votes
Derived from Spanish señora or Italian signora, both meaning "lady".
Shiloh
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Biblical
Other Scripts: שִׁלוֹ, שִׁילֹה(Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: SHIE-lo(English)
Rating: 37% based on 7 votes
From an
Old Testament place name possibly meaning
"tranquil" in Hebrew. It is also used prophetically in the Old Testament to refer to a person, often understood to be the Messiah (see
Genesis 49:10). This may in fact be a mistranslation.
This name was brought to public attention after actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt gave it to their daughter in 2006.
Serenola
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 43% based on 6 votes
This was used as a Welsh translation of
Stellaluna (for a 2000 Welsh adaptation of the children's book 'Stellaluna'). It is derived in part from Welsh
seren "star" (cf.
Seren).
Sequoia
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: sə-KWOI-ə
Rating: 57% based on 6 votes
From the name of huge trees that grow in California. The tree got its name from the 19th-century Cherokee scholar
Sequoyah (also known as George Guess), the inventor of the Cherokee writing system.
Séphora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: SEH-FAW-RA
Rating: 65% based on 8 votes
Selenite
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Popular Culture
Pronounced: SEL-ə-niet, sə-LEE-niet
Rating: 33% based on 4 votes
Fictional inhabitant of the moon, from the story "The First Men in the Moon".
Seirian
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh
Pronounced: SAY-rree-an
Rating: 33% based on 4 votes
Possibly derived from Welsh serennu meaning "sparkling (like stars)".
Scotia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Rare), English (Canadian, Rare), Celtic Mythology
Pronounced: SKO-shə(American English, Canadian English)
Rating: 14% based on 5 votes
Derived from Late Latin
Scotia, ultimately derived from
Scoti or
Scotti, a Latin name for the Gaels, first attested in the late 3rd century. At first it referred to all Gaels, whether in Ireland or Great Britain, as did the term
Scotia for the lands they inhabited. From the 9th century, its meaning gradually shifted, so that it came to mean only the part of Britain lying north of the Firth of Forth: the Kingdom of Scotland. By the later Middle Ages it had become the fixed Latin term for what in English is called Scotland. The Romans referred to Ireland as "Scotia" around 500 A.D.
In Irish mythology, Scottish mythology and pseudohistory,
Scotia is the name given to the mythological daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh. Manuscripts of the
Lebor Gabála Érenn contain a legend of a Scotia who was the wife of
Goidel's descendant
Míl Espáine of ancient Iberia. Scotia is said to have come to Ireland in 1700 BC to avenge the death of her husband, the King, who had been wounded in a previous ambush in south Kerry. She was killed in battle with the legendary Tuatha Dé Danann on the nearby Slieve Mish Mountains. This
Scotia's Grave is a famous landmark in Munster, Ireland.
According to Geoffrey Keating's 1634 narrative history of Ireland
Foras Feasa ar Éirinn ("Foundation of Knowledge on Ireland" but most often known in English as "The History of Ireland"), the feminine name Scotia is derived from Irish
scoṫ or
scoth, meaning "blossom".
Sciencia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval English
Rating: 40% based on 4 votes
Saxonia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German
Pronounced: sa-KSO-nee-ya
Rating: 27% based on 3 votes
Allegoric personification of the state of Saxony (Germany). Very rarely used as a given name.
Saturna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Roman
Rating: 52% based on 6 votes
Sarella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Archaic)
Rating: 55% based on 8 votes
Sapphira
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical
Other Scripts: Σαπφείρη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: sə-FIE-rə(English)
Rating: 74% based on 7 votes
From the Greek name
Σαπφείρη (Sappheire), which was from Greek
σάπφειρος (sappheiros) meaning
"sapphire" or
"lapis lazuli" (ultimately derived from the Hebrew word
סַפִּיר (sappir)). Sapphira is a character in Acts in the
New Testament who is killed by God for lying.
Sapientia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman (?), Medieval Latin
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Means "wisdom" in Latin, a literal translation of the Greek name
Sophia. This was borne by the Blessed Sapientia, a prioress of the Cistercian nunnery of Mont Cornillon near Liège, present-day Belgium, who brought up Saint Juliana (ca. 1192-1258) and her sister Agnes.
Sansa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 60% based on 8 votes
Invented by the author George R. R. Martin for the character of Sansa Stark in his series A Song of Ice and Fire, published beginning 1996, and the television adaptation Game of Thrones (2011-2019).
Salvia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval French, English (Rare), Spanish (Rare), Galician (Rare), Italian (Rare)
Pronounced: SAL-vi-ə(English) SAL-bya(Spanish, Galician) SAL-vya(Italian)
Rating: 57% based on 7 votes
From the genus name of sage, an herb formerly used as medicine, which comes from Latin
salvus "healthy, safe" (related to
salvere "to save, to be saved"), referring to the plant's supposed healing properties. The Latin
salvia was corrupted to
sauja and
sauge (the Old French form), which eventually became the modern English
sage (see
Sage).
In the English-speaking world, this name has been occasionally used since the 19th century. As an Italian name, it can be regarded as a feminine form of
Salvo.
Salvatrix
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman
Rating: 44% based on 5 votes
Sagitta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Roman, Astronomy, Swedish (Rare)
Pronounced: SA-ji-tə(Astronomy) sə-JIT-ə(Astronomy) sa-GI-ta(Swedish)
Rating: 48% based on 5 votes
Means "arrow" in Latin.
This was the name of a constellation: it was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations
Sagitta Alter is a Swedish, former tour guide who was the partner of famous Italian actor Gigi Proietti since 1962 until his death in 2020.
Saelind
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 34% based on 5 votes
Means "having a wise heart" from Sindarin
sael "wise" and
ind "inner thought, mind, meaning, heart". This was an
epessë or epithet of
Andreth in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.
Sacharissa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 50% based on 5 votes
Based on Latin sacharum "sugar". This name was invented by poet Edmund Waller (1606-1687), who used it as a nickname for Lady Dorothy Sidney, countess of Sunderland.
Sabbath
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Puritan, Rare), Literature
Pronounced: sah-BATH(English (Puritan)) SAH-bith(English (Puritan))
Rating: 28% based on 4 votes
From the word "sabbath," referring to the day of rest (Saturday).
Rosenwyn
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Cornish (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: roz-EN-win
Rating: 54% based on 5 votes
Combination of
Rosen and Cornish
gwynn "fair, white, blessed". This is a modern Cornish name.
Rosaria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian
Pronounced: ro-ZA-rya
Rating: 66% based on 9 votes
Rosabel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: RO-zə-behl
Rating: 71% based on 10 votes
Combination of
Rosa 1 and the common name suffix
bel, inspired by Latin
bella "beautiful". This name was created in the 18th century.
Rivalitas
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Rating: 16% based on 5 votes
Means "jealous rivalry" in Latin. She was the Roman equivalent of
Nemesis.
Rhaella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 64% based on 5 votes
Created by author George R.R. Martin for use in the series "A Song of Ice and Fire." Queen Rhaella Targaryen is the mother of the character Daenerys.
Revolyutsiya
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Soviet, Russian
Other Scripts: Революция(Russian)
Pronounced: ryi-vu-LYOO-tsi-yə(Russian)
Rating: 44% based on 5 votes
Derived from the Russian noun революция
(revolyutsiya) meaning "revolution". Like names such as
Melor and
Vilen, this name was created by Communist parents who were eager to reject traditional names.
Reservoir
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Romani (Rare, Archaic)
Rating: 42% based on 5 votes
From the English word. In the case of Reservoir Smith, a gypsy girl, daughter of Shadrack Smith, she had reputedly received her name from the site, close to a reservoir, where she was born.
Regula
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Swiss), Late Roman
Rating: 46% based on 5 votes
Means
"rule" in Latin. This was the name of a 3rd-century Swiss martyr, the patron
saint of Zurich.
Redempta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (African)
Rating: 23% based on 4 votes
Quiteria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish (Rare), Late Roman
Pronounced: kee-TEH-rya(Spanish)
Rating: 40% based on 4 votes
Meaning uncertain, possibly a form of
Kythereia.
Saint Quiteria was a semi-legendary 2nd-century Iberian martyr.
Quimburga
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Anglo-Saxon (Latinized), Popular Culture
Pronounced: kvim-BOOR-gah(Popular Culture)
Rating: 43% based on 6 votes
Quimburga is a latinisation of the Anglo-saxon name
Cyneburga. Quimburga is the name of a notable cyclone in northern Germany in 1972.
Querella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: kweh-REHL-la(Classical Latin)
Rating: 48% based on 5 votes
Means "complaint, lamentation" in Latin. In Roman mythology Querella was the personification of mockery, blame, ridicule, scorn, complaint and stinging criticism, equivalent to the Greek daemon
Momos (who was expelled from heaven for ridiculing the gods).
Pyronia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Πυρονια(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 23% based on 4 votes
Epithet of the goddess Artemis derived from Greek πυρ (pyr) meaning "fire". It is also the name of a genus of butterfly.
Pulcheria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Greek, History (Ecclesiastical), German (Bessarabian)
Rating: 23% based on 3 votes
Derived from Latin pulcher meaning "beautiful, noble". This name was borne by Saint Pulcheria, elder sister of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II. It was also the name of a character in 'Crime and Punishment' by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Proxima
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval English (Rare)
Rating: 30% based on 4 votes
From Latin proximus "nearest; closest."
Providentia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: pro-wee-DEHN-tee-a(Classical Latin)
Rating: 23% based on 4 votes
Means "precaution, providence" in Latin. In ancient Roman religion, Providentia is a divine personification of the ability to foresee and make provision. She was among the embodiments of virtues that were part of the Imperial cult of ancient Rome.
Primavera
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian (Rare), Medieval Italian, Spanish (Latin American, Rare)
Pronounced: pree-ma-VEH-ra(Italian) pree-ma-BEH-ra(Spanish)
Rating: 55% based on 6 votes
Derived from Vulgar Latin prīmavēra "spring". The descendant word primavera is used in Asturian, Catalan, Galician, Italian, Portuguese (and Old Portuguese), Sicilian, and Spanish.
Preciosa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Filipino, Portuguese (Rare), Spanish (Rare), Galician, Judeo-Catalan, Judeo-Anglo-Norman (?)
Rating: 50% based on 4 votes
Means "precious" in Spanish, Portuguese and other languages of the Iberian peninsula, from Latin pretiōsa "precious, of great value".
Posthuma
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval English (?), English (Archaic)
Rating: 35% based on 4 votes
Feminization of
Posthumus. (Cf.
Postuma.) This was used as a second or third name to indicate the child's father had died before her birth, e.g. Gulielma Maria Posthuma Springett (1644-1694), the wife of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania.
Pommeline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare), Flemish
Rating: 46% based on 5 votes
Modern form of
Pomelline via its variant form
Pomeline. The spelling of this form of the name was influenced by the French word
pomme meaning "apple", which the name (and its variant form) has always shared a certain resemblance with and thus often led people to associate it with apples (to some degree).
Polaris
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Astronomy, Popular Culture, English (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: pə-LEHR-is(English)
Rating: 48% based on 4 votes
Derived from Latin stella polaris, meaning "pole star". This is the proper Latin name of the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor, commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. It is borne by a character (real name Lorna Dane) in Marvel's X-Men line of comics, created in 1968.
Poinsettia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
From the flower Euphorbia pulcherrima, which was named for an American Minister to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, who discovered the flower in 1828.
Poetica
Gender: Feminine
Usage: American (Rare)
Rating: 50% based on 4 votes
Pleiades
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Greek Mythology, Astronomy
Pronounced: pliːədiːz, plaɪədiːz
Rating: 40% based on 5 votes
Name of a star cluster, likely meaning "to sail", from the ancient Greek 'plein'. Also used in Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of
Pleione and
Atlas, thus meaning "daughters of Pleione".
Pisces
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Astronomy
Pronounced: PIE-seez(English) PIS-eez(English)
Rating: 28% based on 4 votes
From the name of the zodiacal constellation shaped like a pair of fish, derived from the plural form of Latin piscis meaning "fish". This is the name of the twelfth sign of the zodiac.
Pimenta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Judeo-Anglo-Norman
Rating: 38% based on 4 votes
Derived from Norman piment "spice; (figuratively) spice (vigour); balm", ultimately from Old French piment or pimenc "balsam; fragrant spice".
Philinna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek, Theatre
Other Scripts: Φίλιννα(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 62% based on 6 votes
Means "darling" in Greek, a term of affection derived from Greek φίλος
(philos) meaning "friend, lover". A famous bearer was Philinna of Larissa in Thessaly (4th century BC), the third wife of Philip II of Macedon and mother of Philip III Arrhidaeus. In theatre, the name occurs in Aristophanes' play
The Clouds (423 BC).
Philaé
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: French (Rare)
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
Possibly taken from
Philae, the Latinized form of Φιλαί
(Philai), the Greek name of an ancient island of the Nile which was the center of the worship of Isis and the site of temples dedicated to her. The island was flooded in 1970 and disappeared into the river, but its temple complex was moved to the island of Agilkia.
Alternatively this may be a French variant of
Philaeus or
Phile.
This name was used by French travel writers Alexandre and Sonia Poussin for their daughter born in 2004.
Pharaïlde
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Belgian, Rare), French (Rare, Archaic), History (Ecclesiastical, Gallicized)
Pronounced: FA-RA-EELD(French)
Rating: 46% based on 5 votes
Phaethousa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology, Ancient Greek
Other Scripts: Φαέθουσα(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 55% based on 4 votes
Means "beaming, radiant" in Greek, being a participle of the verb φαέθω (phaethô) "to shine". In Greek mythology this was the name of a daughter of the sun god Helios by the nymph Neaira. She and her sister Lampetia pastured the sacred herds of Helios on the mythical island of Thrinacia.
Petronilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Late Roman
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
From a Latin name, a
diminutive of
Petronia, the feminine form of
Petronius. This was the name of an obscure 1st-century Roman
saint, later believed to be a daughter of Saint
Peter.
Petrissa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Rare), Medieval German
Pronounced: pe-TRIS-sah
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
This name started probably as a variant of
Beatrice but was later understood as a feminine form to
Peter/
Petrus. During the Middle Ages this name was not uncommon in southern German-speaking areas, especially in noble families.
Bearers include: Petrissa von Hotingen (*1160), granddaughter of Frederick I. von Staufen, Duke of Swabia
Petrissa von Zähringen (*before 1101)
Petrissa von Weidenberg (*1340), abbess of Niedermünster Abbey
A modern-day bearer is German professional table tennis player Petrissa Solja (*1994)
Petrichor
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Obscure
Rating: 20% based on 4 votes
From the English word
petrichor that denotes the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil, which was coined by Australian mineralogist and biochemist Richard Grenfell Thomas in 1964 from Greek πέτρα
(petra) meaning "rock" or πέτρος
(petros) "stone" and ἰχώρ
(ichor) "the juice, not blood, that flows in the veins of gods in Greek mythology".
It was used as a given name for a girl in the Canadian province Alberta in 2016.
Persia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: PUR-zhə
Rating: 12% based on 5 votes
From the name of the Middle Eastern country
Persia, now referred to as Iran. Its name is derived from Avestan
Parsa, the ancient tribal name of the people ruled by Cyrus the Great.
As a given name, it has been occasionally found in the English-speaking world from the early 19th century onwards.
Peridot
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: PER-i-do, PER-i-daht
Rating: 33% based on 4 votes
Taken from the name of the gemstone, whose name is of uncertain origin and meaning. A current theory, however, derives it from Anglo-Norman
pedoretés, ultimately from Greek
paiderôs (via Latin
paederos):
pais "child" and
erôs "love".
As a given name, it has found occasional usage in the English-speaking world from the late 19th century onwards.
Perfecta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish (Rare), Galician
Rating: 12% based on 5 votes
Perenna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Hungarian (Rare)
Rating: 62% based on 6 votes
Derived from the name of the old Roman deity of the circle or "ring" of the year, Anna Perenna. The name itself is derived from Classical Latin perennis "perennial; everlasting, perpetual" (ultimately from Latin per- “throughout” and annus “the year”).
Pelagia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek [1], Greek, Polish (Rare)
Other Scripts: Πελαγία(Greek)
Pronounced: peh-LA-gya(Polish)
Rating: 38% based on 4 votes
Feminine form of
Pelagius. This was the name of a few early
saints, including a young 4th-century martyr who threw herself from a rooftop in Antioch rather than lose her virginity.
Pearline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Rare)
Pronounced: pur-LEEN(American English)
Rating: 46% based on 5 votes
Patientia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Italian, Late Roman, History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 10% based on 5 votes
Taken directly from Latin
patientia "patience, endurance, forbearance" (also "suffering" or "submission, subjection") – the ancestral cognate of
Patience. This name was borne by St.
Patientia of Loret (alias Santa
Paciencia de Huesca), wife of Saint
Orentius of Loret, both of whom were martyred in 240; their mutual feast day is May 1, with their joint patronage being against vermin. Pious Spanish tradition makes the couple the parents of St.
Lawrence of Rome (d. 258).
Paradisa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Italian
Pronounced: pa-ra-DEE-sa
Rating: 33% based on 4 votes
Derived from Latin paradisus "paradise".
Palladia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek
Other Scripts: Παλλαδία(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 48% based on 6 votes
Ouida
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History
Pronounced: WEE-də(English)
Rating: 38% based on 4 votes
Used by the English author Ouida (1839-1908), born Marie Louise Ramé to a French father. Ouida was a
pseudonym that arose from her own childhood pronunciation of her middle name
Louise.
Ottoline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Rating: 50% based on 5 votes
Diminutive of
Ottilie. A famous bearer was the British socialite Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873-1938).
Orquídea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish, Portuguese
Pronounced: or-KEE-dheh-a(Spanish)
Rating: 58% based on 4 votes
Means
"orchid" in Spanish and Portuguese, from Latin
orchis, Greek
ὄρχις (orchis).
Orienta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Latin, Medieval French
Rating: 43% based on 3 votes
Derived from Latin oriens meaning "rising; east; daybreak, dawn, sunrise".
Orianna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Spanish (Latin American)
Rating: 60% based on 7 votes
Orchidée
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: AWR-KEE-DEH
Rating: 40% based on 3 votes
Derived from French orchidée "orchid".
Orabela
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: o-ra-BEH-la
Rating: 65% based on 4 votes
Means
"golden-beautiful" in Esperanto, ultimately from Latin
aurea "gold" and
bella "beautiful".
Opportuna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval French (Latinized), History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 40% based on 3 votes
Latinized form of
Opportune. It was the name of an 8th-century French saint.
Ophélie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: AW-FEH-LEE
Rating: 53% based on 6 votes
Onyx
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: AHN-iks(American English) AWN-iks(British English)
Rating: 63% based on 6 votes
From the English word for the gemstone (a variety of chalcedony), which can be black, red or other colours. It is derived from Greek
ὄνυξ (onyx) meaning "claw, nail".
Onerva
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Finnish
Pronounced: O-nehr-vah
Rating: 56% based on 5 votes
Derived from the Finnish word onerva meaning "aftergrass; the hay grown after harvesting".
Omega
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Various
Pronounced: o-MAY-gə(English)
Rating: 22% based on 5 votes
From the name of the last letter in the Greek alphabet,
Ω. It is often seen as a symbol of completion.
Olivine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare), French (Rare), Jamaican Patois (Rare)
Pronounced: AWL-i-veen(British English) AHL-ə-veen(American English) AW-LEE-VEEN(French)
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Diminutive or elaborated form of
Olive, or directly from the English and French word
olivine that denotes a type of gemstone, whose name ultimately goes back to Latin
oliva "olive" (so named in the late 18th century for its olive green color).
Olivette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: ahl-i-VEHT(American English) awl-i-VEHT(British English)
Rating: 40% based on 5 votes
Feminine form of
Oliver. This was the name of the title character in the French opera
Les noces d'Olivette (1879) by Edmond Audran.
Odyssée
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: AW-DEE-SEH
Rating: 48% based on 5 votes
Odessa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various
Rating: 53% based on 7 votes
From the name of a Ukrainian city that sits on the north coast of the Black Sea, which was named after the ancient Greek city of
Ὀδησσός (Odessos), of uncertain meaning. This name can also be used as a feminine form of
Odysseus.
October
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: ahk-TO-bər(American English) awk-TO-bə(British English)
Rating: 58% based on 4 votes
From the name of the tenth month. It is derived from Latin octo meaning "eight", because it was originally the eighth month of the Roman year.
Océanne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Modern), French (Belgian, Modern)
Rating: 64% based on 5 votes
Nyssa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Rare)
Rating: 61% based on 8 votes
From the name of an ancient town of Asia Minor where
Saint Gregory was bishop in the 4th century. Nyssa is also the genus name of a type of tree, also called the Tupelo.
Nyrie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Australian)
Rating: 56% based on 5 votes
Possibly an Anglicized form of
Ngaire.
Nympha
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek [1], Biblical Greek [2], Biblical
Other Scripts: Νύμφα(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 62% based on 5 votes
Variant of
Nymphe (as well as the usual Latinized form). This name is mentioned briefly by
Paul in his epistle to the Colossians in the
New Testament, though it is uncertain whether it refers to a woman
Nympha or a man
Nymphas. The name was later borne by an obscure 4th-century
saint possibly from Palermo, Sicily.
Numeria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Rating: 64% based on 5 votes
Derived from Latin numerus meaning "number". In Roman mythology, Numeria is the goddess who grants young children the ability to count.
Noyabrina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Russian (Rare)
Other Scripts: Ноябрина(Russian)
Pronounced: nə-yi-BRYEE-nə
Rating: 58% based on 6 votes
Derived from Russian
ноябрь (noyabr) meaning
"November". It was coined by communist parents in order to commemorate the October Revolution of 1917, which according to the Gregorian calendar (not in use in Russia at the time) actually took place in November 1917.
November
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: no-VEHM-bər, nə-VEHM-bə, no-VEHM-bə
Rating: 30% based on 4 votes
From the Latin word
novem, meaning "nine". November was the ninth month of the Roman calendar before January and February were added around 713 BC. It is now the eleventh month of the year.
This is the name of one of the main adult female characters in Catherynne M. Valente's adult fantasy novel "Palimpsest" (2009). In the novel November remembers having read a book called "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making" when she was a child, and the heroine of that book was called September. Valente later wrote that book as a crowd-funded work. It became the first volume in her bestselling "Fairyland" series.
Novaline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Rare)
Rating: 27% based on 3 votes
Noëline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Swiss, Rare)
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
Nocturna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, Popular Culture
Rating: 62% based on 6 votes
Derived from Latin nocturnus meaning "of or belonging to the night, nocturnal", from the Latin noctū "by night". This name appeared in the 1979 camp comedy-horror film Nocturna, also as the DC comics character Nocturna, a daughter of Dracula, created by writer Doug Moench and artist Gene Colan in 1983.
Noctiluca
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology, Literature
Rating: 60% based on 4 votes
From Latin
noctilūca meaning "something that shines by night" - thus also "moon" and "lantern" - from
nox "night" and
luceo "to shine". It may be an epithet of the Roman goddess
Juno. It also occurs in John of Salisbury's 12th-century treatise the
Policraticus as an alternative name for the goddess
Herodias.
Nivaria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish (Canarian, Rare)
Rating: 66% based on 7 votes
From the Roman name for the island of Tenerife (present-day Canary Islands, Spain), which was derived from Latin nivarius meaning "of snow, pertaining to snow" - itself from nix "snow" (genitive nivis, plural nives) - after the snow-covered peak of Mount Teide.
Nimrodel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 60% based on 4 votes
Means "lady of the white cave" in Sindarin. In J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Unfinished Tales', Nimrodel was an elf maiden who loved the elven king of Lóthlorien, Amroth. She wished to marry Amroth, but before they were wed Nimrodel became lost on a journey and was never heard from again. Two elements of her name are nim "white" and rod "cave".
Nienna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: nee-EN-nah
Rating: 60% based on 6 votes
Means "she who weeps" from Quenya nie "tear". According to 'The Silmarillion', Nienna is a Vala (angelic being) who constantly mourns all terrible things, though from her is learned not despair but mercy, compassion and hope. It has also been suggested that her name consists of two elements, nie combined with anna "gift", in which case it may refer to the charismatic "gift of tears" in Catholic theology.
Nerys
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh
Rating: 58% based on 8 votes
Probably a feminized form of Welsh nêr meaning "lord".
Nerissa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: nə-RIS-ə(English)
Rating: 66% based on 8 votes
Created by Shakespeare for a character in his play
The Merchant of Venice (1596). He possibly took it from Greek
Νηρηΐς (Nereis) meaning "nymph, sea sprite", ultimately derived from the name of the Greek sea god
Nereus, who supposedly fathered them.
Néomaye
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare, Archaic), History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 50% based on 4 votes
From Latin
Neomadia, the meaning of which is uncertain. This was the name of a French saint who is mainly venerated in the Poitou region. She is the patron saint of shepherds.
This name has been confused with Neomisia, Gallicized as Néomoise.
Nemesis
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Νέμεσις(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: NEH-MEH-SEES(Classical Greek) NEHM-ə-sis(English)
Rating: 45% based on 6 votes
Means
"distribution of what is due, righteous anger" in Greek. In Greek
mythology Nemesis was the personification of vengeance and justice.
Neigette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Quebec, Rare, Archaic)
Pronounced: NE-ZHET(Quebec French)
Rating: 35% based on 4 votes
Nehorai
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Hebrew, Ancient Hebrew
Other Scripts: נהוראי(Hebrew)
Rating: 48% based on 4 votes
From the Aramaic root nehora, meaning "light". Rabbi Nehorai was the name of one of the Tannaim.
Nautica
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Modern), African American (Modern)
Pronounced: NAW-ti-kə(English)
Rating: 56% based on 5 votes
Likely based on the English word nautical, which is derived from Latin nauticus meaning "pertaining to ships or sailors", ultimately from Greek ναῦς (naus) "ship". Use of the name may also be influenced by the American clothing company Nautica.
Narice
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, English (Rare)
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Coined for a short story called The Dice of God by South African romance novelist Cynthia Stockley (1863-1936). The short story was serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine starting in February of 1926, and appears to have been expanded and published as a stand-alone book the same year.
Narcissa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman
Pronounced: nahr-SIS-ə(American English) nah-SIS-ə(British English)
Rating: 59% based on 7 votes
Myrtille
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, French (Belgian, Rare)
Pronounced: MEER-TEE(French, Belgian French)
Rating: 48% based on 5 votes
Derived from French myrtille meaning "bilberry", referring to a type of blueberry from the cowberry family. This is taken from the French Republican Calendar (also known as the Revolutionary Calendar).
Myrcella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, Popular Culture, English (Modern, Rare)
Rating: 63% based on 6 votes
Created by author George R.R. Martin for a character in his series
A Song of Ice and Fire (1996) and its television adaptation
Game of Thrones (2011-2019). At the beginning of the first novel, Princess Myrcella Baratheon is the daughter of king Robert Baratheon and queen Cersei Lannister. Her name is probably derived from
Marcella.
Musica
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Rating: 30% based on 3 votes
Latinized form of
Mousika. In Greek mythology, this is the name of one of the Horae.
Morwenna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Cornish, Welsh
Rating: 66% based on 8 votes
From Old Cornish
moroin meaning
"maiden, girl" (related to the Welsh word
morwyn [1]). This was the name of a 6th-century Cornish
saint, said to be one of the daughters of
Brychan Brycheiniog.
Morvoren
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Cornish (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: mor-VOR-ən
Rating: 57% based on 6 votes
Derived from Cornish morvoren "mermaid" (ultimately from Cornish mor "sea" and moren "maiden"). This was the bardic name or pseudonym of a member of the Gorsedh Kernow (Katherine Lee Jenner, 1904). It is also associated with the mermaid of Zennor, which is the subject of Cornish folklore (perhaps due to its use by Cornishman Philip Cannon, 1929-, in his two-act opera 'Morvoren', 1964). In Britain, this has been used as a given name at least 11 times.
Morgana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: mawr-GAN-ə(American English) maw-GAN-ə(British English)
Rating: 74% based on 10 votes
Monday
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (African)
Pronounced: MUN-day
Rating: 40% based on 4 votes
From the English word for the day of the week, which was derived from Old English mona "moon" and dæg "day". This can be given to children born on Monday, especially in Nigeria.
Mirèio
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Occitan
Rating: 54% based on 5 votes
Mireille
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, Dutch
Pronounced: MEE-RAY(French)
Rating: 80% based on 7 votes
From the Occitan name Mirèio, which was first used by the poet Frédéric Mistral for the main character in his poem Mirèio (1859). He probably derived it from the Occitan word mirar meaning "to admire". It is spelled Mirèlha in classical Occitan orthography. A notable bearer is the French singer Mireille Mathieu (1946-).
Mircalla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature (Rare)
Pronounced: meer-CAH-lə
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
An anagram of
Carmilla. Countess Mircalla Karnstein is the true name of the titular villainess of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Gothic novella,
Carmilla (1871). The name was also used in the Karnstein trilogy of British Hammer horror films, which were loosely based on Le Fanu's novella.
Milagrosa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish
Pronounced: mee-la-GHRO-sa
Rating: 48% based on 4 votes
Means
"miraculous" in Spanish. It is taken from the phrase
medalla milagrosa meaning "miraculous medal", referring to the devotional medal made by Adrien Vachette based on
Saint Catherine Labouré's visions of the Virgin
Mary in Paris in 1830.
Miela
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: mee-EH-la
Rating: 73% based on 8 votes
Means "sweet" in Esperanto, derived from mielo "honey", ultimately from Latin mel.
Merula
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Ancient Roman
Pronounced: MEH-roo-la(Latin)
Rating: 64% based on 5 votes
Roman cognomen derived from Latin merula "blackbird".
Merouda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Cornish (Archaic)
Rating: 56% based on 5 votes
Meridiana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare), American (Hispanic, Rare), Literature
Rating: 60% based on 4 votes
According to Walter Map's 12th-century work
De nugis curialium (
Courtiers' Trifles), Pope Sylvester II owed his powerful position in the Catholic Church to the influence of a succubus named Meridiana.
Perhaps relatedly,
Meridian was used as a name for the Devil in the early 15th century.
Mélodine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare)
Pronounced: MEH-LAW-DEEN
Rating: 56% based on 5 votes
Mélitte
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Louisiana Creole
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Most likely a Creole form of
Melitta, this was also used as a diminutive and pet form of
Émelia,
Émelise and similar names.
Meliora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Rare)
Rating: 77% based on 6 votes
Derived from Latin melior meaning "better".
Melibea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish (Rare), Greek Mythology (Hispanicized), Literature
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
Spanish form of
Meliboea. This is the name of the female protagonist in the Spanish novel
La Celestina (1499).
Mediatrix
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (African), Filipino
Pronounced: MEE-dee-ə-triks(English)
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
From the title of the Virgin Mary, referring to her intercessory role as a mediator in the salvific redemption by her son Jesus Christ (compare Spanish/Portuguese and French equivalents
Mediatriz and
Médiatrice, Portuguese
Medianeira and Spanish/Portuguese
Mediadora).
Mazikeen
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Rating: 58% based on 4 votes
From Hebrew
מַזִּיקִין (mazziqin) meaning
"damagers, harmful spirits", derived from
מַזִּיק (mazziq) meaning "damaging". As a given name it is borne by a companion of
Lucifer in the comic book series
Lucifer, as well as on the 2016-2021 television adaptation.
Mayim
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Hebrew (Rare), Jewish (Rare)
Other Scripts: מים(Hebrew)
Rating: 50% based on 4 votes
From the Hebrew word מַיִם
(máyim) meaning "water". In the case of Jewish-American actress Mayim Bialik (1975-), the name originated from a mispronunciation of the name
Miriam (the name of her great-grandmother).
Maudelen
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval English
Pronounced: MAWD-lin; MAWD-el-ən(Middle English)
Rating: 45% based on 4 votes
Middle English name used during the early 14th century, it is derived from the Old French name
Madelaine.
Once a flower name, Maudelen Wort was an alternative name for the Great Daisy.
Matisse
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: French (Rare), Dutch (Rare), English (Rare)
Pronounced: MA-TEES(French)
Rating: 53% based on 4 votes
Transferred use of the surname
Matisse. The surname was most famously borne by the French artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954), who is likely the reason behind the popularity of Matisse as a given name in the 21st century.
Matisse as a given name is strictly masculine in France. It is unisex in other countries, but often not equally so for the two genders: for example, it is predominantly feminine in the USA and predominantly masculine in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Marquessa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Spanish
Rating: 63% based on 4 votes
Derived from Old French markis, marchis "marquis", ultimately from Old High German marka "march; fortified area along a border".
Marjolaine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: MAR-ZHAW-LEHN
Rating: 61% based on 7 votes
Means "marjoram" in French, from Latin maiorana. Marjoram is a minty herb.
Margarite
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: mahr-gə-REET
Rating: 55% based on 4 votes
Anglicized form of
Marguerite. This is the name of a calcium-rich mineral as well as a late Old English word meaning "pearl" (which was from Late Latin
margarita).
Maraĵa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: ma-RA-zha
Rating: 48% based on 4 votes
Means "made of the sea" in Esperanto, a derivative of maro "sea", ultimately from Latin mare.
Malicia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Rating: 37% based on 3 votes
Malicia the name of the character Rogue in the French version of the X-Men. Malicia, or Rogue, was created by Chris Claremont and Michael Golden. She is a young woman whose real name is Anna Marie; her power, which is to absorb life energy via skin contact, is both a strength and a burden.
Majella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish
Rating: 56% based on 5 votes
From the surname of the Italian
saint Gerard Majella (1726-1755; called Gerardo Maiella in Italian), a miracle worker who is regarded as the patron saint of pregnancy and childbirth. His surname is derived from the name of the Maiella massif in Abruzzo, Italy.
Maïalène
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Modern, Rare)
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
Mahogany
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: mah-HAW-go-nee
Rating: 57% based on 3 votes
From the English word mahogany, a tropical tree of the genus Swietenia, valued for their hard, reddish-brown wood; or after the color of the wood. Ultimately from Spanish mahogani, perhaps of Mayan origin.
Magnolia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: mag-NO-lee-ə
Rating: 72% based on 5 votes
From the English word magnolia for the flower, which was named for the French botanist Pierre Magnol.
Magnifica
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Italian
Rating: 40% based on 4 votes
Derived from Latin magnifica "magnificent, splendid, excellent".
Magdalaine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Occitan
Rating: 60% based on 6 votes
Magdala
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Haitian Creole, Portuguese (Brazilian), African American, Spanish (Caribbean)
Pronounced: mugh-DHA-lu(Brazilian Portuguese) magh-DHA-la(Caribbean Spanish)
Rating: 56% based on 5 votes
Either a short form of
Magdalena or from the biblical village that Mary
Magdalene was from, which means "tower" in Hebrew.
It is the name of a central character in the Agatha Christie mystery novel Peril at End House (1932), which features detective Hercule Poirot.
Madelina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Rating: 56% based on 5 votes
Lyonors
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arthurian Cycle
Rating: 43% based on 6 votes
Probably from Middle English
lyon meaning
"lion". It appears in Thomas Malory's 15th-century compilation of Arthurian legends
Le Morte d'Arthur, belonging to a woman who had a child with Arthur
[1]. Alfred Tennyson used the name in his poem
Gareth and Lynette (1872) for the sister of
Lynette (this character is called
Lyonesse in Malory's version of the story).
Lyonesse
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arthurian Cycle
Rating: 52% based on 6 votes
Means
"lioness" in Middle English. In Thomas Malory's 15th-century tale
Le Morte d'Arthur this is the name of a woman trapped in a castle by the Red Knight. Her sister
Lynet gains the help of the knight
Gareth in order to save her.
Lydianne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare), French (Rare), French (Quebec, Rare), Dutch (Rare), Flemish (Rare)
Rating: 58% based on 4 votes
Lusitania
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare, Archaic), South American (Rare)
Rating: 38% based on 5 votes
The etymology of this name is widely debated. However, the name may be of Celtic origin:
Lus and
Tanus, "tribe of Lusus", connecting the name with the personal Celtic name
Luso and with the god
Lugh.
Luscinia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare), Roman Mythology
Pronounced: loos-KEE-nee-a, loosh-SHEE-nee-a
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Derived from Latin luscinia "nightingale". This was an epithet of the Roman goddess Minerva. As an English name, it has been used sparingly since the 19th century.
Lunlumo
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: loon-LOO-mo
Rating: 30% based on 4 votes
Means "moonlight" in Esperanto.
Ludovique
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare), Dutch (Rare), Flemish (Rare), French (Belgian, Rare)
Rating: 53% based on 6 votes
French feminine form of
Ludovic. This name is unisex in Belgium and the Netherlands, with the balance between the sexes more equal in Belgium than in the Netherlands (where there are more female bearers than male bearers).
Lucine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare)
Pronounced: LUY-SEEN
Rating: 60% based on 8 votes
Lucifera
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 30% based on 5 votes
Feminized form of
Lucifer used by Edmund Spenser in his epic poem 'The Faerie Queene' (1590), where it belonged to the Queen of the House of Pride, whose counselors were the Seven Deadly Sins. It was also the name of a character in a series of Italian comics published from 1971 to 1980.
Lucasta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 40% based on 7 votes
This name was first used by the poet Richard Lovelace for a collection of poems called Lucasta (1649). The poems were dedicated to Lucasta, a nickname for the woman he loved Lucy Sacheverel, whom he called lux casta "pure light".
Loveyarna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Romani
Rating: 46% based on 5 votes
Romani corruption of
Lavinia recorded in the 19th century.
Loudmilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Caribbean, Rare)
Rating: 40% based on 4 votes
Lodoïska
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Theatre, French (Rare), Louisiana Creole, French (Quebec, Archaic)
Rating: 42% based on 5 votes
Lodoïska is a French opéra comique (1791) by Luigi Cherubini. It was inspired by an episode from Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai’s novel
Les amours du chevalier de Faublas and is considered one of the first Romantic operas. The name was coined as a (Gallicized) pseudo-Polish diminutive of
Ludwika or
Loda.
Lindissë
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Meaning unknown, used by J.R.R. Tolkien. Most likely from lindë meaning "singing, sound".
Lilliandil
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Pronounced: lil-ee-AHN-deel, Lyll- AN-dill
Rating: 38% based on 4 votes
Coined by Douglas Gresham for a character in the 2010 film version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which he produced. In the Chronicles of Narnia books by C.S. Lewis (Gresham's stepfather), the character is unnamed, known only as Ramandu's daughter. The name 'evokes imagery of the sea of lilies in the book'.
Liliosa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History (Ecclesiastical), Spanish (Philippines)
Rating: 48% based on 6 votes
Feminine diminutive of Latin lilium "lily". This name belonged to an Iberian Christian woman martyred in Córdoba, Andalusia c.852 under Emir Abd ar-Rahman II, along with her husband Felix, his cousin Aurelius and Aurelius' wife Natalia.
Licoricia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Jewish, Judeo-Anglo-Norman
Rating: 40% based on 5 votes
This name was recorded in the Jewish community in medieval England. It was famously borne by Licoricia of Winchester who was one of the most prominent female bankers and one of the most notable English Jewish women of her time.
Licoricia is derived from the English word
licorice (via Old French
licoresse) and ultimately from Greek
glukurrhiza (
γλυκύρριζα):
glukus (
γλυκύς) "sweet" and
rhiza (
ῥίζα) "root".
Both the (folk) etymological meaning of "sweet" and the associative meaning of the licorice itself fit well into the Jewish naming conventions of the time: names whose meanings denote desirable traits were common (especially for girls, compare
Doltza,
Beila, etc.) as were names denoting valuable things (compare
Diamante, etc.).
Libertas
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Rating: 36% based on 5 votes
Derived from the Latin noun libertas meaning "freedom, liberty". In Roman mythology, Libertas was the name of the goddess of liberty.
Lazuli
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: LAZ-yuw-lie, LAZ-yuw-lee
Rating: 50% based on 5 votes
From an ellipsis of lapis lazuli, the name of a deep blue semiprecious stone. It is derived from medieval Latin lazulum meaning "heaven, sky", ultimately from Persian لاجورد (lajvard) meaning "lapis lazuli, azure (color)".
Lavender
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: LAV-ən-dər(American English) LAV-ən-də(British English)
Rating: 61% based on 8 votes
From the English word for the aromatic flower or the pale purple colour.
Laurelin
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: Lor-ə-lynn
Rating: 56% based on 7 votes
This name was used by J.R.R. Tolkien in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was the name of one of the Two Trees of Valinor. Laurelin was the gold and green tree. Laurelin means "Land of the Valley of Singing Gold".
Lalaith
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: lah-LIETH
Rating: 35% based on 4 votes
Means "laughter" in Sindarin. In J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Children of Húrin', this is the nickname of
Urwen, daughter of Húrin.
Laetissima
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 46% based on 5 votes
Derived from Latin
laetissimus meaning "happiest; happy as can be". Also compare the related names
Laetitia and
Laetus. This was borne by an obscure saint who was martyred at Nicomedia in Bithynia, Asia Minor.
Kyriaque
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 20% based on 4 votes
Kristianna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: kris-tee-AN-ə, kris-tee-AH-nə
Rating: 50% based on 5 votes
Krishna
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Hinduism, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Nepali
Other Scripts: कृष्ण(Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali) কৃষ্ণ(Bengali) કૃષ્ણ(Gujarati) కృష్ణ(Telugu) கிருஷ்ணா(Tamil) ಕೃಷ್ಣ(Kannada) കൃഷ്ണ(Malayalam)
Pronounced: KURSH-nu(Sanskrit) KRISH-nə(English, Hindi) KRISH-nah(Hindi) KREESH-no(Bengali) KROOSH-nə(Gujarati) KURSH-na(Telugu) KREESH-nu(Malayalam)
Rating: 42% based on 5 votes
Derived from Sanskrit
कृष्ण (kṛṣṇa) meaning
"black, dark". This is the name of a Hindu deity believed to be an incarnation of the god
Vishnu. According to the
Mahabharata and the
Puranas he was the youngest of King
Vasudeva's eight sons by
Devaki, six of whom were killed by King Kamsa because of a prophecy that a child of Vasudeva would kill Kamsa. However, Krishna and his brother
Balarama were saved and he eventually fulfilled the prophecy by slaying the evil king. He then helped the Pandavas defeat the Kauravas in the Mahabharata War. His philosophical conversation with the Pandava leader
Arjuna forms the text of the important Hindu scripture the
Bhagavad Gita.
In some Hindu traditions, Krishna is regarded as the supreme deity. He is usually depicted with blue skin. He is also known by many epithets, such as Govinda, Gopala, and the patronymic Vasūdeva.
Kreszentia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Rare)
Pronounced: krehs-TSEHN-tsya
Rating: 53% based on 6 votes
Korinna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek [1]
Other Scripts: Κόριννα(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 57% based on 7 votes
Kolumbina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Polish (Rare), German (Bessarabian)
Pronounced: kaw-loom-BEE-nah(Polish)
Rating: 35% based on 4 votes
Klothilde
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Rare)
Rating: 51% based on 8 votes
Kinvara
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (British, Rare)
Rating: 42% based on 5 votes
Apparently from an Irish place name, which meant "head of the sea" in Gaelic. Lady Kinvara Balfour (1975-) is an English playwright and novelist.
Ketourah
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical French
Rating: 33% based on 4 votes
Katrielle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: ka-tree-EL(American English)
Rating: 56% based on 7 votes
Katheline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Flemish, Medieval Dutch, Medieval Irish (Anglicized)
Rating: 54% based on 5 votes
Medieval Flemish and Dutch variant of French
Cateline as well as an early Anglicization of
Caitlín.
Kateri
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History
Rating: 46% based on 5 votes
From the Mohawk pronunciation of
Katherine. This was the name adopted by the 17th-century Mohawk
saint Tekakwitha upon her baptism.
Kashmira
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Indian, Indian (Parsi)
Rating: 38% based on 4 votes
Feminine form of
Kashmir. This is the name of the female protagonist of Salman Rushdie's novel
Shalimar the Clown (2005).
Karmel
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Hebrew, Basque (Rare), English (American, Rare)
Other Scripts: כרמל(Hebrew)
Pronounced: kar-MEHL(Hebrew, Basque) KAHR-məl(American English)
Rating: 43% based on 4 votes
Original Hebrew form of
Carmel, also used in other languages. In Basque, it is exclusively a masculine name.
Karesinda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: ka-reh-SEEN-da
Rating: 50% based on 6 votes
Means "worthy of a caress" in Esperanto.
Kalixta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Finland Swedish (Rare)
Rating: 45% based on 4 votes
Juverna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: yoo-VER-nah(Latin) joo-VUR-nə(English)
Rating: 40% based on 4 votes
This was a Roman name for Ireland, from Old Celtic *
Iveriu "Ireland" (accusative case *
Iverionem, ablative *
Iverione) – from which eventually arose Irish
Ériu and
Éire (compare
Eireann).
Juventas
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: yoo-WEHN-tas(Latin)
Rating: 33% based on 3 votes
Means
"youth" in Latin. Juventas was the Roman goddess of youth, equivalent to the Greek goddess
Hebe.
Juvelita
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Filipino (Rare), Obscure
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
Possibly from Esperanto juvelita meaning "bejeweled", itself from juvelo ("jewel") and -ita, a verbal suffix of participle past.
Juvela
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: yoo-VEH-la
Rating: 50% based on 6 votes
From Esperanto juvelo meaning "jewel".
Justice
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JUS-tis
Rating: 38% based on 4 votes
From an occupational surname meaning "judge, officer of justice" in Old French. This name can also be given in direct reference to the English word justice.
Junipera
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Italian
Rating: 25% based on 4 votes
Recorded in the 12th century.
Junia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical, Ancient Roman
Pronounced: YOO-nee-a(Latin)
Rating: 60% based on 7 votes
Feminine form of
Junius. This is the name of an early Christian mentioned in
Paul's epistle to the Romans in the
New Testament (there is some debate about whether the name belongs to a woman
Junia or a man
Junias).
Joliette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Modern, Rare)
Rating: 53% based on 6 votes
Jolïete
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arthurian Cycle
Rating: 30% based on 4 votes
Possibly from Old French
joli,
jolif "pretty, cute, smart, joyful". According to the
Fourth Continuation (or
Gerbert's Continuation; c. 1230) of Chrétien de Troyes' unfinished romance
Perceval, the Story of the Grail, this was the name of a maidservant of Bloiesine,
Gawain's lover.
Jillianna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Rating: 58% based on 4 votes
Japonica
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Modern, Rare)
Rating: 30% based on 4 votes
japonica is a Neo-Latin word meaning "japanese". As such, it is part of the name of several cultivated plants (e.g., Pieris japonica, Camellia japonica, or Skimmia japonica).
January
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JAN-yoo-ehr-ee
Rating: 48% based on 6 votes
From the name of the month, which was named for the Roman god
Janus. This name briefly charted on the American top 1000 list for girls after it was borne by the protagonist of Jacqueline Susann's novel
Once Is Not Enough (1973).
Januaria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Roman, Polish
Rating: 38% based on 4 votes
Feminine form of
Januarius. This was the name of an early Christian martyr.
Ixchel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Mayan Mythology, Mayan
Pronounced: eesh-CHEHL(Mayan)
Rating: 51% based on 7 votes
Possibly means "rainbow lady", from Classic Maya ix "lady" and chel "rainbow". Ixchel was a Maya goddess associated with the earth, jaguars, medicine and childbirth. She was often depicted with a snake in her hair and crossbones embroidered on her skirt.
Ithaca
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Rating: 32% based on 5 votes
This name comes from the name of a Greek island, a legendary home of Odysseus, located in the Ionian Sea.
The etymology is uncertain, but the first element is, perhaps, derived from Phoenician I meaning "island."
Italia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian
Pronounced: ee-TA-lya
Rating: 28% based on 5 votes
From the Italian name of the country of Italy,
Italia (see
Italus).
Iridián
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish (Mexican, Modern)
Pronounced: ee-ree-DHYAN
Rating: 0% based on 2 votes
Means
"related to Iris or rainbows", ultimately from Greek
ἶρις (genitive
ἴριδος). It briefly entered the American top 1000 list in 1995, likely due to a Mexican singer named Iridián.
Iridessa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Pronounced: eer-ə-DES-ə
Rating: 58% based on 5 votes
This was the name of a character in the Disney
Tinker Bell film series. Perhaps based on the English word
iridescent, which is derived from the Latin elements
iris meaning "rainbow" (see
Iris) and the suffix
-escent "resembling".
Ioreth
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 44% based on 5 votes
Means "old woman" from Sindarin iaur "old, ancient" combined with the feminine personal noun suffix -eth. It occurs in J. R. R. Tolkien's novel 'The Lord of the Rings' (1954) belonging to a wise old woman of Gondor.
Iolanthe
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Rare)
Pronounced: ie-o-LAN-thee(English)
Rating: 53% based on 9 votes
Probably a variant of
Yolanda influenced by the Greek words
ἰόλη (iole) meaning "violet" and
ἄνθος (anthos) meaning "flower". This name was (first?) used by Gilbert and Sullivan in their comic opera
Iolanthe (1882).
Invidia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: een-WEE-dee-a(Latin)
Rating: 48% based on 6 votes
Means
"envy" in Latin. This was the Roman goddess of vengeance, equivalent to the Greek goddess
Nemesis.
Invicta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Rare)
Rating: 30% based on 5 votes
From the Latin word meaning “unconquered”.
Indis
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 35% based on 4 votes
Means "bride" in Quenya. This was the name of an Elf mentioned in Tolkien's the Silmarillion. Indis was the second wife of Finwë and the grandmother of Galadriel.
Indila
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Modern, Rare)
Rating: 47% based on 6 votes
Notably borne by singer and songwriter Indila, born Adila Sedraïa (1984-).
Usage was highest with 32 baby girls in 2014 after the release of her first single 'Dernière danse' and her debut album 'Mini World'.
Incarnation
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: EHN-KAR-NA-SYAWN
Rating: 40% based on 5 votes
Inazuma
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Other Scripts: 稲妻(Japanese Kanji) いなずま(Japanese Hiragana) イナズマ(Japanese Katakana)
Pronounced: ee-na-zoo-ma
Rating: 50% based on 5 votes
Notably borne by the character Inazuma (稲妻) from the 'Usagi Yojimbo' comic book series, this name refers to (a flash of) lightning. It combines 稲
(ina), the ancient bound form of
ine meaning "rice plant," and 妻/夫
(tsuma), originally referring to a spouse (nowadays, only referring to a wife, written as 妻), based on an ancient belief that rice plants would mate with or otherwise be fertilised by lightning, which frequently occurs in late summer and autumn.
In Japan, it is only used as a (rare) surname.
Imperia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Italian, Literature, English (American, Modern, Rare)
Rating: 44% based on 5 votes
Derived from Latin imperium meaning "command; authority; rule, power; empire". This was the name of an obscure saint, who was venerated in Mauprévoir, France (also known as Impère and Impérie). It was also borne by the famous Italian courtesan Imperia Cognati (1486-1512), in whose case it was probably a pseudonym. Honoré de Balzac later used it in his short story La belle Impéria (1832), where it belongs to a fictional courtesan who is active at the Council of Constance (1414/1418); a statue of Imperia was erected at the entrance of the harbour of Konstanz in 1993. A similar name, Bel-imperia, was employed by Elizabethan dramatist Thomas Kyd for a character in his play The Spanish Tragedy (written between 1582 and 1592).
Illyria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek, Various (Rare)
Other Scripts: Ίλλυρία(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 60% based on 9 votes
Illuminata
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman
Rating: 54% based on 7 votes
Means
"illuminated, brightened, filled with light" in Latin. This name was borne by a 4th-century
saint from Todi, Italy.
Iglesia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval English
Pronounced: i-GLEE-see-ə(Middle English)
Rating: 44% based on 5 votes
Derived from iglesia, the Spanish word for "church".
Idonea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Archaic)
Rating: 49% based on 7 votes
Medieval English name, probably a Latinized form of
Iðunn. The spelling may have been influenced by Latin
idonea "suitable". It was common in England from the 12th century
[1].
Ibolya
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Hungarian
Pronounced: EE-bo-yaw
Rating: 50% based on 6 votes
Means "violet" in Hungarian, ultimately from Latin viola.
Iberia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: American
Rating: 42% based on 5 votes
Hydra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Astronomy, Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Ὕδρα(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: HIE-drə(English)
Rating: 47% based on 6 votes
Means
"water serpent" in Greek, related to
ὕδωρ (hydor) meaning "water". In Greek
myth this was the name of a many-headed Lernaean serpent slain by
Herakles. It is also the name of a northern constellation, as well as a moon of Pluto.
Hyacintha
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 59% based on 8 votes
Latinate feminine form of
Hyacinthus, used to refer to the 17th-century Italian
saint Hyacintha Mariscotti (real name Giacinta).
Honesta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Italian
Rating: 40% based on 5 votes
Derived from Latin honesta "distinguished, reputable; respected, honorable".
Historia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 38% based on 6 votes
Means "history" in Spanish.
This is the name of a character in the Japanese manga series Attack on Titan.
Hildegarda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Czech
Rating: 60% based on 6 votes
Hibernia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: hie-BUR-nee-ə
Rating: 36% based on 5 votes
From the Roman name for Ireland, which was influenced by Latin
hibernus "wintry". (Cf.
Ierne,
Iverna,
Juverna.)
Hesperia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology, Spanish
Other Scripts: Ἑσπερια(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: hes-PEER-ee-ə(Greek Mythology)
Rating: 53% based on 6 votes
Derived from Greek
hesperos "evening" (see
Hesperos). In Greek myth this was the name of one of the three Hesperides, goddesses of the evening and sunsets. Hesperia was also a Greek name of Italy, meaning "the land where the sun sets" (as in the case of asteroid 69 Hesperia).
Herzeloyde
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arthurian Cycle, Literature
Rating: 46% based on 5 votes
Derived from the Middle High German words
herze meaning "heart" and
leit meaning "grief, sorrow, suffering".
In German literature, this is the name of the mother of the eponymous character of the 13th-century Arthurian poem Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach.
Hermione
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Ἑρμιόνη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: HEHR-MEE-O-NEH(Classical Greek) hər-MIE-ə-nee(American English) hə-MIE-ə-nee(British English)
Rating: 49% based on 10 votes
Derived from the name of the Greek messenger god
Hermes. In Greek
myth Hermione was the daughter of
Menelaus and
Helen. This is also the name of the wife of
Leontes in Shakespeare's play
The Winter's Tale (1610). It is now closely associated with the character Hermione Granger from the
Harry Potter series of books, first released in 1997.
Helvetia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Obscure
Pronounced: hehl-VEE-shə(English)
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Likely taken from the name of the national personification of Switzerland. It comes from Helvetii, the name of a Celtic tribe. A bearer of this name was Helvetia "Vet" Boswell, a member of The Boswell Sisters, a close harmony singing trio.
Helianthe
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Dutch (Rare)
Rating: 62% based on 6 votes
Derived from Hélianthe, the French name for Helianthus, which is a genus of plants. It is ultimately derived from Greek helianthos meaning "sun-flower", from Greek helios "sun" and anthos "flower".
Héleinne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Picard
Rating: 47% based on 6 votes
Hecatia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Pronounced: heh-CAH-TEE-uh
Rating: 55% based on 8 votes
Variant of
Hecate. A notable user of this name is Hecatia Lapislazuli from the Touhou Project.
Harmonia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Ἁρμονία(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: HAR-MO-NEE-A(Classical Greek) hahr-MO-nee-ə(American English) hah-MO-nee-ə(British English)
Rating: 54% based on 9 votes
Means
"harmony, agreement" in Greek. She was the daughter of
Ares and
Aphrodite, given by
Zeus to
Cadmus to be his wife.
Harimella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Germanic Mythology
Rating: 49% based on 7 votes
Harimella is a Germanic goddess known from an inscription in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. The first element of her name is derived from Germanic *xarjaz (harjaz) "army", the second element -mella is of debated origin and meaning. Theories include a derivation from Old Norse mjöll (and ultimately Proto-Germanic *mella) "snow, new snow", Old Irish mall "slow" and Germanic *maþlan "gathering; gathering place".
Gwyneira
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh
Pronounced: gwi-NAY-ra
Rating: 65% based on 10 votes
Means
"white snow" from the Welsh element
gwyn meaning "white, blessed" combined with
eira meaning "snow". This is a recently created Welsh name.
Guendoloena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arthurian Cycle
Rating: 40% based on 4 votes
Latin form of
Gwendolen used by Geoffrey of Monmouth for the wife of
Merlin.
Grimanesa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish (Latin American), Spanish (Canarian), Medieval Portuguese, Literature
Rating: 40% based on 5 votes
Borne by an illegitimate granddaughter of Bartolomé Herrero, the first colonial alcalde of the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the island of Tenerife (who had been appointed to the position in 1501 by the conquistador Alonso Fernández de Lugo), in whose case it possibly meant "forced" from Guanche *gərma-ənsa, literally "forced to spend the night". This name was also borne by a sister of the 16th-century Spanish inquisitor and saint Turibius of Mogrovejo. It occurs in the novel Amadis of Gaul (published in 1508; written in the 14th century by an unknown author, and edited and expanded by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo) belonging to the lover of the prince Apolidon.
Gothia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Baltic Mythology
Rating: 35% based on 4 votes
Lithuanian goddess of cattle, recorded by 17th-century historian and ethnographer Matthäus Prätorius in his work
Deliciae Prussica (published in 1703).
According to Prätorius, the name Gothia is derived from Lithuanian guota "flock; drove; herd (of small animals)".
Goldiva
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Anglo-Saxon (Latinized), Medieval English
Rating: 59% based on 7 votes
Latinized form of *
Goldgifu, an unrecorded Old English name meaning "gold gift" from the elements
gold and
giefu "gift".
Godelieve
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Flemish
Pronounced: gho-də-LEE-və(Dutch)
Rating: 53% based on 6 votes
Glyceria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Greek (Latinized), History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 38% based on 4 votes
Glory
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: GLAWR-ee
Rating: 54% based on 8 votes
Simply from the English word glory, ultimately from Latin gloria.
Glorinda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: glo-REEN-da
Rating: 51% based on 7 votes
Means "worthy of glory" in Esperanto, ultimately from Latin gloria.
Gloriella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Mexican
Rating: 47% based on 7 votes
Gilraen
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: gil-RAY-en
Rating: 47% based on 6 votes
Means "wandering star" and can be found in J.R.R. Tolkien's works as the mother of Aragorn.
Germania
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Bessarabian), English (Rare)
Rating: 36% based on 5 votes
Georgianna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: jawr-jee-AN-ə(American English) jaw-jee-AN-ə(British English)
Rating: 53% based on 7 votes
Genista
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Rare)
Pronounced: jeh-NIS-tə(English)
Rating: 47% based on 6 votes
From the Latin name of the broom plant.
Geloyra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Gothic (Latinized) [1][2]
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Latinized (Old Spanish) form of a Gothic name (see
Elvira).
Galatea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Γαλάτεια(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 60% based on 11 votes
Latinized form of Greek
Γαλάτεια (Galateia), probably derived from
γάλα (gala) meaning
"milk". This was the name of several characters in Greek
mythology including a sea nymph who was the daughter of
Doris and
Nereus and the lover of Acis. According to some sources, this was also the name of the ivory statue carved by
Pygmalion that came to life.
Galadriel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: gə-LAD-ree-əl(English)
Rating: 50% based on 8 votes
Means "maiden crowned with a radiant garland" in the fictional language Sindarin. Galadriel was a Noldorin elf princess renowned for her beauty and wisdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels. The elements are galad "radiant" and riel "garlanded maiden". Alatáriel is the Quenya form of her name.
Furiosa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Rating: 42% based on 5 votes
Means "full of rage, furious" in Latin. This is the name of a warrior who turns against the evil Immortan Joe in the movie Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
Fulgora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: FOOL-go-ra(Latin)
Rating: 38% based on 4 votes
From Latin
fulgur meaning
"lightning", derived from
fulgeo "to flash, to shine". In Roman
mythology this was the name of a goddess who presided over lightning, equivalent to the Greek goddess
Astrape.
Friday
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (African)
Pronounced: FRIE-day
Rating: 50% based on 6 votes
From the English word for the day of the week, which was derived from Old English
frigedæg meaning "
Frig's day". Daniel Defoe used it for a character in his novel
Robinson Crusoe (1719). As a given name, it is most often found in parts of Africa, such as Nigeria and Zambia.
Frévisse
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 52% based on 5 votes
Fortuna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: for-TOO-na(Latin)
Rating: 56% based on 8 votes
Means
"luck" in Latin. In Roman
mythology this was the name of the personification of luck.
Forsythia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: fawr-SITH-ee-ə, for-SIDH-ee-ə
Rating: 49% based on 7 votes
From the name of
forsythia, any of a genus of shrubs that produce yellow flowers in spring. They were named in honour of the British botanist William Forsyth (1737-1804), whose surname was derived from Gaelic
Fearsithe, a personal name meaning literally "man of peace" (cf.
Fearsithe,
Forsythe).
Florissa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Archaic), Spanish (Philippines)
Rating: 57% based on 7 votes
Florimel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, Theatre
Rating: 56% based on 8 votes
Combination of Latin
flos meaning "flower" (genitive
floris) and
mel "honey". This name was first used by Edmund Spenser in his poem
The Faerie Queene (1590; in the form
Florimell). John Dryden later used this name for the heroine in his play
The Maiden Queen (1667).
Florida
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman, Albanian, Italian (Rare), English (American), Spanish (Latin American), Louisiana Creole
Pronounced: FLAH-rid-ə(American English) FLOOR-i-da(American English)
Rating: 47% based on 7 votes
Feminine form of
Floridus. This is also the name of a state in the United States of America, which was originally named
La Florida by the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León (1474-1521). He so named it because he discovered it during the Easter season, which is called
Pascua Florida in Spanish. The literal meaning of the term is "flowery Easter", as it consists of the Spanish noun
pascua meaning "Easter, Passover" (also compare
Pascual) and the Spanish adjective
florida meaning "flourishing, blooming, florid".
Most American bearers of the name Florida will have been named in honor of the state, which is much like other given names that come from state names, such as Dakota and Indiana. This is less likely to be the case for bearers from other countries, especially those that are not part of the Anglosphere.
Florianna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Polish, Hungarian
Pronounced: FLO-ree-yawn-naw(Hungarian)
Rating: 64% based on 7 votes
Floria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman, Dutch (Rare), German (Rare), Italian, Spanish, English (Rare), Medieval English, Theatre, Judeo-Anglo-Norman, Judeo-French
Rating: 61% based on 8 votes
Feminine form of
Florius.
Known bearers of this name include the Italian-born Canadian filmmaker Floria Sigismondi (b. 1965), the Venezuelan singer and actress Floria Márquez (b. 1950) and the Argentine actress Floria Bloise (1929-2012).
Floria Tosca is also the name of the main character in Puccini's opera 'Tosca' (1900).
Flordespina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Carolingian Cycle, Literature
Rating: 48% based on 5 votes
This name is borne by a character in Francisco de Barahona's
Flor de caballerías (1599). The name is thought to be derived from Spanish
flor de espina "thorn flower; hawthorn flower". It is also used in English translations of Ludovico Ariosto's
Orlando furioso (1516), while the name appears as
Fiordispina in the Italian original version.
Fleurianne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Modern, Rare)
Rating: 30% based on 4 votes
Fleurdelys
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare)
Pronounced: FLUUR-DU-LEES
Rating: 50% based on 6 votes
From the name of the common heraldic charge in the shape of a lily, particularly associated with the French monarchy. It is derived from French fleur de lis meaning "lily flower".
Firmina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman, Portuguese
Rating: 55% based on 6 votes
Feminine form of
Firminus (see
Firmin).
Saint Firmina was a 3rd-century saint and martyr from Amelia or Civitavecchia in Italy.
Fiera
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: fee-EH-ra
Rating: 49% based on 8 votes
Means "proud" in Esperanto.
Fiammetta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian
Pronounced: fyam-MEHT-ta
Rating: 59% based on 11 votes
Diminutive of
Fiamma. This is the name of a character appearing in several works by the 14th-century Italian author Boccaccio. She was probably based on the Neapolitan noblewoman Maria d'Aquino.
Fenicia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Italian
Rating: 51% based on 7 votes
Derived from Latin phoenicia "Phoenician woman".
Fenenna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical Latin, History, Medieval Hungarian, Medieval Polish
Rating: 36% based on 5 votes
Form of
Peninnah used in the Latin Old Testament.
This name was borne by the 13th-century Polish princess Fenenna of Kuyavia, who married king Andrew III of Hungary.
Felicitas
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman, Roman Mythology, German, Spanish
Pronounced: feh-LEE-kee-tas(Latin) feh-LEE-tsee-tas(German) feh-lee-THEE-tas(European Spanish) feh-lee-SEE-tas(Latin American Spanish)
Rating: 48% based on 8 votes
Latin name meaning
"good luck, fortune". In Roman
mythology the goddess Felicitas was the personification of good luck. It was borne by a 3rd-century
saint, a slave martyred with her master Perpetua in Carthage.
Felicianna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Obscure
Rating: 53% based on 8 votes
February
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (American, Rare)
Rating: 38% based on 6 votes
The 2nd month of the year.
The name February comes from the Latin term "februum", meaning "purification". A purification ritual called Februa was held on February 15 in the Roman calendar.
Favonia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman, American (South, Archaic)
Rating: 52% based on 6 votes
Fauna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: FOW-na(Latin) FAW-nə(English)
Rating: 62% based on 10 votes
Feminine form of
Faunus. Fauna was a Roman goddess of fertility, women and healing, a daughter and companion of Faunus.
Fantine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 47% based on 7 votes
This name was used by Victor Hugo for the mother of Cosette in his novel Les Misérables (1862). The name was given to her by a passerby who found the young orphan on the street. Hugo may have intended it to be a derivative of the French word enfant "child".
Falcona
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Spanish
Rating: 43% based on 6 votes
Derived from Old High German falco "falcon".
Europa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Εὐρώπη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: yuw-RO-pə(English)
Rating: 15% based on 6 votes
Latinized form of Greek
Εὐρώπη (Europe), which meant
"wide face" from
εὐρύς (eurys) meaning "wide" and
ὄψ (ops) meaning "face, eye". In Greek
mythology Europa was a Phoenician princess who was abducted and taken to Crete by
Zeus in the guise of a bull. She became the first queen of Crete, and later fathered
Minos by Zeus. The continent of Europe said to be named for her, though it is more likely her name is from that of the continent. This is also the name of a moon of Jupiter.
Eurddolen
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh
Pronounced: ayr-DHO-len, ier-DHO-len
Rating: 38% based on 5 votes
Means "golden ring", derived from the Welsh elements
aur "gold" and
dolen "ring". It is sometimes interpreted as the Welsh form of
Goldilocks ("golden ringlets, curls").
Eulaire
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History (Ecclesiastical), French (Archaic)
Rating: 61% based on 9 votes
Esperanta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: ehs-peh-RAN-ta
Rating: 47% based on 7 votes
Means "hoping" in Esperanto.
Erendis
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 66% based on 8 votes
Possibly means "lonely bride". In Tolkien's "Unfinished Tales", Erendis was the wife of Tar-Aldarion, the sixth king of Númenor. They were in love at first, but then it turned to hate and resentment.
Eponine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: ehp-ə-NEEN(English)
Rating: 58% based on 9 votes
Éowyn
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: AY-ə-win(English)
Rating: 64% based on 8 votes
Means "horse joy" in Old English. This name was invented by J. R. R. Tolkien who used Old English to represent the Rohirric language. In his novel The Lord of the Rings (1954) Eowyn is the niece of King Theoden of Rohan. She slays the Lord of the Nazgul in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Émérentienne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, French (African)
Rating: 43% based on 6 votes
Emerentia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman, Dutch, German (Rare), Swedish (Rare), Judeo-Christian-Islamic Legend
Rating: 60% based on 8 votes
Feminine form of
Emerentius. This name belonged to an early Christian martyr, and is also assigned to the mother of Saint Anna and grandmother of the Virgin Mary in some late 15th-century European traditions.
Émeraude
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Modern), French (Belgian, Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: EHM-RAWD(French, Belgian French)
Rating: 57% based on 9 votes
Derived from French émeraude "emerald".
Emerald
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: EHM-ə-rəld
Rating: 53% based on 9 votes
From the word for the green precious stone, which is the traditional birthstone of May. The emerald supposedly imparts love to the bearer. The word is ultimately from Greek
σμάραγδος (smaragdos).
Elyzée
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Norman
Rating: 56% based on 7 votes
Elysia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various
Pronounced: i-LIZ-ee-ə(English) i-LIS-ee-ə(English) i-LEE-zhə(English)
Rating: 68% based on 11 votes
From
Elysium, the name of the realm of the dead in Greek and Roman
mythology.
Elisanna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval French
Rating: 68% based on 9 votes
Of uncertain origin and meaning. A current theory considers the name a Romance construction made by truncating
Elizabeth arbitrarily to Elis-, and then augmenting with an arbitrary ending.
Elisabel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare), Spanish (Rare), Portuguese (Rare), French (Rare), Medieval Occitan
Rating: 65% based on 8 votes
Élisabeau
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare, Archaic)
Rating: 53% based on 6 votes
Elerrina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 61% based on 7 votes
Sindarin name invented by J.R.R. Tolkien; it is one of the names of the highest mountain in Arda (the Earth). It means: crowned with stars. The other name is Taniquetil. It is mentioned in 'Silmarillion'.
Electra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Ἠλέκτρα(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: i-LEHK-trə(English)
Rating: 53% based on 11 votes
Latinized form of Greek
Ἠλέκτρα (Elektra), derived from
ἤλεκτρον (elektron) meaning
"amber". In Greek
myth she was the daughter of
Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra and the sister of
Orestes. She helped her brother kill their mother and her lover Aegisthus in vengeance for Agamemnon's murder. Also in Greek mythology, this name was borne by one of the Pleiades, who were the daughters of
Atlas and
Pleione.
Eldalótë
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 42% based on 6 votes
Means "elven flower" in Quenya from elda meaning "elf" and lótë meaning "flower". It was used by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Eilonwy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 58% based on 11 votes
From Welsh eilon meaning "deer, stag" or "song, melody". This name was used by Lloyd Alexander in his book series The Chronicles of Prydain (1964-1968) as well as the Disney film adaptation The Black Cauldron (1985).
Égyptienne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Archaic), Malagasy (Rare), History (Ecclesiastical)
Pronounced: EH-ZHEEP-SYEHN(French) eh-zheep-syehn(Malagasy, History)
Rating: 42% based on 6 votes
Derived from French Égyptienne, the feminine form of the noun Égyptien "Egyptian (person)". This name is generally given in honour of the catholic and orthodox saint Marie l'Égyptienne (known in English as Mary of Egypt).
Egyptia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Obscure (Rare), Ancient Greek (Anglicized)
Rating: 20% based on 7 votes
From
Aegyptia, the Latinized form of Greek Αἰγυπτία
(Aigyptia) meaning "of Egypt". This may be used as a given name in reference to Saint Mary of Egypt, sometimes known as Maria Aegyptia. Also see
Égyptienne,
Aegyptius and
Egypt.
Églantine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: EH-GLAHN-TEEN
Rating: 65% based on 8 votes
Edelweiss
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various
Pronounced: AY-dəl-vies(English) EH-DEHL-VIES(French) EH-DEHL-VEHS(French) eh-dehl-VIES(Italian) EH-dehl-vies(Italian)
Rating: 63% based on 8 votes
From the name of the edelweiss flower (species Leontopodium alpinum). It is derived from the German elements edel "noble" and weiß "white." The name of the flower is spelled Edelweiß in German; Edelweiss is an Anglicized spelling.
Eclipse
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: i-KLIPS, ee-KLIPS
Rating: 32% based on 6 votes
From the English word eclipse (derived from Latin eclipsis, ultimately from the Greek verb ἐκλείπω (ekleipô) meaning "to fail", i.e. fail to appear); a solar eclipse is when the sun and moon are aligned exactly so that the moon casts a great shadow over the Earth; a lunar eclipse is when the moon is right in front of the sun, showing only a bright slither of light. It is rarely used as a given name, but is indeed used, as familysearch.org can verify. Kit Berry used it for a (male) character in her Stonewylde series of fantasy novels.
Dulcinea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: dool-thee-NEH-a(European Spanish) dool-see-NEH-a(Latin American Spanish) dul-si-NEE-ə(English)
Rating: 56% based on 9 votes
Derived from Spanish dulce meaning "sweet". This name was (first?) used by Miguel de Cervantes in his novel Don Quixote (1605), where it belongs to the love interest of the main character, though she never actually appears in the story.
Dulcibella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Archaic)
Rating: 58% based on 8 votes
From Latin
dulcis "sweet" and
bella "beautiful". The usual medieval spelling of this name was
Dowsabel, and the Latinized form
Dulcibella was revived in the 18th century.
Dulcia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish, Judeo-Catalan (Latinized), Gascon
Rating: 54% based on 7 votes
Latinized form of
Dulcie, used particularly in Iberian countries. As a Jewish name, Dulcia was occasionally used as a translation of
Naomi 1 in former times.
Dulcelina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval French (Latinized), Spanish (Latin American), Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian)
Rating: 63% based on 7 votes
Duklida
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Judeo-Christian-Islamic Legend, Medieval Russian, Spanish (Latin American)
Rating: 26% based on 5 votes
Druantia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture, Celtic Mythology
Pronounced: droo-AN-tee-ə, droo-AN-shə
Rating: 48% based on 5 votes
Hypothetic old Celtic form of the name of a river in the south of France commonly known as the Durance, which is of unknown meaning. An Indo-European root meaning "to flow" has been suggested. According to Robert Graves in 'The White Goddess' (1948), it is derived from the Indo-European root *deru meaning "oak" (as are the words druid and dryad) and probably also belonged to a Gallic tree goddess, which he identifies as "Queen of the Druids" and "Mother of the Tree Calendar". Graves' vision of the possible but unattested goddess has entered the popular imagination, and today many Neo-Pagans accept his Druantia as real.
Drousilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical Greek [1]
Other Scripts: Δρούσιλλα(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 40% based on 6 votes
Dracaena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: drə-SEE-nə
Rating: 40% based on 6 votes
From the name of a genus of about forty species of trees and succulent shrubs, which is the Latinized form of Greek δράκαινα
(drakaina) meaning "she-dragon", the feminine form of δράκων
(drakon) - compare
Drakon. In Greek mythology a drakaina is a female dragon, sometimes with human-like features; the mythological characters of
Ceto,
Lamia,
Echidna, and
Scylla were all considered drakaina.
Dolwethil
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: DOL-we-thil
Rating: 30% based on 5 votes
Means "dark shadow-woman" from Sindarin doll "dark, dusky, misty, obscure" combined with gwâth "shade, shadow, dim light" and the feminine suffix il. In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien this was another name of Thuringwethil, a vampire of Angband.
Dolceamori
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Judeo-Spanish (Archaic)
Pronounced: dol-cheh-ah-mo-ree
Rating: 34% based on 5 votes
Means "sweetheart" in Judeo-Spanish.
Discordia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: dees-KOR-dee-a(Latin)
Rating: 50% based on 6 votes
Means
"discord, strife" in Latin. This was the name of the Roman goddess of discord, equivalent to the Greek goddess
Eris.
Dionysia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek, Ancient Greek [1]
Other Scripts: Διονυσία(Greek)
Rating: 53% based on 7 votes
Diamante
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Judeo-Italian
Pronounced: dya-MAN-te(Italian)
Rating: 54% based on 7 votes
Directly from the Italian word diamante meaning "diamond".
Dezirinda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: deh-zee-REEN-da
Rating: 56% based on 8 votes
Means "desirable" in Esperanto.
Demetria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek [1], English
Other Scripts: Δημητρία(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 61% based on 9 votes
December
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: dis-EM-bər, DEE-səm-bər
Rating: 45% based on 6 votes
Derived from the Latin word decem, meaning "ten". December is the twelfth month on the Gregorian calendar. This name is used regularly in America, mostly on females.
Dandelion
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: DAN-de-lie-on
Rating: 54% based on 7 votes
The English name, Dandelion, is a corruption of the French dent de lion meaning "lion's tooth", referring to the coarsely toothed leaves. It is usually is used as a nickname.
Dalmatia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval French
Rating: 38% based on 6 votes
From Latin Dalmatia meaning "Dalmatian, of Dalmatia".
Cyrilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Rating: 66% based on 9 votes
Cyprianne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval French
Rating: 47% based on 6 votes
Cypress
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: American (Rare)
Pronounced: SIE-pris
Rating: 35% based on 6 votes
From the English word cypress, a group of coniferous trees. Ultimately from Greek kuparissos.
Crucificia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman, Italian, Spanish
Pronounced: kru-cheh-fee-sah(Italian)
Rating: 34% based on 5 votes
Earliest known usage stemmed from the mid 4th century in Rome, following the rule of Constantine. The meaning of the name is "Crucifixion."
Crimson
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare)
Rating: 42% based on 5 votes
From the English word for the purplish-red color. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, Kermes vermilio, but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red colors that are between red and rose.
The word came from Late Middle English cremesyn, which came from obsolete French cramoisin or Old Spanish cremesin, which by itself came from Arabic قِرْمِز (qirmiz), ultimately from Persian کرمست (kirmist), which came from Middle Persian; related to Proto-Indo-Iranian *kŕ̥miš. Cognate with Sanskrit कृमिज (kṛmija).
According to the USA Social Security Administration, 70 girls and 44 boys were named Crimson in 2016. Also in 2012, 59 girls and 32 boys in the USA were named Crimsion.
Cressida
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: KREHS-i-də(English)
Rating: 68% based on 11 votes
Form of
Criseida used by Shakespeare in his play
Troilus and Cressida (1602).
Crescentia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Rare), Late Roman
Rating: 68% based on 9 votes
Feminine form of
Crescentius.
Saint Crescentia was a 4th-century companion of Saint
Vitus. This is also the name of the eponymous heroine of a 12th-century German romance.
Cosmia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek (Latinized), Greek (Latinized, Rare), Spanish (Rare), Italian (Rare), English (Rare)
Other Scripts: Κοσμία(Greek)
Rating: 50% based on 7 votes
Latinized form of the Greek name Κοσμία (Kosmia), which meant "orderly, decent".
Corisande
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, Theatre, French (Rare), Dutch (Rare)
Rating: 58% based on 11 votes
Meaning uncertain, from the name of a character in medieval legend, possibly first recorded by Spanish writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. Perhaps it was derived from an older form of Spanish
corazón "heart" (e.g., Old Spanish
coraçon; ultimately from Latin
cor "heart", with the hypothetic Vulgar Latin root
*coratione,
*coraceone) or the Greek name
Chrysanthe. As a nickname it was used by a mistress of King Henry IV of France: Diane d'Andoins (1554-1620),
la Belle Corisande. Some usage may be generated by Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera
Amadis (1684; based on Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo), in which it belongs to the lover of the prince Florestan. The name was also used by Benjamin Disraeli for a character in his play
Lothair (1870).
Coriolana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian (Tuscan, Rare)
Rating: 60% based on 9 votes
Corinthia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Κορινθία(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 51% based on 9 votes
Latinized form of Greek
Κορινθία (Korinthia) meaning
"woman from Corinth", an ancient Greek city-state. This is the real name of Corrie in William Faulkner's novel
The Reivers (1962).
Coppélia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Theatre, French (Rare)
Rating: 54% based on 8 votes
The name of a life-sized mechanical doll created by the mysterious Doctor Coppélius in Léo Delibes' comic ballet
Coppélia (1870), based on two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann. The inventor's name is possibly a Latinized form of Yiddish
Koppel. Alternatively this name may be inspired by Greek κοπελιά
(kopelia) meaning "young woman", a dialectal variant of κοπέλα
(kopela).
Cleopatra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Κλεοπάτρα(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: klee-o-PAT-rə(English)
Rating: 54% based on 11 votes
From the Greek name
Κλεοπάτρα (Kleopatra) meaning
"glory of the father", derived from
κλέος (kleos) meaning "glory" combined with
πατήρ (pater) meaning "father" (genitive
πατρός). This was the name of queens of Egypt from the Ptolemaic royal family, including Cleopatra VII, the mistress of both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. After being defeated by Augustus she committed suicide (according to popular belief, by allowing herself to be bitten by a venomous asp). Shakespeare's tragedy
Antony and Cleopatra (1606) tells the story of her life.
Clarissant
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arthurian Cycle
Rating: 49% based on 7 votes
In Arthurian legends Clarissant was a daughter of King
Lot and
Morgause who married Sir
Guiromelant. She was the mother of
Guigenor. According to a single Arthurian romance she was the sister of
Gawain, who lived in a magic castle. In the same text,
Sir Percevelle,
Percival overcomes her lover Guiromelant. Nowhere else is Gawain said to have a sister.
Citrine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare), French
Pronounced: sit-REEN(English) SIT-reen(English) SIT-REEN(French)
Rating: 54% based on 9 votes
From the English word for a pale yellow variety of quartz that resembles topaz. From Old French
citrin, ultimately from Latin
citrus, "citron tree". It may also be related to the Yiddish
tsitrin, for "lemon tree."
It is one of the birthstones for November.
Cipressa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Judeo-Anglo-Norman
Rating: 48% based on 6 votes
Christabel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: KRIS-tə-behl
Rating: 60% based on 12 votes
Combination of
Christina and the name suffix
bel (inspired by Latin
bella "beautiful"). This name occurs in medieval literature, and was later used by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his 1816 poem
Christabel [1].
Chloris
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Χλωρίς(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 50% based on 10 votes
Derived from Greek
χλωρός (chloros) meaning
"pale green". Chloris, in Greek
mythology, was a minor goddess of vegetation.
Celestina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish, Italian
Pronounced: theh-lehs-TEE-na(European Spanish) seh-lehs-TEE-na(Latin American Spanish) cheh-leh-STEE-na(Italian)
Rating: 69% based on 11 votes
Celestia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: sə-LEHS-tee-ə
Rating: 62% based on 10 votes
Celebrant
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: KEL-ə-brant
Rating: 35% based on 8 votes
From J.R.R. Tolkien's artificial language known as Quenya . Means, "Silver lode " from the words Celeb meaning "silver" and rant meaning "river, lode". The name of the river that runs through Lórien.
Cayenne
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: kie-EHN, kay-EHN
Rating: 25% based on 10 votes
From Old Tupi quiínia meaning "hot pepper," referring to any of several very hot chilli peppers or a powder condiment or spice formed from these varieties.
Castille
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: French (Rare), Louisiana Creole, English
Rating: 29% based on 9 votes
Transferred use of the surname
Castille.
Castellana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Italian, Medieval Spanish, Medieval Catalan
Rating: 47% based on 9 votes
Directly taken from Latin castellana "a (female) castellan; a damsel" as well as "of or pertaining to a castle".
Cashmere
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: African American (Modern, Rare), Romani (Archaic), English
Rating: 26% based on 8 votes
From the English word, a type of fabric, ultimately borrowed from the Hindi कश्मीर (
kaśmīr) (See
Kashmir).
Cascade
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: kas-KAYD
Rating: 54% based on 9 votes
Derived from the English word for a waterfall, ultimately from Latin cadere "to fall".
Carnation
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare), Romani (Archaic)
Pronounced: kah-NAY-shən(British English) kahr-NAY-shən(American English)
Rating: 41% based on 9 votes
Derived from the flower of the same name; its etymology is uncertain. It has been suggested that it may ultimately come from English coronation (which in turn ultimately comes from Anglo-French coroner "to crown"). An other suggested possibility is Latin carn(e) or caro "flesh", because the original colour of the flower was said to be as red as flesh. Alternatively, it may be derived from Middle French carnation "person's color or complexion".
Carmilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 59% based on 9 votes
Used by Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu for the title character of his Gothic novella 'Carmilla' (1872), about a lesbian vampire. Le Fanu probably based the name on
Carmella.
Carenza
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Cornish
Rating: 60% based on 10 votes
Variant of
Kerensa, which has been 'used since the early 1970s, but more often in its variant form
Karenza' (Dunkling, 1983). However, the name also occurs in medieval France; it belonged to a woman who composed the last two stanzas of an Occitan poem that begins
Na Carenza al bel cors avinen, meaning "Lady Carenza of the lovely, gracious body".
Cambria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Rare)
Pronounced: KAM-bree-ə(English)
Rating: 50% based on 10 votes
Latin form of the Welsh Cymru, the Welsh name for the country of Wales, derived from cymry meaning "the people". It is occasionally used as a given name in modern times.
Caesaria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman, History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 32% based on 9 votes
Feminine form of
Caesarius. Caesaria of Arles (also called Caesaria the Elder, died c. 530), was a saint and abbess. She was born in a Gallo-Roman family and was trained at John Cassian's foundation in Marseilles.
Brixia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Celtic Mythology
Rating: 46% based on 8 votes
Brava
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: BRA-va
Rating: 34% based on 7 votes
Means "valiant, brave" in Esperanto.
Boadicea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Brythonic (Latinized)
Pronounced: bo-di-SEE-ə(English)
Rating: 52% based on 11 votes
Medieval variant of
Boudicca, possibly arising from a scribal error.
Blanchefleur
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval French, Dutch (Rare), Literature, Arthurian Cycle
Rating: 60% based on 10 votes
Means "white flower" in French. It is borne by a number of characters, who reflect purity and idealized beauty, in literature of the High Middle Ages, notably in the romances of Floris and Blanchefleur and Tristan and Iseult.
Blancaflor
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Occitan
Rating: 50% based on 9 votes
Björk
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Icelandic
Pronounced: PYUURK
Rating: 27% based on 9 votes
Means "birch tree" in Icelandic.
Béryle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Modern, Rare)
Rating: 45% based on 6 votes
Berlin
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Various
Pronounced: bər-LIN(American English) bə-LIN(British English) behr-LEEN(German)
Rating: 41% based on 9 votes
From the name of the city in Germany, which is of uncertain meaning.
Beatris
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Russian (Rare), Medieval Occitan, Medieval Spanish, Medieval Flemish, Czech (Rare), Breton, Provençal, Romansh, Portuguese (Brazilian)
Other Scripts: Беатрис(Russian)
Rating: 54% based on 11 votes
Russian, Breton, Provençal, medieval Spanish and medieval Occitan form of
Beatrix, a Czech and Romansh variant of that name and a Brazilian Portuguese variant of
Beatriz.
Basilissa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Swiss, Rare, Archaic), Romansh (Rare, Archaic), Italian (Rare), Portuguese (Rare)
Rating: 34% based on 8 votes
Banksia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Australian)
Pronounced: BANK-see-ə(Australian English)
Rating: 10% based on 7 votes
Banksia is an uncommon name deriving from the Native Australian plant that produces honeysuckle like flowers. The plant species were originally named after Sir Joseph Banks, who first collected its samples in 1770.
Baltis
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Semitic Mythology
Rating: 36% based on 10 votes
Etymology unknown. This was the name of an Arabian goddess associated with the planet Venus.
Azalaïs
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Occitan
Rating: 55% based on 10 votes
Auxiliatrix
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Dutch (Rare)
Rating: 38% based on 9 votes
Derived from Latin
auxiliatrix, which refers to a helper, aide or assistant of the female sex (the masculine equivalent is
auxiliator). The word is ultimately derived from the Latin noun
auxilium meaning "help, aid, assistance". Also see
Auxilius and
Auxiliadora. As a personal name, Auxiliatrix is usually bestowed on a newborn girl in honour of the Virgin Mary, since Auxiliatrix is one of her many epithets (sometimes she is even called Mary Auxiliatrix). But despite this significant religious connection, Auxiliatrix is extremely rare as a personal name. For example, in The Netherlands, there were less than 5 bearers with the name (in the entire country) in 2014.
Austra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Latvian
Rating: 61% based on 11 votes
Auriella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American)
Rating: 65% based on 11 votes
Auria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Roman, Medieval Basque, Basque, History
Rating: 65% based on 12 votes
Derived from Latin aurum "gold" and aureus "golden, gilded". Auria was an early consort of Pamplona.
Aurélienne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare), French (Belgian, Rare)
Rating: 68% based on 13 votes
Attracta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish, Medieval Irish (Latinized), History (Ecclesiastical)
Rating: 34% based on 8 votes
Latinized form of the Gaelic name Athracht, which is of uncertain meaning. The Latinization was perhaps influenced by attractus "attracted". This was the name of a 6th-century Irish saint who was known as a healer and miracle worker.
Atlantia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Rating: 46% based on 10 votes
A hamadryad (tree nymph) and the wife of
Danaus in Greek Mythology.
Astrée
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: French (Rare)
Rating: 62% based on 10 votes
Asteria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Ἀστερία(Ancient Greek)
Rating: 70% based on 12 votes
Asphodel
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: AS-fə-dehl
Rating: 59% based on 11 votes
From the name of the flower. J. R. R. Tolkien used this name on one of his characters in The Lord of the Rings.
Asmodina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Pronounced: as-mo-DEE-na
Rating: 56% based on 11 votes
A feminine form of
Asmodeus.
It is the name of a super-villain in the German formula fiction series 'Geisterjäger John Sinclair' "Demon Hunter John Sinclair".
Arthémisse
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Quebec, Rare)
Rating: 62% based on 11 votes
Arménouhie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Armenian (Gallicized)
Other Scripts: Արմէնուհի(Armenian)
Rating: 54% based on 11 votes
Gallicized transliteration of
Արմէնուհի (see
Armenuhi).
Arduinna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Celtic Mythology
Rating: 50% based on 11 votes
From the Gaulish arduo- meaning "height". Arduinna was a Celtic goddess of the Ardennes Forest and region, represented as a huntress riding a boar. The name Arduenna silva for "wooded heights" was applied to several forested mountains, not just the modern Ardennes.
Arcadia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish (Latin American)
Pronounced: ar-KA-dhya
Rating: 70% based on 14 votes
Feminine form of
Arcadius. This is the name of a region on the Greek Peloponnese, long idealized for its natural beauty.
Arabia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History
Other Scripts: Ἀραβία
Rating: 41% based on 13 votes
Arabia (fl. 565) was the only recorded daughter of Byzantine Emperor Justin II (r. 565–578) and Empress Sophia. While mentioned in several primary sources, her name is only recorded in the Patria of Constantinople. The name is generally accepted as genuine. It appears to be a unique personal name, and Arabia seems to have been named by her great aunt, Empress Theodora, as a show of gratitude to Arab phylarch Arethas.
Aquila
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Biblical, Ancient Roman
Pronounced: AK-wil-ə(English) ə-KWIL-ə(English)
Rating: 69% based on 14 votes
Aquarius
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Astronomy, English (Rare)
Pronounced: ə-KWEH-ri-əs(British English) ə-KWEHR-ee-əs(American English)
Rating: 42% based on 12 votes
Means "water-carrier" or "cup-carrier" in Latin. This is a constellation in the zodiac, between
Capricornus and
Pisces.
Anémone
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Quebec, Archaic), French (Rare)
Pronounced: A-NEH-MAWN(Quebec French, French)
Rating: 56% based on 12 votes
Derived from French anémone, referring to the anemone flower.
Ancilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German, German (Swiss), Dutch (Rare), Hungarian (Rare)
Rating: 50% based on 13 votes
Meaning uncertain. Its use is probably influenced by the Latin title
ancilla Dei meaning "handmaid of God".
In the German-speaking world, the use of Ancilla and Anzilla dates back to at least the 10th century. In 990 AD, the birth of a certain Anzilla von Lenzburg was documented in Switzerland. She was the daughter of Arnold I, Count von Lenzburg, the imperial reeve of Zurich.
In the Netherlands, a known bearer of this name is Ancilla van de Leest (b. 1985), a former model and television presenter who is now a politician on behalf of the Dutch Pirate Party.
Amoretta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: American (Rare), Theatre, Afro-American (Slavery-era)
Rating: 62% based on 13 votes
Latinate form of
Amoret, from Edmund Spenser's epic poem
The Faerie Queene (1590).
Amaryllida
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek (Rare)
Other Scripts: Αμαρυλλίδα(Greek)
Rating: 53% based on 14 votes
Greek variant of
Amaryllis, from the genitive form Αμαρυλλίδος
(Amaryllidos). This is also the Greek name for the amaryllis flower.
Allegria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Rare)
Rating: 58% based on 13 votes
Means "cheerfulness, joy" in Italian.
Ailinónë
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Rating: 49% based on 13 votes
From ailinon meaning "water lily" in Quenya, a language invented by Tolkien.
Agricola
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Ancient Roman, Italian (Rare)
Rating: 39% based on 13 votes
Means "farmer; grower" in Latin from
ager; agri meaning "field, land" combined with the verb
colere meaning "to cultivate; to grow".
Currently it is an Italian feminine adjective meaning "agricultural; farming; rural".
Aelia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Roman
Pronounced: IE-lee-a
Rating: 68% based on 14 votes
Adorinda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Esperanto
Pronounced: a-do-REEN-da
Rating: 59% based on 15 votes
Means "adorable" in Esperanto.
Adelissa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval Dutch, Spanish (Latin American, Rare)
Rating: 68% based on 14 votes
Adelinde
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German (Rare)
Pronounced: a-deh-LIN-də
Rating: 56% based on 15 votes
Abigaëlle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: A-BEE-GA-EHL
Rating: 59% based on 14 votes
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