namenymph's Personal Name List
Zipporah
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical, Hebrew
Other Scripts: צִפּוֹרָה(Hebrew)
Pronounced: zi-PAWR-ə(English) ZIP-ə-rə(English)
Zelda 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Yiddish
Other Scripts: זעלדאַ(Yiddish)
Possibly a feminine form of
Zelig.
Wynona
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: wi-NO-nə, wie-NO-nə
Wren
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: REHN
From the English word for the small songbird. It is ultimately derived from Old English wrenna.
Winter
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: WIN-tər
From the English word for the season, derived from Old English winter.
Winslet
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (British, Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: WIN-sleht(British English)
Winona
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Sioux
Pronounced: wi-NO-nə(English)
Means
"firstborn daughter" in Dakota or Lakota. According to folklore, this was the name of a daughter of a Dakota chief (possibly
Wapasha III) who leapt from a cliff to her death rather than marry a man she hated. Numerous places in the United States have been named after her. The actress Winona Ryder (1971-) was named after the city in Minnesota where she was born.
Winnie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: WIN-ee
Diminutive of
Winifred. Winnie-the-Pooh, a stuffed bear in children's books by A. A. Milne, was named after a real bear named
Winnipeg who lived at the London Zoo.
Windsor
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: WIN-zər
From an English surname that was from a place name meaning "riverbank with a windlass" in Old English (a windlass is a lifting apparatus). This has been the surname of the royal family of the United Kingdom since 1917.
Wilhelmina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Dutch, German (Rare), English
Pronounced: vil-hehl-MEE-na(Dutch, German) wil-ə-MEEN-ə(English) wil-hehl-MEEN-ə(English)
Dutch and German feminine form of
Wilhelm. This name was borne by a queen of the Netherlands (1880-1962).
Wilder
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
From an English surname meaning "wild, untamed, uncontrolled", from Old English wilde.
Wild
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Transferred use of the surname
Wild.
Whimsy
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (American)
Wendy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: WEHN-dee
In the case of the character from J. M. Barrie's play
Peter Pan (1904), it was created from the nickname
fwendy "friend", given to the author by a young friend. However, the name was used prior to the play (rarely), in which case it could be related to the Welsh name
Gwendolen and other names beginning with the element
gwen meaning "white, blessed". The name only became common after Barrie's play ran.
Wells
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: WELZ
From an English surname that originally denoted a person who lived near a well or spring, from Middle English wille.
Volkmar
Gender: Masculine
Usage: German
Pronounced: FAWLK-mar
Derived from the Old German element
folk "people" combined with
mari "famous".
Virginia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Greek, Ancient Roman
Other Scripts: Βιργινία(Greek)
Pronounced: vər-JIN-yə(English) veer-JEE-nya(Italian) beer-KHEE-nya(Spanish)
Feminine form of the Roman family name
Verginius or
Virginius, which is of unknown meaning, but long associated with Latin
virgo "maid, virgin". According to a legend, it was the name of a Roman woman killed by her father so as to save her from the clutches of a crooked official.
This was the name of the first English baby born in the New World: Virginia Dare in 1587 on Roanoke Island. Perhaps because of this, the name has generally been more popular in America than elsewhere in the English-speaking world, though in both Britain and America it was not often used until the 19th century. The baby was named after the Colony of Virginia, which was itself named for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen. A more recent bearer was the English novelist Virginia Woolf (1882-1941).
Violet
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: VIE-lit, VIE-ə-lit
From the English word violet for the purple flower, ultimately derived from Latin viola. It was common in Scotland from the 16th century, and it came into general use as an English given name during the 19th century.
Viola
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak
Pronounced: vie-O-lə(English) vi-O-lə(English) VIE-ə-lə(English) VYAW-la(Italian) vi-OO-la(Swedish) VEE-o-la(German) vee-O-la(German) VEE-o-law(Hungarian) VI-o-la(Czech) VEE-aw-la(Slovak)
Means
"violet" in Latin. This is the name of the heroine of William Shakespeare's comedy
Twelfth Night (1602). In the play she is the survivor of a shipwreck who disguises herself as a man named Cesario. Working as a messenger for Duke
Orsino, she attempts to convince
Olivia to marry him. Instead Viola falls in love with the duke.
Vincent
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Slovak
Pronounced: VIN-sənt(English, Dutch) VEHN-SAHN(French) VIN-sent(Dutch) VEEN-tsent(Slovak)
From the Roman name
Vincentius, which was derived from Latin
vincere meaning
"to conquer". This name was popular among early Christians, and it was borne by many
saints. As an English name,
Vincent has been in use since the Middle Ages, though it did not become common until the 19th century. Famous bearers include the French priest Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) and the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).
Victoria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Spanish, Romanian, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, French, Late Roman, Roman Mythology
Pronounced: vik-TAWR-ee-ə(English) beek-TO-rya(Spanish) vik-TO-rya(German) VEEK-TAW-RYA(French) week-TO-ree-a(Latin)
Means
"victory" in Latin, being borne by the Roman goddess of victory. It is also a feminine form of
Victorius. This name was borne by a 4th-century
saint and martyr from North Africa.
Though in use elsewhere in Europe, the name was very rare in the English-speaking world until the 19th century, when Queen Victoria began her long rule of Britain. She was named after her mother, who was of German royalty. Many geographic areas are named after the queen, including an Australian state and a Canadian city.
Vesperina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare, Archaic)
Verbena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Rare)
Pronounced: vər-BEEN-ə(English)
From the name of the verbena plant, which is derived from Latin verbena meaning "leaves, twigs".
Vera 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Russian, English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Slovene, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Belarusian, Georgian
Other Scripts: Вера(Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Belarusian) ვერა(Georgian)
Pronounced: VYEH-rə(Russian) VEE-rə(English) VEHR-ə(English) VEH-ra(German, Dutch) VEH-rah(Swedish) BEH-ra(Spanish) VEH-raw(Hungarian)
Means "faith" in Russian, though it is sometimes associated with the Latin word verus "true". It has been in general use in the English-speaking world since the late 19th century.
Venus
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: WEH-noos(Latin) VEE-nəs(English)
Means
"love, sexual desire" in Latin. This was the name of the Roman goddess of love and sex. Her character was assimilated with that of the Greek goddess
Aphrodite. As the mother of
Aeneas she was considered an ancestor of the Roman people. The second planet from the sun is named after her.
Vanity
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American)
Pronounced: VAN-ə-tee(American English)
From the English word vanity. This name surged in 1983 coinciding with the revival of the magazine 'Vanity Fair'.
Vanilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: və-NIL-ə
From the English word vanilla referring to "the fruit or bean of the vanilla plant, or the extract made from it, or the distinctive fragrant flavour/flavor characteristic of vanilla extract". The word is derived from Spanish vainilla, literally "little pod", a diminutive form of vaina "pod, scabbard, sheath", from Latin vagina "sheath (of an ear of grain), husk, hull of a plant".
Vanellope
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture, English (Rare)
Pronounced: van-el-OH-pee
Coined in the Disney animated film 'Wreck-It Ralph' (2013), telling the story of the eponymous arcade game villain who rebels against his role and dreams of becoming a hero. He travels between games in the arcade and eventually meets Vanellope von Schweetz (the second protagonist), a glitchy character from the in-universe video game 'Sugar Rush', a candy themed kart-racing game. Her name is a combination of
Vanilla and
Penelope.
Ulysses
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Roman Mythology, English
Pronounced: yoo-LI-seez(Latin) yoo-LIS-eez(American English) YOOL-i-seez(British English)
Latin form of
Odysseus. It was borne by Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), the commander of the Union forces during the American Civil War, who went on to become an American president. Irish author James Joyce used it as the title of his book
Ulysses (1922), which loosely parallels
Homer's epic the
Odyssey.
Tully
Gender: Masculine
Usage: History
Pronounced: TUL-ee(English)
Form of
Tullius (see
Tullio) used to refer to the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Tullie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare)
Tulip
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: TOO-lip, TYOO-lip
From the name of the flower. Ultimately from Persian
dulband, "turban", from the shape of the opened flower.
As a given name, it has been occasionally used from the 19th century onwards.
Tootsie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Tiabeanie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
Tiabeanie Mariabeanie de la Rochambeau Grunkwitz, also known as Princess Bean, is the main character of the adult animated fantasy television series Disenchantment.
Thomasin
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare, Archaic), Cornish (Archaic)
English vernacular form of
Thomasina. This was one of the most popular English girls' names in the 16th century. It was used by Thomas Hardy for a character in his novel
The Return of the Native (1878).
Therese
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, English
Pronounced: teh-REH-zə(German) teh-REHS(Swedish) tə-REES(English)
German and Scandinavian variant of
Theresa.
Tallulah
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: tə-LOO-lə
This is the name of waterfalls in Georgia. Popularly claimed to mean "leaping waters" in the Choctaw language, it may actually mean "town" in the Creek language. It was borne by American actress Tallulah Bankhead (1902-1968), who was named after her grandmother, who may have been named after the waterfalls.
Talitha-Cumi
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Puritan)
Means "little girl arise" in Aramaic, from the phrase spoken by Jesus in Mark 5:41 in order to restore a young girl to life (see also
Talitha,
Cumi).
Talitha
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical
Pronounced: TAL-i-thə(English) tə-LEE-thə(English)
Means
"little girl" in Aramaic. The name is taken from the phrase
talitha cumi meaning "little girl arise" spoken by
Jesus in order to restore a young girl to life (see
Mark 5:41).
Sylvine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, French (Belgian)
Sylvie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, Czech
Pronounced: SEEL-VEE(French) SIL-vi-yeh(Czech)
French and Czech form of
Silvia.
Sybilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Polish, Late Roman
Pronounced: si-BEEL-la(Polish)
Polish form and Latin variant of
Sibylla.
Sybil
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: SIB-əl
Variant of
Sibyl. This spelling variation has existed since the Middle Ages.
Suzette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: SUY-ZEHT
Susan
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: SOO-zən
English variant of
Susanna. This has been most common spelling since the 18th century. It was especially popular both in the United States and the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1960s. A notable bearer was the American feminist Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906).
Sue
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: SOO
Sterling
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: STUR-ling
From a Scots surname that was derived from city of Stirling, which is itself of unknown meaning. The name can also be given in reference to the English word sterling meaning "excellent". In this case, the word derives from sterling silver, which was so named because of the emblem that some Norman coins bore, from Old English meaning "little star".
Starling
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: STAHR-ling
From the
English word for the type of bird. It is commonly associated with the name
Star.
It is the original name of children's illustrator Tasha Tudor.
Starlett
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: star lett
Stargazer
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Rare)
From the English word stargazer "one who stargazes" or "a daydreamer".
Star
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: STAHR
From the English word for the celestial body, ultimately from Old English steorra.
Song
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Chinese
Other Scripts: 嵩, 松, 颂, 宋(Chinese)
Derived from the Chinese character 嵩 (
sōng) meaning "highty; lofty (literarian term referred to a mountain)" or 松 (
sōng) meaning "pine tree" or 颂 (
sòng) meaning "to acclaim; hymn; ode". More often used as a surname is 宋 (
sòng) that was the name of the Imperial Dynasty reigning in China in years 960-1279 AC.
Other characters combinations are also possible.
Sloane
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: SLON
From an Irish surname, an Anglicized form of
Ó Sluaghadháin, itself derived from the given name
Sluaghadhán.
Sloan
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: SLON
Siuan
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: swahn, swan
Siuan Sanche is a character of the Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan
Siobhán
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish
Pronounced: SHI-wan, SHUW-wan, SHI-van, shə-VAN
Irish form of
Jehanne, a Norman French variant of
Jeanne.
Simon 1
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, Dutch, Hungarian, Slovene, Romanian, Macedonian, Georgian, Biblical, Biblical Latin, Biblical Greek [1]
Other Scripts: Симон(Macedonian) სიმონ(Georgian) Σίμων(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: SIE-mən(English) SEE-MAWN(French) SEE-mawn(Danish, Dutch, Macedonian) ZEE-mawn(German) SHEE-mon(Hungarian)
From
Σίμων (Simon), the
New Testament Greek form of the Hebrew name
שִׁםְעוֹן (Shimʿon) meaning
"hearing, listening", derived from
שָׁמַע (shamaʿ) meaning "to hear, to listen". This name is spelled
Simeon, based on Greek
Συμεών, in many translations of the
Old Testament, where it is borne by the second son of
Jacob. The New Testament spelling may show influence from the otherwise unrelated Greek name
Simon 2.
In the New Testament Simon is the name of several characters, including the man who carried the cross for Jesus. Most importantly however it was borne by the leading apostle Simon, also known as Peter (a name given to him by Jesus).
Because of the apostle, this name has been common in the Christian world. In England it was popular during the Middle Ages, though it became more rare after the Protestant Reformation.
Sigmund
Gender: Masculine
Usage: German, Norwegian, English, Norse Mythology
Pronounced: ZEEK-muwnt(German) SIG-mənd(English)
Derived from the Old German elements
sigu "victory" and
munt "protection" (or in the case of the Scandinavian
cognate, from Old Norse
sigr and
mundr). An early variant of this name was
Sigismund, borne by a 6th-century
saint and king of the Burgundians. In the Norse
Völsungasaga Sigmund is the hero
Sigurd's father, the bearer of the powerful sword Gram. A notable bearer was the Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the creator of the revolutionary theory of psychoanalysis.
Sibylla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Late Roman, German
Other Scripts: Σίβυλλα(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: zee-BI-la(German)
Sibyl
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: SIB-əl
From Greek
Σίβυλλα (Sibylla), meaning
"prophetess, sibyl". In Greek and Roman legend the sibyls were female prophets who practiced at different holy sites in the ancient world. In later Christian theology, the sibyls were thought to have divine knowledge and were revered in much the same way as the
Old Testament prophets. Because of this, the name came into general use in the Christian world during the Middle Ages. The
Normans imported it to England, where it was spelled both
Sibyl and
Sybil. It became rare after the
Protestant Reformation, but it was revived in the 19th century, perhaps helped by Benjamin Disraeli's novel
Sybil (1845).
Sibeth
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (African, Rare)
Sibeth Ndiaye was appointed as spokesman of the French government in 2019.
Sibella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare), German (Bessarabian), Romani (Archaic)
Shea
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Irish
Pronounced: SHAY(English)
Anglicized form of
Séaghdha, sometimes used as a feminine name.
Shae
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: SHAY
Seren
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh
Pronounced: SEH-rehn
Means "star" in Welsh. This is a recently created Welsh name.
Serafina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Rare)
Pronounced: seh-ra-FEE-na(Italian, Spanish)
Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of
Seraphina.
Selene
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Σελήνη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: SEH-LEH-NEH(Classical Greek) si-LEE-nee(English) si-LEEN(English)
Means
"moon" in Greek. This was the name of a Greek goddess of the moon, a Titan. She was sometimes identified with the goddess
Artemis.
Scarlett
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: SKAHR-lit
From an English surname that denoted a person who sold or made clothes made of scarlet (a kind of cloth, possibly derived from Persian
سقرلاط (saqrelāṭ)). Margaret Mitchell used it for the main character, Scarlett O'Hara, in her novel
Gone with the Wind (1936). Her name is explained as having come from her grandmother. Despite the fact that the book was adapted into a popular movie in 1939, the name was not common until the 21st century. It started rising around 2003, about the time that the career of American actress Scarlett Johansson (1984-) started taking off.
Sarah
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French, German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Hebrew, Arabic, Biblical
Other Scripts: שָׂרָה(Hebrew) سارة(Arabic)
Pronounced: SEHR-ə(English) SAR-ə(English) SA-RA(French) ZA-ra(German) SA-ra(Danish, Dutch, Arabic)
From the Hebrew name
שָׂרָה (Sara) meaning
"lady, princess, noblewoman". In the
Old Testament this is the name of
Abraham's wife, considered the matriarch of the Jewish people. She was barren until she unexpectedly became pregnant with
Isaac at the age of 90. Her name was originally
Sarai, but God changed it at the same time Abraham's name was changed (see
Genesis 17:15).
In England, Sarah came into use after the Protestant Reformation. It was consistently popular in the 20th century throughout the English-speaking world, reaching the top of the charts for England and Wales in the 1970s and 80s.
Notable bearers include Sarah Churchill (1660-1744), an influential British duchess and a close friend of Queen Anne, and the French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923).
Saoirse
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish
Pronounced: SEER-shə
Means "freedom" in Irish Gaelic. It was first used as a given name in the 20th century.
Salem 1
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Arabic
Other Scripts: سالم(Arabic)
Pronounced: SA-leem
Alternate transcription of Arabic
سالم (see
Salim).
Sal
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: SAL
Short form of
Sally,
Salvador and other names beginning with
Sal.
Sakura
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Japanese
Other Scripts: 桜, 咲良, etc.(Japanese Kanji) さくら(Japanese Hiragana)
Pronounced: SA-KOO-RA
From Japanese
桜 (sakura) meaning "cherry blossom", though it is often written using the hiragana writing system. It can also come from
咲 (saku) meaning "blossom" and
良 (ra) meaning "good, virtuous, respectable" as well as other kanji combinations.
Sailor
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: SAY-lər
Transferred use of the surname
Sailor or directly from the English vocabulary word
sailor, denoting one who works on a ship.
Sage
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: SAYJ
From the English word sage, which denotes either a type of spice or else a wise person.
Safina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Indian, Malaysian
Sadie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: SAY-dee
Sabrina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Pronounced: sə-BREEN-ə(English) sa-BREE-na(Italian, Spanish) za-BREE-na(German) SA-BREE-NA(French) su-BREE-nu(European Portuguese) sa-BREE-nu(Brazilian Portuguese)
Latinized form of
Habren, the original Welsh name of the River Severn. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Sabrina was the name of a princess who was drowned in the Severn. Supposedly the river was named for her, but it is more likely that her name was actually derived from that of the river, which is of unknown meaning. She appears as a water nymph in John Milton's masque
Comus (1634).
The name was brought to public attention by Samuel A. Taylor's play Sabrina Fair (1953) and the movie adaptation Sabrina that followed it the next year. This is also the name of a comic book character, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, first introduced 1962 and with television adaptations in 1970-1974 and 1996-2003, both causing minor jumps in popularity. Another jump occurred in 1976, when it was used for a main character on the television series Charlie's Angels.
Sabine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, German, Dutch, Danish
Pronounced: SA-BEEN(French) za-BEE-nə(German) sa-BEE-nə(Dutch)
French, German, Dutch and Danish form of
Sabina.
Saanvi
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Indian, Hinduism
Other Scripts: सानवी, सान्वी(Hindi, Sanskrit)
Believed to be another name for the Hindu goddess
Lakshmi, though its ultimate meaning and origin are uncertain. It may be from Sanskrit सा
(sa) referring to Lakshmi combined with अन्वि
(anvi) meaning "follow, pursue, go after" or from सानु
(sanu) meaning "peak, summit, ridge".
Ruth 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Estonian, Spanish, Biblical, Biblical Latin
Other Scripts: רוּת(Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: ROOTH(English) ROOT(German, Spanish)
From the Hebrew name
רוּת (Ruṯ), probably derived from the word
רְעוּת (reʿuṯ) meaning
"female friend". This is the name of the central character in the Book of Ruth in the
Old Testament. She was a Moabite woman who accompanied her mother-in-law
Naomi back to Bethlehem after Ruth's husband died. There she met and married
Boaz. She was an ancestor of King
David.
As a Christian name, Ruth has been in use since the Protestant Reformation. In England it was associated with the archaic word ruth meaning "pity, compassion" (now only commonly seen in the word ruthless). The name became very popular in America following the birth of "Baby" Ruth Cleveland (1891-1904), the daughter of President Grover Cleveland.
Ruby
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ROO-bee
Simply from the name of the precious stone (which ultimately derives from Latin
ruber "red"), which is the traditional birthstone of July. It came into use as a given name in the 16th century
[1].
Rowena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ro-EEN-ə
Meaning uncertain. According to the 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth, this was the name of a daughter of the Saxon chief Hengist. It is possible (but unsupported) that Geoffrey based it on the Old English elements
hroð "fame" and
wynn "joy", or alternatively on the Old Welsh elements
ron "spear" and
gwen "white". It was popularized by Walter Scott, who used it for a character in his novel
Ivanhoe (1819).
Rosie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: RO-zee
Rosemary
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ROZ-mə-ree, ROZ-mehr-ee
Combination of
Rose and
Mary. This name can also be given in reference to the herb, which gets its name from Latin
ros marinus meaning "dew of the sea". It came into use as a given name in the 19th century.
Roselda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Archaic), French (Quebec, Archaic)
Rose
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French
Pronounced: ROZ
Originally a Norman French form of the Germanic name
Hrodohaidis meaning
"famous type", composed of the elements
hruod "fame" and
heit "kind, sort, type". The
Normans introduced it to England in the forms
Roese and
Rohese. From an early date it was associated with the word for the fragrant flower
rose (derived from Latin
rosa). When the name was revived in the 19th century, it was probably with the flower in mind.
Rosamund
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: RO-zə-mənd, RAHZ-ə-mənd
Derived from the Old German elements
hros "horse" and
munt "protection". This name was borne by the wife of the Lombard king Alboin in the 6th century. The
Normans introduced it to England. It was subsequently interpreted as coming from Latin
rosa munda "pure rose" or
rosa mundi "rose of the world". This was the name of the mistress of Henry II, the king of England in the 12th century. According to legends she was murdered by his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Rosaline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: RO-zə-leen, RAHZ-ə-lin, RAHZ-ə-lien
Medieval variant of
Rosalind. This is the name of characters in Shakespeare's
Love's Labour's Lost (1594) and
Romeo and Juliet (1596).
Rosalind
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: RAHZ-ə-lind
Derived from the Old German elements
hros meaning "horse" and
lind meaning "soft, flexible, tender". The
Normans introduced this name to England, though it was not common. During the Middle Ages its spelling was influenced by the Latin phrase
rosa linda "beautiful rose". The name was popularized by Edmund Spencer, who used it in his poetry, and by William Shakespeare, who used it for the heroine in his comedy
As You Like It (1599).
Rosalina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Portuguese, Spanish
Pronounced: raw-zu-LEE-nu(European Portuguese) ho-za-LEE-nu(Brazilian Portuguese) ro-sa-LEE-na(Spanish)
Rosalia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Late Roman
Pronounced: ro-za-LEE-a(Italian)
Late Latin name derived from
rosa "rose". This was the name of a 12th-century Sicilian
saint.
Rosalba
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian
Italian name meaning
"white rose", derived from Latin
rosa "rose" and
alba "white". A famous bearer was the Venetian painter Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757).
Rosabel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: RO-zə-behl
Combination of
Rosa 1 and the common name suffix
bel, inspired by Latin
bella "beautiful". This name was created in the 18th century.
Romilia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Roman
Rockwell
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: RAHK-wel
Transferred use of the surnaem
Rockwell. A notable bearer of this name was Rockwell Kent, an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, and writer.
Rillie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American)
Pronounced: RIL-ee(American English)
Reverie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: REHV-ə-ree
From the English word meaning "daydream, fanciful musing", derived from Old French resverie, itself from resver meaning "to dream, to rave".
Renesmae
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare)
Pronounced: rə-NEZ-may
Reign
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: RAYN
From the English word reign, derived from Latin regnum "royal power".
Rapunzel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: rə-PUN-zəl(English)
From the name of an edible plant. It is borne by a long-haired young woman locked in a tower in an 1812 German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm. An evil sorceress gave her the name after she was taken as a baby from her parents, who had stolen the rapunzel plant from the sorceress's garden. The Grimms adapted the story from earlier tales (which used various names for the heroine).
Rain 1
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: RAYN
Simply from the English word rain, derived from Old English regn.
Quasimodo
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Literature
From the name of the Sunday that follows Easter, called Quasimodo Sunday, which gets its name from the opening words of the Latin chant
quasi modo (geniti infantes...) meaning
"like the way (that newborn infants do...)". It was used by Victor Hugo for his novel
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), in which Quasimodo is a hunchbacked bellringer at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He was named thus by Archdeacon Frollo because he was abandoned as a baby at the cathedral on Quasimodo Sunday, though Hugo states that Frollo may have been inspired by the alternate meaning for
quasi "almost", referring to the almost-complete appearance of the foundling
[1].
Promise
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (African)
Pronounced: PRAHM-is
From the English word promise, from Latin promissum. It is currently most common in parts of English-influenced Africa.
Priscilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, French, Ancient Roman, Biblical Latin, Biblical
Pronounced: pri-SIL-ə(English) preesh-SHEEL-la(Italian)
Prairie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: American (Rare)
From the English word for a flat treeless grassland, taken from French prairie "meadow". This was used by Thomas Pynchon for a character in his novel 'Vineland' (1990).
Portia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: PAWR-shə
Variant of
Porcia, the feminine form of the Roman family name
Porcius, used by William Shakespeare for the heroine of his play
The Merchant of Venice (1596). In the play Portia is a woman who disguises herself as a man in order to defend
Antonio in court. It is also the name of a moon of Uranus, after the Shakespearean character.
Poppy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: PAHP-ee
From the word for the red flower, derived from Old English popæg.
Polly
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: PAHL-ee
Medieval variant of
Molly. The reason for the change in the initial consonant is unknown.
Poet
Gender: Masculine
Usage: East Frisian (Archaic)
As an East Frisian name, Poet is a short form of names containing the element
boto "messenger", for example
Boeterich.
This name was in use as a strictly masculine name during the 1700s and 1800s.
Plum
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: PLUM
From Middle English ploume, from Old English plume "plum, plum tree," from an early Germanic borrowing (Middle Dutch prume, Dutch pruim, Old High German pfluma, pfruma, German Pflaume) from Vulgar Latin *pruna, from Latin prunum "plum," from Greek prounon, a later form of proumnon, a word of unknown origin, which is probably, like the tree itself, of Anatolian origin.
Phaedra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Φαίδρα(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: FEED-rə(English) FEHD-rə(English)
From the Greek
Φαίδρα (Phaidra), derived from
φαιδρός (phaidros) meaning
"bright". Phaedra was the daughter of Minos and the wife of
Theseus in Greek
mythology.
Aphrodite caused her to fall in love with her stepson
Hippolytos, and after she was rejected by him she killed herself.
Peyton
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: PAY-tən
From an English surname, originally a place name meaning
"Pæga's town". This was a rare masculine name until the 1990s. In 1992 it was used for a female character in the movie
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and, despite the fact that it was borne by the villain, the name began to rise in popularity for girls as well as boys
[1].
Famous bearers include Peyton Randolph (1721-1775), the first president of the Continental Congress, and American football quarterback Peyton Manning (1976-).
Petronella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Dutch, Swedish, Hungarian
Pronounced: peh-tro-NEH-la(Dutch) PEH-tro-nehl-law(Hungarian)
Petal
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: PEHT-əl
From the English word for the flower part, derived from Greek
πέταλον (petalon) meaning "leaf".
Perseus
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Περσεύς(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: PEHR-SEWS(Classical Greek) PUR-see-əs(English)
Possibly derived from Greek
πέρθω (pertho) meaning
"to destroy". In Greek
mythology Perseus was a hero who was said to have founded the ancient city of Mycenae. He was the son of
Zeus and
Danaë. Mother and child were exiled by Danaë's father Acrisius, and Perseus was raised on the island of Seriphos. The king of the island compelled Perseus to kill the Gorgon
Medusa, who was so ugly that anyone who gazed upon her was turned to stone. After obtaining winged sandals and other tools from the gods, he succeeded in his task by looking at Medusa in the reflection of his shield and slaying her in her sleep. On his return he defeated a sea monster in order to save
Andromeda, who became his wife.
Peony
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: PEE-ə-nee
From the English word for the type of flower. It was originally believed to have healing qualities, so it was named after the Greek medical god Pæon.
Penelope
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology, English
Other Scripts: Πηνελόπη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: PEH-NEH-LO-PEH(Classical Greek) pə-NEHL-ə-pee(English)
Probably derived from Greek
πηνέλοψ (penelops), a type of duck. Alternatively it could be from
πήνη (pene) meaning "threads, weft" and
ὄψ (ops) meaning "face, eye". In
Homer's epic the
Odyssey this is the name of the wife of
Odysseus, forced to fend off suitors while her husband is away fighting at Troy.
It has occasionally been used as an English given name since the 16th century. It was moderately popular in the 1940s, but had a more notable upswing in the early 2000s. This may have been inspired by the Spanish actress Penélope Cruz (1974-), who gained prominence in English-language movies at that time. It was already rapidly rising when celebrities Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick gave it to their baby daughter in 2012.
Pearl
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: PURL
From the English word pearl for the concretions formed in the shells of some mollusks, ultimately from Late Latin perla. Like other gemstone names, it has been used as a given name in the English-speaking world since the 19th century. The pearl is the traditional birthstone for June, and it supposedly imparts health and wealth.
Peach
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern), Popular Culture
Pronounced: peech
Derived from the name of the fruit, which itself derived its name from Late Latin persica, which came from older Latin malum persicum meaning "Persian fruit." In popular culture, this is the name of the Nintendo video game character Princess Peach, whom Mario often rescues from the evil Bowser.
Parthenope
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Παρθενόπη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: pahr-THEHN-ə-pee(English)
Means
"maiden's voice", derived from Greek
παρθένος (parthenos) meaning "maiden, virgin" and
ὄψ (ops) meaning "voice". In Greek legend this is the name of one of the Sirens who enticed
Odysseus.
Paisley
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: PAYZ-lee
From a Scots surname, originally from the name of a town near Glasgow, maybe ultimately derived from Latin basilica "church". This is also a word (derived from the name of that same town) for a type of pattern commonly found on fabrics.
Paisleigh
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Modern)
Pronounced: PAY-zlee(American English)
Paislee
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: PAYZ-lee
Ottilie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German
Pronounced: aw-TEE-lyə
Orla 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish
Pronounced: AWR-lə(English)
Ophelia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Literature, Ancient Greek [1]
Other Scripts: Ὠφελία(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: o-FEEL-ee-ə(English) o-FEEL-yə(English)
Derived from Greek
ὠφέλεια (opheleia) meaning
"help, advantage". This was a rare ancient Greek name, which was either rediscovered or recreated by the poet Jacopo Sannazaro for a character in his poem
Arcadia (1480). It was borrowed by Shakespeare for his play
Hamlet (1600), in which it belongs to the daughter of
Polonius and the potential love interest of
Hamlet. She eventually goes insane and drowns herself after Hamlet kills her father. In spite of this negative association, the name has been in use since the 19th century.
Opal
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: O-pəl
From the English word
opal for the iridescent gemstone, the birthstone of October. The word ultimately derives from Sanskrit
उपल (upala) meaning "jewel".
Olive
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French
Pronounced: AHL-iv(English) AW-LEEV(French)
From the English and French word for the type of tree, ultimately derived from Latin oliva.
Odette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: AW-DEHT
French
diminutive of
Oda or
Odilia. This is the name of a princess who has been transformed into a swan in the ballet
Swan Lake (1877) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Norene
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: naw-REEN
Nightingale
Nickname for someone with a good voice from Middle English nightegale "nightingale" (Old English nihtegale, ultimately from niht "night" and galan "to sing").
Nicholas
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: NIK-ə-ləs, NIK-ləs
From the Greek name
Νικόλαος (Nikolaos) meaning
"victory of the people", derived from Greek
νίκη (nike) meaning "victory" and
λαός (laos) meaning "people".
Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century bishop from Anatolia who, according to legend, saved the daughters of a poor man from lives of prostitution. He is the patron saint of children, sailors and merchants, as well as Greece and Russia. He formed the basis for the figure known as Santa Claus (created in the 19th century from Dutch
Sinterklaas), the bringer of Christmas presents.
Due to the renown of the saint, this name has been widely used in the Christian world. It has been common in England since the 12th century, though it became a bit less popular after the Protestant Reformation. The name has been borne by five popes and two tsars of Russia.
Nia 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh
Pronounced: NEE-a
Welsh form of
Niamh. The Welsh poet T. Gwynn Jones used it in his long poem
Tir na n-Óg (1916), referring to the lover of
Oisín.
Nellie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Swedish
Pronounced: NEHL-ee(English) NEH-li(Swedish)
Nell
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: NEHL
Medieval
diminutive of names beginning with
El, such as
Eleanor,
Ellen 1 or
Helen. It may have arisen from the medieval affectionate phrase
mine El, which was later reinterpreted as
my Nel.
Navy
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: NAY-vee
From the English word meaning "sea force, fleet, armed forces of the sea". It is derived from Old French navie, from Latin navigia, the plural of navigium "boat, vessel". It also refers to a shade of dark blue, a colour traditionally associated with naval uniforms.
Moses
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, Jewish, Biblical, Biblical Latin
Other Scripts: מֹשֶׁה(Hebrew)
Pronounced: MOZ-is(English)
From the Hebrew name
מֹשֶׁה (Moshe), which is most likely derived from Egyptian
mes meaning
"son". The meaning suggested in the
Old Testament of
"drew out" from Hebrew
מָשָׁה (masha) is probably an invented etymology (see
Exodus 2:10).
The biblical Moses was drawn out of the Nile by the pharaoh's daughter and adopted into the royal family, at a time when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. With his brother Aaron he demanded the pharaoh release the Israelites, which was only done after God sent ten plagues upon Egypt. Moses led the people across the Red Sea and to Mount Sinai, where he received the Ten Commandments from God. After 40 years of wandering in the desert the people reached Canaan, the Promised Land, but Moses died just before entering it.
In England, this name has been commonly used by Christians since the Protestant Reformation, though it had long been popular among Jews.
Mint
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare), Dutch
Pronounced: MINT(English)
Minnie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MIN-ee
Diminutive of
Wilhelmina. This name was used by Walt Disney for the cartoon character Minnie Mouse, introduced 1928.
Minkie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Mina 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Dutch
Pronounced: MEE-nə(English) MEE-na(Dutch)
Short form of
Wilhelmina and other names ending in
mina. This was the name of a character in the novel
Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker.
Mimsy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Miles
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MIELZ
From the Germanic name
Milo, introduced by the
Normans to England in the form
Miles. The meaning is not known for certain. It is possibly connected to the Slavic name element
milŭ meaning
"gracious, dear". From an early date it was associated with Latin
miles meaning
"soldier".
A notable bearer was the American musician Miles Davis (1926-1991). In Scotland this name was historically used to Anglicize Maoilios.
Midnight
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Obscure (Modern)
From Middle English midnight (also as middelniȝte), from Old English midniht, middeniht, middeneaht, (also as midderneaht and middelniht), from Proto-Germanic *midjanahts, equivalent to mid- + night.
Melody
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MEHL-ə-dee
From the English word
melody, which is derived (via Old French and Late Latin) from Greek
μέλος (melos) meaning "song" combined with
ἀείδω (aeido) meaning "to sing".
Melanie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, German, Dutch
Pronounced: MEHL-ə-nee(English) MEH-la-nee(German) meh-la-NEE(German)
From
Mélanie, the French form of the Latin name
Melania, derived from Greek
μέλαινα (melaina) meaning
"black, dark". This was the name of a Roman
saint who gave all her wealth to charity in the 5th century. Her grandmother was also a saint with the same name.
The name was common in France during the Middle Ages, and was introduced from there to England, though it eventually became rare. Interest in it was revived by the character Melanie Wilkes from the novel Gone with the Wind (1936) and the subsequent movie adaptation (1939).
Meadow
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: MEHD-o
From the English word meadow, ultimately from Old English mædwe. Previously very rare, it rose in popularity after it was used as the name of Tony Soprano's daughter on the television series The Sopranos (1999-2007).
McKenna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: mə-KEHN-ə
From an Irish and Scottish surname, an Anglicized form of
Mac Cionaodha, itself derived from the given name
Cionaodh. As a given name, it was very rare before 1980. It rapidly increased in popularity during the 1990s, likely because it was viewed as an even more feminine alternative to
Mackenzie [1].
Mazikeen
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture
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.
Maybelline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: may-bə-LEEN
Diminutive of
Mabel. This is an American cosmetics company, which was named after the founder's sister Mabel in 1915.
Maybellene
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture (Rare)
Variant of
Maybelline, used by Chuck Berry in his 1955 song by this name.
Maybelle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
May
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MAY
Derived from the name of the month of May, which derives from
Maia, the name of a Roman goddess. May is also another name of the hawthorn flower. It is also used as a
diminutive of
Mary,
Margaret or
Mabel.
Maxine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: mak-SEEN
Feminine form of
Max. It has been commonly used only since the beginning of the 20th century.
Maudeline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Archaic), Haitian Creole, Jamaican Patois, Popular Culture
Variant of
Magdalene (compare Middle English
Maudelen,
Maudlin); in some cases, however, it may also be a combination of
Maude with
Madeline or
Line. This is the name of Victoria's mother in the movie
Corpse Bride (2005), which is set in Victorian England.
Maud
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French, Dutch, Swedish
Pronounced: MAWD(English) MOD(French) MOWT(Dutch)
Medieval English and French form of
Matilda. Though it became rare after the 14th century, it was revived and once more grew popular in the 19th century, perhaps due to Alfred Tennyson's 1855 poem
Maud [1].
Matthew
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, Biblical
Pronounced: MATH-yoo(English)
English form of
Ματθαῖος (Matthaios), which is the
New Testament Greek form of
Mattithiah. Matthew, probably also called
Levi, was one of the twelve apostles. He was a tax collector, and supposedly the author of the first gospel in the New Testament. He is considered a
saint in many Christian traditions. The variant
Matthias also occurs in the New Testament belonging to a separate apostle.
As an English given name, Matthew has been in use since the Middle Ages. It became popular throughout the English-speaking world around the middle of the 20th century, ranked near the top of the popularity lists for boys in the 1980s and 90s. A notable bearer was the American naval officer Matthew C. Perry (1794-1858), who led an expedition to Japan. Famous modern bearers include the actors Matthew Broderick (1962-), Matthew McConaughey (1969-) and Matthew Perry (1969-2023).
Mary
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Biblical
Pronounced: MEHR-ee(English) MAR-ee(English)
Usual English form of
Maria, the Latin form of the
New Testament Greek names
Μαριάμ (Mariam) and
Μαρία (Maria) — the spellings are interchangeable — which were from Hebrew
מִרְיָם (Miryam), a name borne by the sister of
Moses in the
Old Testament. The meaning is not known for certain, but there are several theories including
"sea of bitterness",
"rebelliousness", and
"wished for child". However it was most likely originally an Egyptian name, perhaps derived in part from
mry "beloved" or
mr "love".
This is the name of several New Testament characters, most importantly Mary the mother of Jesus. According to the gospels, Jesus was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit while she remained a virgin. This name was also borne by Mary Magdalene, a woman cured of demons by Jesus. She became one of his followers and later witnessed his crucifixion and resurrection.
Due to the Virgin Mary this name has been very popular in the Christian world, though at certain times in some cultures it has been considered too holy for everyday use. In England it has been used since the 12th century, and it has been among the most common feminine names since the 16th century. In the United States in 1880 it was given more than twice as often as the next most popular name for girls (Anna). It remained in the top rank in America until 1946 when it was bumped to second (by Linda). Although it regained the top spot for a few more years in the 1950s it was already falling in usage, and has since dropped out of the top 100 names.
This name has been borne by two queens of England, as well as a queen of Scotland, Mary Queen of Scots. Another notable bearer was Mary Shelley (1797-1851), the author of Frankenstein. A famous fictional character by this name is Mary Poppins from the children's books by P. L. Travers, first published in 1934.
The Latinized form of this name, Maria, is also used in English as well as in several other languages.
Marthaline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Archaic)
Martha
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, German, Greek, Biblical, Biblical Greek [1], Biblical Latin, Old Church Slavic
Other Scripts: Μάρθα(Greek) Марѳа(Church Slavic)
Pronounced: MAHR-thə(English) MAHR-ta(Dutch) MAR-ta(German)
From Aramaic
מַרְתָּא (marta) meaning
"the lady, the mistress", feminine form of
מַר (mar) meaning "master". In the
New Testament this is the name of the sister of
Lazarus and
Mary of Bethany (who is sometimes identified with Mary Magdalene). She was a witness to
Jesus restoring her dead brother to life.
The name was not used in England until after the Protestant Reformation. A notable bearer was Martha Washington (1731-1802), the wife of the first American president George Washington. It is also borne by the media personality Martha Stewart (1941-).
Marla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MAHR-lə
Marilyn
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MAR-ə-lin, MAR-lin
Combination of
Mary and the common name suffix
lyn. It was very rare before the start of the 20th century. It was popularized in part by the American stage star Marilyn Miller (1898-1936), who was born Mary Ellen Reynolds and took her
stage name from a combination of her birth name and her mother's middle name
Lynn. It became popular in the United States during the 1920s, reaching a high point ranked 13th in 1936. Famous bearers include American actress Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962; real name Norma Jeane Mortenson) and American opera singer Marilyn Horne (1934-).
Marigold
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: MAR-i-gold, MEHR-i-gold
From the name of the flower, which comes from a combination of
Mary and the English word
gold.
Marguerite
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: MAR-GU-REET
French form of
Margaret. This is also the French word for the daisy flower (species Leucanthemum vulgare).
Margaret
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MAHR-grit, MAHR-gə-rit
Derived from Latin
Margarita, which was from Greek
μαργαρίτης (margarites) meaning
"pearl", a word that was probably ultimately a borrowing from an Indo-Iranian language.
Saint Margaret, the patron of expectant mothers, was martyred at Antioch in the 4th century. Later legends told of her escape from a dragon, with which she was often depicted in medieval art. The saint was popular during the Middle Ages, and her name has been widely used in the Christian world.
As an English name it has been very popular since the Middle Ages. It was the top name for girls in England and Wales in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, but it declined in the latter half of the 20th century.
Other saints by this name include a queen of Scotland and a princess of Hungary. It was also borne by Queen Margaret I of Denmark, who united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway in the 14th century. Famous literary bearers include American writer Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949), the author of Gone with the Wind, and Canadian writer Margaret Atwood (1939-). Others include American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978) and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013).
Mara 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical, Biblical Hebrew [1], Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Other Scripts: מָרָא(Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: MAHR-ə(English) MAR-ə(English) MEHR-ə(English) MA-ra(Spanish)
Means
"bitter" in Hebrew. In the
Old Testament this is a name that
Naomi calls herself after the death of her husband and sons (see
Ruth 1:20).
Malena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Swedish, Spanish
Pronounced: ma-LEH-na(Spanish)
Swedish and Spanish contracted form of
Magdalena. In Spanish it can also be a contracted form of
María Elena.
Magnolia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: mag-NO-lee-ə
From the English word magnolia for the flower, which was named for the French botanist Pierre Magnol.
Magdalena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Polish, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Lithuanian, Spanish, Catalan, Occitan, Slovene, Czech, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Croatian, Serbian, Romanian, English
Other Scripts: Магдалена(Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian)
Pronounced: mag-da-LEH-na(Polish) mak-da-LEH-na(German) mahgh-da-LEH-na(Dutch) magh-dha-LEH-na(Spanish) məg-də-LEH-nə(Catalan) MAG-da-leh-na(Czech) mag-də-LAY-nə(English)
Maebelle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Mae
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MAY
Variant of
May. A famous bearer was the American actress Mae West (1893-1980), whose birth name was Mary.
Madge
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MAJ
Madeline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MAD-ə-lin, MAD-lin, MAD-ə-lien
English form of
Madeleine. This is the name of the heroine in a series of children's books by the Austrian-American author Ludwig Bemelmans, first published 1939.
Mabel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MAY-bəl
Medieval feminine form of
Amabilis. This spelling and
Amabel were common during the Middle Ages, though they became rare after the 15th century. It was revived in the 19th century after the publication of C. M. Yonge's 1854 novel
The Heir of Redclyffe [1], which featured a character named Mabel (as well as one named Amabel).
Lynette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Arthurian Cycle
Pronounced: li-NEHT(English)
Form of
Lynet used by Alfred Tennyson in his 1872 poem
Gareth and Lynette [1]. According to Tennyson, Gareth and Lynette were eventually married. In modern times it is also regarded as a
diminutive of
Lynn.
Luvenia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Possibly a form of
Lavinia. It has been used in America since the 19th century.
Lunette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Archaic), English (Archaic)
Pronounced: loo-NEHT(English)
Means "little moon" in Medieval French. It is derived from French
lune "moon" combined with a diminutive suffix. So, in other words, one could say that this name is the diminutive form of
Lune.
Lunetta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, English (Rare), Romani (Archaic)
Luna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, English
Pronounced: LOO-na(Latin, Spanish, Italian) LOO-nə(English)
Means "the moon" in Latin (as well as Italian, Spanish and other Romance languages). Luna was the Roman goddess of the moon, frequently depicted driving a white chariot through the sky.
Lulamae
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American)
Pronounced: Loo-la-may(American English)
Combination of
Lula 1 and
Mae. Used by Truman Capote in his book Breakfast at Tiffany's
Luella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: loo-EHL-ə
Lucy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: LOO-see
English form of
Lucia, in use since the Middle Ages.
Lucille
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, English
Pronounced: LUY-SEEL(French) loo-SEEL(English)
French form of
Lucilla. A famous bearer was American comedienne Lucille Ball (1911-1989).
Luciana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Ancient Roman
Pronounced: loo-CHA-na(Italian) loo-THYA-na(European Spanish) loo-SYA-na(Latin American Spanish) loo-SYU-nu(European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese)
Lovisa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Swedish
Pronounced: loo-VEE-sah
Swedish feminine form of
Louis.
Lovette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Loveday
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (African), English (British, Rare), Cornish (Rare), Medieval English, Literature
Pronounced: LUV-day(English)
Medieval form of the Old English name
Leofdæg, literally "beloved day". According to medieval English custom, a love day or
dies amoris was a day for disputants to come together to try to resolve their differences amicably. Mainly a feminine name, with some male usage. Known textual examples date from the 11th century. It seems to have been most common in Cornwall and Devon, according to the British births, deaths and marriages index. Currently very rare.
The novel Coming Home (1995) by Rosamunde Pilcher, set in 1930s Cornwall, has a character called Loveday. Loveday Minette is a fictional character in the children's fantasy novel The Little White Horse (1946) by Elizabeth Goudge (in the novel's film adaptation, she is known as Loveday de Noir). Also, a character in Poldark.
Love 2
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: LUV
Simply from the English word love, derived from Old English lufu.
Louise
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, German
Pronounced: LWEEZ(French) loo-EEZ(English) loo-EE-sə(Danish) loo-EE-zə(German)
French feminine form of
Louis.
Louisa
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, German, Dutch
Pronounced: loo-EEZ-ə(English) loo-EE-za(German)
Latinate feminine form of
Louis. A famous bearer was the American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), the author of
Little Women.
Louella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: loo-EHL-ə
Combination of
Lou and the popular name suffix
ella.
Lottie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Swedish
Pronounced: LAHT-ee(English)
Lorraine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: lə-RAYN
From the name of a region in eastern France, originally meaning "kingdom of
Lothar". Lothar was a Frankish king, the great-grandson of
Charlemagne, whose realm was in the part of France that is now called
Lorraine, or in German
Lothringen (from Latin
Lothari regnum). As a given name, it has been used in the English-speaking world since the late 19th century, perhaps due to its similar sound with
Laura. It became popular after World War I when the region was in the news, as it was contested between Germany and France.
Lonette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Rare)
Of uncertain origin and meaning; theories include a combination of
Lon and the popular suffix
-ette.
Lolita
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish
Pronounced: lo-LEE-ta
Diminutive of
Lola. This is the name of a 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov.
Lola
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish, English, French
Pronounced: LO-la(Spanish) LO-lə(English) LAW-LA(French)
Spanish
diminutive of
Dolores. A famous bearer was Lola Montez (1821-1861; birth name Eliza Gilbert), an Irish-born dancer, actress and courtesan.
Loiva
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Filipino
Lockett
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English (American)
Transferred use of the surname
Lockett.
Lizzie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: LIZ-ee
Linnie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: LIN-ee
Linnette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: li-NEHT
Linnea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish
Pronounced: lin-NEH-a(Swedish) LEEN-neh-ah(Finnish)
Linnaea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: li-NAY-ə, li-NEE-ə
From the word for the type of flower, also called the twinflower (see
Linnéa).
Linette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French
Pronounced: li-NEHT(English)
Lily
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: LIL-ee
From the name of the flower, a symbol of purity. The word is ultimately derived from Latin lilium. This is the name of the main character, Lily Bart, in the novel The House of Mirth (1905) by Edith Wharton. A famous bearer is the American actress Lily Tomlin (1939-).
Lillian
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: LIL-ee-ən
Probably originally a
diminutive of
Elizabeth. It may also be considered an elaborated form of
Lily, from the Latin word for "lily"
lilium. This name has been used in England since the 16th century.
Lilith
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Semitic Mythology, Judeo-Christian-Islamic Legend
Other Scripts: לילית(Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: LIL-ith(English)
Derived from Akkadian
lilitu meaning
"of the night". This was the name of a demon in ancient Assyrian myths. In Jewish tradition she was
Adam's first wife, sent out of Eden and replaced by
Eve because she would not submit to him. The offspring of Adam (or
Samael) and Lilith were the evil spirits of the world.
Liliette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare), Spanish (Latin American)
Lilibeth
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Lilibet
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Liliana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Polish, Czech, English
Pronounced: lee-LYA-na(Italian, Spanish, Polish) lil-ee-AN-ə(English) lil-ee-AHN-ə(English)
Lettie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: LEHT-ee
Lettice
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Archaic)
Lenora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Lena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, Dutch, Polish, Finnish, Russian, Ukrainian, English, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Georgian, Armenian
Other Scripts: Лена(Russian, Ukrainian) Λένα(Greek) ლენა(Georgian) Լենա(Armenian)
Pronounced: LEH-na(Swedish, German, Dutch, Polish, Italian) LYEH-nə(Russian) LEE-nə(English) LEH-NA(Georgian) leh-NAH(Armenian)
Lemon
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: American (Rare, Archaic), Popular Culture
Pronounced: LEM-un(American)
Transferred use of the surname
Lemon.
Leah
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Hebrew, Biblical
Other Scripts: לֵאָה(Hebrew)
Pronounced: LEE-ə(English)
From the Hebrew name
לֵאָה (Leʾa), which was probably derived from the Hebrew word
לָאָה (laʾa) meaning
"weary, grieved" [1]. Alternatively it might be related to Akkadian
littu meaning
"cow". In the
Old Testament Leah is the first wife of
Jacob and the mother of seven of his children. Jacob's other wife was Leah's younger sister
Rachel, whom he preferred. Leah later offered Jacob her handmaid
Zilpah in order for him to conceive more children.
Although this name was used by Jews in the Middle Ages, it was not typical as an English Christian name until after the Protestant Reformation, being common among the Puritans.
Layla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arabic, English
Other Scripts: ليلى(Arabic)
Pronounced: LIE-la(Arabic) LAY-lə(English)
Means
"night" in Arabic. Layla was the love interest of the poet
Qays (called Majnun) in an old Arab tale, notably retold by the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi in his poem
Layla and Majnun. This story was a popular romance in medieval Arabia and Persia. The name became used in the English-speaking world after the 1970 release of the song
Layla by Derek and the Dominos, the title of which was inspired by the medieval story.
Lavinia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology, Romanian, Italian
Pronounced: la-WEE-nee-a(Latin) lə-VIN-ee-ə(English) la-VEE-nya(Italian)
Meaning unknown, probably of Etruscan origin. In Roman legend Lavinia was the daughter of King Latinus, the wife of
Aeneas, and the ancestor of the Roman people. According to the legend Aeneas named the town of Lavinium in honour of his wife.
Laurel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: LAWR-əl
From the name of the laurel tree, ultimately from Latin laurus.
Lalita
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Hinduism, Hindi, Marathi, Thai
Other Scripts: ललिता(Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi) ลลิตา(Thai)
Pronounced: la-lee-TA(Thai)
Means
"playful, charming, desirable" in Sanskrit. According to the
Puranas this was the name of one of the gopis, who were milkmaids devoted to the young
Krishna. Additionally, in Shaktism, this is the name of a goddess who is also called Tripura Sundari.
Klaus
Gender: Masculine
Usage: German, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish
Pronounced: KLOWS(German, Finnish)
German short form of
Nicholas, now used independently.
Kitty
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: KIT-ee
Kitsune
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Japanese (Rare), Popular Culture
Other Scripts: 狐(Japanese Kanji) きつね(Japanese Hiragana) キツネ(Japanese Katakana)
Pronounced: KEE-TSOO-NE(Japanese)
Means "fox" in Japanese.
Fictional characters include Kitsune from Usagi Yojimbo and Mitsune "Kitsune" Konno (紺野 みつね "キツネ") from Love Hina.
This name is not given in Japan.
-------------------------------------
From Japanese きつね (kitsune) meaning "fox".
King
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: KING
From the English vocabulary word king, ultimately derived from Old English cyning. This was also a surname, derived from the same source, a famous bearer being the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968).
Kierra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: kee-EHR-ə
Khaleesi
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
From a title used in the George R. R. Martin book series
A Song of Ice and Fire (first published 1996) and the television adaptation
Game of Thrones (2011-2019). It is a feminine form of the Dothraki title
khal meaning "warlord". In the series
Daenerys Targaryen gains this title after she marries Khal Drogo.
Kenlee
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare)
Kendra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: KEHN-drə
Kelsey
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: KEHL-see
From an English surname that is derived from town names in Lincolnshire. It may mean "Cenel's island", from the Old English name Cenel "fierce" in combination with eg "island".
Keira
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: KEER-ə
Variant of
Ciara 1. This spelling was popularized by British actress Keira Knightley (1985-).
Kaylee
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: KAY-lee
Combination of the popular phonetic elements
kay and
lee. This name, in various spellings, steadily rose in popularity starting in the 1980s. This particular spelling peaked in America in 2009, ranked 26th, and has since declined.
Katherine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: KATH-ə-rin, KATH-rin
From the Greek name
Αἰκατερίνη (Aikaterine). The etymology is debated: it could derive from an earlier Greek name
Ἑκατερινη (Hekaterine), itself from
ἑκάτερος (hekateros) meaning
"each of the two"; it could derive from the name of the goddess
Hecate; it could be related to Greek
αἰκία (aikia) meaning
"torture"; or it could be from a Coptic name meaning
"my consecration of your name". In the early Christian era it became associated with Greek
καθαρός (katharos) meaning
"pure", and the Latin spelling was changed from
Katerina to
Katharina to reflect this.
The name was borne by a semi-legendary 4th-century saint and martyr from Alexandria who was tortured on a spiked wheel. The saint was initially venerated in Syria, and returning crusaders introduced the name to Western Europe. It has been common in England since the 12th century in many different spellings, with Katherine and Catherine becoming standard in the later Middle Ages. To this day both spellings are regularly used in the English-speaking world. In the United States the spelling Katherine has been more popular since 1973.
Famous bearers of the name include Catherine of Siena, a 14th-century mystic, and Catherine de' Medici, a 16th-century French queen. It was also borne by three of Henry VIII's wives, including Katherine of Aragon, and by two empresses of Russia, including Catherine the Great.
Katerina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Macedonian, Albanian, Russian, Bulgarian, Greek, Late Roman
Other Scripts: Катерина(Macedonian, Russian, Bulgarian) Κατερίνα(Greek)
Pronounced: kə-tyi-RYEE-nə(Russian)
Katarina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Sorbian
Other Scripts: Катарина(Serbian)
Pronounced: ka-ta-REE-na(Swedish, German)
Kapheira
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Καφείρα(Ancient Greek)
Possibly means "stormy breath", derived from the hypothetical Ancient Greek word
*kaphos meaning "to breath, gasp" (compare κάπτω
(kapto) "to gulp down") and εἴρ
(eir), which might mean "hurricane". This was the name of an Oceanid in Greek mythology, who nursed the infant
Poseidon on the island of Rhodes. She may have been a minor goddess of storm clouds.
Jupiter
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Roman Mythology (Anglicized)
Pronounced: JOO-pi-tər(English)
From Latin
Iuppiter, which was ultimately derived from the vocative form of Indo-European *
Dyēws-pətēr, composed of the elements
Dyēws (see
Zeus) and
pətēr "father". Jupiter was the supreme god in Roman
mythology. He presided over the heavens and light, and was responsible for the protection and laws of the Roman state. This is also the name of the fifth and largest planet in the solar system.
Juniper
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: JOON-i-pər
From the English word for the type of tree, derived ultimately from Latin iuniperus.
Juliet
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: joo-lee-EHT, JOOL-yət
Anglicized form of
Giulietta or
Juliette. This spelling was used for the ill-fated lover of
Romeo in the play
Romeo and Juliet (1596) by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare based his story on earlier Italian tales such as
Giulietta e Romeo (1524) by Luigi Da Porto.
Jubilee
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern), Popular Culture
Pronounced: joo-bə-LEE(English) JOO-bə-lee(English)
From the English word
jubilee meaning "season of rejoicing", which is derived from Hebrew יוֹבֵל
(yovel) "ram, ram's horn; a jubilee year: a year of rest, prescribed by the Jewish Bible to occur each fiftieth year, after seven cycles of seven years; a period of celebration or rejoicing" (via Late Latin
iubilaeus and Greek ἰώβηλος
(iobelos)). In Latin, the form of the word was altered by association with the unrelated Latin verb
iubilare "to shout with joy".
It may also refer to African-American folk songs known as Jubilees.
In popular culture, Jubilee is the 'mutant' name (a contraction of Jubilation Lee) of one of the protagonists of Marvel's X-Men line of comics.
Joy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JOI
Simply from the English word joy, ultimately derived from Norman French joie, Latin gaudium. It has been regularly used as a given name since the late 19th century.
Joshua
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, Biblical
Other Scripts: יְהוֹשֻׁעַ(Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: JAHSH-oo-ə(English)
From the Hebrew name
יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshuaʿ) meaning
"Yahweh is salvation", from the roots
יְהוֹ (yeho) referring to the Hebrew God and
יָשַׁע (yashaʿ) meaning "to save". As told in the
Old Testament, Joshua was a companion of
Moses. He went up Mount Sinai with Moses when he received the Ten Commandments from God, and later he was one of the twelve spies sent into Canaan. After Moses died Joshua succeeded him as leader of the Israelites and he led the conquest of Canaan. His original name was
Hoshea.
The name Jesus comes from a Greek transcription of the Aramaic short form יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshuaʿ), which was the real name of Jesus. As an English name, Joshua has been in use since the Protestant Reformation.
Josephine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, German, Dutch
Pronounced: JO-sə-feen(English) yo-zeh-FEE-nə(German)
Josefine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, German
Pronounced: yo-seh-FEEN(Swedish) yo-seh-FEE-neh(Danish, Norwegian) yo-zeh-FEE-nə(German)
Jonas 1
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Lithuanian
Pronounced: YO-nus
Lithuanian form of
Iohannes (see
John).
Joliet
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Transferred use of the surname
Joliet.
Jolene
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: jo-LEEN
Formed from
Jo and the common name suffix
lene. This name was created in the early 20th century. It received a boost in popularity after the release of Dolly Parton's 1973 song
Jolene.
Jillian
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JIL-ee-ən
Jeyne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Probably intended as a variant of
Jane, this name is borne by Jeyne Westerling, a character in George R. R. Martin's
A Song of Ice and Fire.
Jewels
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: JOOLZ
Variant of
Jools influenced by the word
jewel (see
Jewel).
Jewel
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JOO-əl, JOOL
In part from the English word
jewel, a precious stone, derived from Old French
jouel, which was possibly related to
jeu "game". It is also in part from the surname
Jewel or
Jewell (a derivative of the Breton name
Judicaël), which was sometimes used in honour of the 16th-century bishop of Salisbury John Jewel. It has been in use as a given name since the 19th century.
Jean 2
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Scottish
Pronounced: JEEN
Medieval English variant of
Jehanne (see
Jane). It was common in England and Scotland during the Middle Ages, but eventually became rare in England. It was reintroduced to the English-speaking world from Scotland in the 19th century.
Jane
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JAYN
Medieval English form of
Jehanne, an Old French feminine form of
Iohannes (see
John). This became the most common feminine form of
John in the 17th century, surpassing
Joan. In the first half of the 20th century
Joan once again overtook
Jane for a few decades in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Famous bearers include the uncrowned English queen Lady Jane Grey (1536-1554), who ruled for only nine days, British novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817), who wrote Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, British primatologist Jane Goodall (1934-), and American actress Jane Fonda (1937-). This is also the name of the central character in Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre (1847), which tells of Jane's sad childhood and her relationship with Edward Rochester.
James
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, Biblical
Pronounced: JAYMZ(English)
English form of the Late Latin name
Iacomus, a variant of the Biblical Latin form
Iacobus, from the Hebrew name
Yaʿaqov (see
Jacob). This was the name of two apostles in the
New Testament. The first was
Saint James the Greater, the apostle
John's brother, who was beheaded under Herod Agrippa in the Book of Acts. The second was James the Lesser, son of
Alphaeus. Another James (known as James the Just) is also mentioned in the Bible as being the brother of
Jesus.
This name has been used in England since the 13th century, though it became more common in Scotland where it was borne by several kings. In the 17th century the Scottish king James VI inherited the English throne, becoming the first ruler of all Britain, and the name grew much more popular. In American name statistics (recorded since 1880) this name has never been out of the top 20, making it arguably the era's most consistently popular name. It was the top ranked name for boys in the United States from 1940 to 1952.
Famous bearers include the English explorer James Cook (1728-1779), the Scottish inventor James Watt (1736-1819), and the Irish novelist and poet James Joyce (1882-1941). This name has also been borne by six American presidents. A notable fictional bearer is the British spy James Bond, created by author Ian Fleming in 1953.
Jade
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English, French
Pronounced: JAYD(English) ZHAD(French)
From the name of the precious stone that is often used in carvings. It is derived from Spanish (piedra de la) ijada meaning "(stone of the) flank", relating to the belief that jade could cure renal colic. As a given name, it came into general use during the 1970s. It was initially unisex, though it is now mostly feminine.
Jack
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JAK
Derived from
Jackin (earlier
Jankin), a medieval
diminutive of
John [1]. There could be some early influence from the unrelated French name
Jacques [2]. It is often regarded as an independent name. During the Middle Ages it was very common, and it became a slang word meaning "man", as seen in the terms
jack-o'-lantern,
jack-in-the-box,
lumberjack and so on. It was frequently used in fairy tales and nursery rhymes, such as
Jack and the Beanstalk,
Jack and Jill,
Little Jack Horner, and
Jack Sprat.
American writers Jack London (1876-1916) and Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) were two famous bearers of this name. It is also borne by the actor Jack Nicholson (1937-) and the golfer Jack Nicklaus (1940-). Apart from Nicklaus, none of these famous bearers were given the name Jack at birth.
In the United Kingdom this form has been bestowed more frequently than John since the 1990s, being the most popular name for boys from 1996 to 2008.
Ivy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: IE-vee
From the English word for the climbing plant that has small yellow flowers. It is ultimately derived from Old English ifig.
Ivory
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: African American
Pronounced: IE-və-ree(English) IEV-ree(English)
From the English word for the hard, creamy-white substance that comes from elephant tusks and was formerly used to produce piano keys.
Isobel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Scottish
Isabelle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, English, German, Dutch, Swedish
Pronounced: EE-ZA-BEHL(French) IZ-ə-behl(English) ee-za-BEH-lə(German, Dutch)
Isabella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, German, English, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Romanian
Pronounced: ee-za-BEHL-la(Italian) ee-za-BEH-la(German, Dutch) iz-ə-BEHL-ə(English) is-a-BEHL-la(Swedish) EE-sah-behl-lah(Finnish)
Latinate form of
Isabel. This name was borne by many medieval royals, including queens consort of England, France, Portugal, the Holy Roman Empire and Hungary, as well as the powerful ruling queen Isabella of Castile (properly called
Isabel).
In the United States this form was much less common than Isabel until the early 1990s, when it began rapidly rising in popularity. It reached a peak in 2009 and 2010, when it was the most popular name for girls in America, an astounding rise over only 20 years.
A famous bearer is the Italian actress Isabella Rossellini (1952-).
Iris
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Slovene, Croatian, Greek
Other Scripts: Ἶρις(Ancient Greek) Ίρις(Greek)
Pronounced: IE-ris(English) EE-ris(German, Dutch) EE-rees(Finnish, Spanish, Catalan, Italian) EE-REES(French)
Means "rainbow" in Greek. Iris was the name of the Greek goddess of the rainbow, also serving as a messenger to the gods. This name can also be given in reference to the word (which derives from the same Greek source) for the iris flower or the coloured part of the eye.
Irina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romanian, Georgian, Finnish, Estonian
Other Scripts: Ирина(Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian) ირინა(Georgian)
Pronounced: i-RYEE-nə(Russian) EE-ree-nah(Finnish)
Form of
Irene in several languages.
Irene
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, German, Dutch, Ancient Greek (Latinized), Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Εἰρήνη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: ie-REEN(English) ie-REE-nee(English) ee-REH-neh(Italian, Spanish) EE-reh-neh(Finnish) ee-REH-nə(German, Dutch)
From Greek
Εἰρήνη (Eirene), derived from a word meaning
"peace". This was the name of the Greek goddess who personified peace, one of the
Ὥραι (Horai). It was also borne by several early Christian
saints. The name was common in the Byzantine Empire, notably being borne by an 8th-century empress, who was the first woman to lead the empire. She originally served as regent for her son, but later had him killed and ruled alone.
This name has traditionally been more popular among Eastern Christians. In the English-speaking world it was not regularly used until the 19th century.
Indie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: IN-dee
Possibly a
diminutive of
India or
Indiana, but also likely inspired by the term
indie, short for
independent, which is typically used to refer to media produced outside of the mainstream.
Imogene
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: IM-ə-jeen
Illyana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Russian
This is the feminine form of Ilya, Russian form of Elijah, which means 'My God is Yahweh'.
Huxley
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: HUKS-lee
From an English surname that was derived from the name of a town in Cheshire. The final element is Old English
leah "woodland, clearing", while the first element might be
hux "insult, scorn". A famous bearer of the surname was the British author Aldous Huxley (1894-1963).
Hugo
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, German, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Germanic [1]
Pronounced: OO-gho(Spanish) OO-goo(Portuguese) HYOO-go(English) HUY-gho(Dutch) HOO-go(German) UY-GO(French)
Old German form of
Hugh. As a surname it has belonged to the French author Victor Hugo (1802-1885), the writer of
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and
Les Misérables.
Hugh
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: HYOO
From the Germanic name
Hugo, derived from Old Frankish
hugi or Old High German
hugu meaning
"mind, thought, spirit" (Proto-Germanic *
hugiz). It was common among Frankish and French nobility, being borne by Hugh Capet, a 10th-century king of France who founded the Capetian dynasty. The
Normans brought the name to England and it became common there, even more so after the time of the 12th-century bishop
Saint Hugh of Lincoln, who was known for his charity. This was also the name of kings of Cyprus and the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem. The name is used in Ireland and Scotland as the Anglicized form of
Aodh and
Ùisdean.
Huckleberry
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: HUK-əl-behr-ee(English)
From the name of the variety of shrubs (genus Vaccinium) or the berries that grow on them. It was used by author Mark Twain for the character of Huckleberry (Huck) Finn in his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).
Honey
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: HUN-ee
Simply from the English word honey, ultimately from Old English hunig. This was originally a nickname for a sweet person.
Henry
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: HEHN-ree
From the Germanic name
Heimirich meaning
"home ruler", composed of the elements
heim "home" and
rih "ruler". It was later commonly spelled
Heinrich, with the spelling altered due to the influence of other Germanic names like
Haganrich, in which the first element is
hag "enclosure".
Heinrich was popular among continental royalty, being the name of seven German kings, starting with the 10th-century Henry I the Fowler (the first of the Saxon kings), and four French kings. In France it was usually rendered Henri from the Latin form Henricus.
The Normans introduced the French form to England, and it was subsequently used by eight kings, ending with the infamous Henry VIII in the 16th century. During the later Middle Ages it was fairly popular, and was generally rendered as Harry or Herry in English pronunciation. Notable bearers include arctic naval explorer Henry Hudson (1570-1611), American-British novelist Henry James (1843-1916), American automobile manufacturer Henry Ford (1863-1947), and American actor Henry Fonda (1905-1982).
Henrietta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Hungarian, Finnish, Swedish
Pronounced: hehn-ree-EHT-ə(English) HEHN-ree-eht-taw(Hungarian) HEHN-ree-eht-tah(Finnish)
Latinate form of
Henriette. It was introduced to England by Henriette Marie, the wife of the 17th-century English king Charles I. The name
Henriette was also Anglicized as
Harriet, a form that was initially more popular.
Helena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Portuguese, Catalan, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Finnish, Estonian, Slovene, Croatian, Sorbian, English, Ancient Greek (Latinized), Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Ἑλένη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: HEH-leh-na(German, Czech) heh-LEH-na(German, Dutch) heh-LEH-nah(Swedish, Danish, Norwegian) i-LEH-nu(European Portuguese) eh-LEH-nu(Brazilian Portuguese) ə-LEH-nə(Catalan) kheh-LEH-na(Polish) HEH-leh-nah(Finnish) HEHL-ə-nə(English) hə-LAYN-ə(English) hə-LEEN-ə(English)
Latinate form of
Helen. This is the name of the heroine of William Shakespeare's play
All's Well That Ends Well (1603).
Hedwig
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German, Dutch
Pronounced: HEHT-vikh(German)
From the Old German name
Hadewig, derived from the Old German elements
hadu "battle, combat" and
wig "war". This was the name of a 13th-century German
saint, the wife of the Polish duke Henry the Bearded. It was subsequently borne by a 14th-century Polish queen (usually known by her Polish name
Jadwiga) who is now also regarded as a saint.
Harvest
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Transferred use of the surname
Harvester.
This name has been in occasional use since the 1800s.
Harleen
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture, English (Rare)
Pronounced: HAHR-leen(English)
A fictional name created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm for the popular cartoon series
Batman: The Animated Series. The name was given to a new character, Dr. Harleen Quinzel "Harley Quinn" (first appearing in 1992), as a play on the word
harlequin, referring to her manner of dress, that of a traditional harlequin jester, a theme meant to reference that of her partner-in-crime, Batman's arch-nemesis Joker.
The name itself can be seen as a combination of Harley and the popular name suffix -lene (compare Harlene).
Gwyneira
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh
Pronounced: gwi-NAY-ra
Means
"white snow" from the Welsh element
gwyn meaning "white, blessed" combined with
eira meaning "snow". This is a recently created Welsh name.
Gwendolynette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Rare)
Combination of
Gwendolyn with the suffix
-ette.
Gwen
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh, English
Pronounced: GWEHN
From Welsh
gwen, the feminine form of
gwyn meaning "white, blessed". It can also be a short form of
Gwendolen,
Gwenllian and other names beginning with
Gwen.
Gustavo
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Pronounced: goo-STA-vo(Italian) goos-TA-bo(Spanish)
Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of
Gustav.
Gunner
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: GUN-ər
English variant of
Gunnar, influenced by the vocabulary word
gunner.
Guinevere
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arthurian Cycle
Pronounced: GWIN-ə-vir(English)
From the Norman French form of the Welsh name
Gwenhwyfar meaning
"white phantom", ultimately from the old Celtic roots *
windos meaning "white" (modern Welsh
gwen) and *
sēbros meaning "phantom, magical being"
[1]. In Arthurian legend she was the beautiful wife of King
Arthur. According to the 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth, she was seduced by
Mordred before the battle of Camlann, which led to the deaths of both Mordred and Arthur. According to the 12th-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes, she engaged in an adulterous affair with Sir
Lancelot.
The Cornish form of this name, Jennifer, has become popular in the English-speaking world.
Grey
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: GRAY
Gray
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: GRAY
From an English surname meaning "grey", originally given to a person who had grey hair or clothing.
Graham
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Scottish, English
Pronounced: GRAY-əm(English) GRAM(English)
From a Scottish surname, originally derived from the English place name
Grantham, which probably meant
"gravelly homestead" in Old English. The surname was first taken to Scotland in the 12th century by the Norman baron William de Graham
[1]. A famous bearer of the surname was Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), the Scottish-Canadian-American inventor who devised the telephone. A famous bearer of the given name was the British author Graham Greene (1904-1991).
During the 20th century, Graham was more common in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada than it was in the United States. However, it has been rising on the American charts since around 2006.
Gracious
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Puritan), English (African), English
From the English word
gracious, ultimately from Latin
gratiosus, a derivative of
gratia "esteem, favor". This was one of the virtue names coined by the Puritans in the 17th century, possibly inspired by Psalm 145:8: 'The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.'
Gossamer
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Theatre
Pronounced: GAHS-ə-mər
From the English word, which means "spider threads spun in fields of stubble in late fall" (apparently derived from Old English gos "goose" and sumer "summer"). A fictional bearer is Gossamer Beynon in Dylan Thomas' 1954 play 'Under Milk Wood' (Butcher Beynon's schoolteacher daughter).
Goodness
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (African)
Gladys
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh, English, French, Spanish
Pronounced: GLAD-is(English) GLA-DEES(French) GLA-dhees(Spanish)
From the Old Welsh name
Gwladus, probably derived from
gwlad meaning
"country". Alternatively, it may have been adopted as a Welsh form of
Claudia.
Saint Gwladus or Gwladys was the mother of Saint
Cadoc. She was one of the daughters of
Brychan Brycheiniog. This name became popular outside of Wales after it was used in Ouida's novel
Puck (1870).
Genie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JEE-nee
Gemma
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Catalan, English (British), Dutch
Pronounced: JEHM-ma(Italian) ZHEHM-mə(Catalan) JEHM-ə(British English) GHEH-ma(Dutch)
Medieval Italian nickname meaning "gem, precious stone". It was borne by the wife of the 13th-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
Gareth
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Welsh, English (British), Arthurian Cycle
Pronounced: GAR-əth(British English)
Meaning uncertain. It appears in this form in Thomas Malory's 15th-century compilation of Arthurian legends
Le Morte d'Arthur, in which the knight Gareth (also named
Beaumains) is a brother of
Gawain. He goes with
Lynet to rescue her sister
Lyonesse from the Red Knight. Malory based the name on
Gaheriet or
Guerrehet, which was the name of a similar character in French sources. It may ultimately have a Welsh origin, possibly from the name
Gwrhyd meaning
"valour" (found in the tale
Culhwch and Olwen) or
Gwairydd meaning
"hay lord" (found in the chronicle
Brut y Brenhinedd).
Gardenia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: gahr-DEEN-ee-ə
From the name of the tropical flower, which was named for the Scottish naturalist Alexander Garden (1730-1791).
Gale 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: GAYL
Variant of
Gail. It also coincides with the English word
gale meaning
"storm".
Freda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: FREE-də
Ford
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: FAWRD
From an English surname that was derived from a place name meaning "ford" in Old English. A famous bearer of the surname was the American industrialist Henry Ford (1863-1947).
Flynn
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: FLIN
From an Irish surname, an Anglicized form of
Ó Floinn, which was derived from the given name or byname
Flann. A famous bearer of the surname was American actor Errol Flynn (1909-1959). As a given name, it grew in popularity after it was featured as a character in the Disney movie
Tangled in 2010.
Floyd
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: FLOID
Florentine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: FLAW-RAHN-TEEN
Florence
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English, French
Pronounced: FLAWR-əns(English) FLAW-RAHNS(French)
From the Latin name
Florentius or the feminine form
Florentia, which were derived from
florens "prosperous, flourishing".
Florentius was borne by many early Christian
saints, and it was occasionally used in their honour through the Middle Ages. In modern times it is mostly feminine.
This name can also be given in reference to the city in Italy, as in the case of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), who was born there to British parents. She was a nurse in military hospitals during the Crimean War and is usually considered the founder of modern nursing.
Floralie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare), Literature
Flora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, French, Greek, Albanian, Roman Mythology
Other Scripts: Φλώρα(Greek)
Pronounced: FLAWR-ə(English) FLAW-ra(Italian) FLO-ra(Spanish, German, Dutch, Latin) FLAW-ru(Portuguese) FLAW-RA(French)
Derived from Latin
flos meaning
"flower" (genitive case
floris). Flora was the Roman goddess of flowers and spring, the wife of Zephyr the west wind. It has been used as a given name since the Renaissance, starting in France. In Scotland it was sometimes used as an Anglicized form of
Fionnghuala.
Fleurette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French (Rare), Dutch (Rare), English (Rare)
Pronounced: FLUU-REHT(French) flə-REHT(English)
Fletcher
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: FLECH-ər
From a surname meaning "maker of arrows" in Middle English, ultimately from Old French flechier.
Fiona
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Scottish, English
Pronounced: fee-O-nə(English)
Feminine form of
Fionn. This name was (first?) used by the Scottish poet James Macpherson in his poem
Fingal (1761), in which it is spelled as
Fióna.
Fien
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Dutch
Pronounced: FEEN
Short form of
Josefien and other names ending with a similar sound.
Faye
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: FAY
Faith
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: FAYTH
Simply from the English word
faith, ultimately from Latin
fidere "to trust". This was one of the virtue names adopted by the
Puritans in the 17th century.
Fairy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: FER-ee
From the English word
fairy, referring to the mythical creature, ultimately derived from the Roman mythological name
Fata, "fate". (Compare:
Fay)
Fae
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: FAY
Ezekiel
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Biblical, English
Other Scripts: יְחֶזְקֵאל(Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: i-ZEE-kee-əl(English)
From the Hebrew name
יְחֶזְקֵאל (Yeḥezqel) meaning
"God will strengthen", from the roots
חָזַק (ḥazaq) meaning "to strengthen" and
אֵל (ʾel) meaning "God". Ezekiel is a major prophet of the
Old Testament, the author of the Book of Ezekiel. He lived in Jerusalem until the Babylonian conquest and captivity of Israel, at which time he was taken to Babylon. The Book of Ezekiel describes his vivid symbolic visions that predict the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. As an English given name,
Ezekiel has been used since the
Protestant Reformation.
Evolet
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Popular Culture, English
Pronounced: EV-o-let(Popular Culture)
It has been suggested that the name was created from an elaboration of
love as a palindrome, or from the backwards spelling of
t(h)e love with the
h omitted for the sake of aesthetics, or from
evolve as an incomplete anagram. It could also be used as a combination of the names
Eve and
Violet.
The name of a prehistoric woman in the 2008 film 10,000 B.C. directed by Roland Emmerich, meaning "the promise of life" in the fictitious language spoken by the character's adopted tribe, the Yaghal.
Evie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: EE-vee, EHV-ee
Everlina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Dutch, East Frisian (Rare)
Borne by a daughter of George W Mills.
Evelyn
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English, German
Pronounced: EHV-ə-lin(English) EEV-lin(British English) EEV-ə-lin(British English) EH-və-leen(German)
From an English surname that was derived from the given name
Aveline. In the 17th century when it was first used as a given name it was more common for boys, but it is now regarded as almost entirely feminine, probably in part because of its similarity to
Eve and
Evelina.
This name was popular throughout the English-speaking world in the early 20th century. It staged a comeback in the early 21st century, returning to the American top ten in 2017.
Evelina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, Swedish, Lithuanian, Greek, Russian, Bulgarian
Other Scripts: Εβελίνα(Greek) Эвелина(Russian) Евелина(Bulgarian)
Pronounced: ehv-ə-LEE-nə(English) eh-veh-LEE-na(Italian, Swedish)
Latinate form of
Aveline. It was revived by the author Fanny Burney for the heroine of her first novel
Evelina (1778). It is often regarded as a variant of the related name
Evelyn or an elaboration of
Eve.
Eve
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Estonian, Biblical
Other Scripts: חַוָּה(Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: EEV(English)
From the Hebrew name
חַוָּה (Ḥawwa), which was derived from the Hebrew word
חָוָה (ḥawa) meaning
"to breathe" or the related word
חָיָה (ḥaya) meaning
"to live". According to the
Old Testament Book of Genesis, Eve and
Adam were the first humans. God created her from one of Adam's ribs to be his companion. At the urging of a serpent she ate the forbidden fruit and shared some with Adam, causing their expulsion from the Garden of
Eden.
Despite this potentially negative association, the name was occasionally used by Christians during the Middle Ages. In the English-speaking world both Eve and the Latin form Eva were revived in the 19th century, with the latter being more common.
Evangeline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: i-VAN-jə-leen, i-VAN-jə-lien
Means
"good news" from Greek
εὖ (eu) meaning "good" and
ἄγγελμα (angelma) meaning "news, message". It was (first?) used by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1847 epic poem
Evangeline [1][2]. It also appears in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) as the full name of the character Eva.
Evangelina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish, English
Pronounced: eh-ban-kheh-LEE-na(Spanish) i-van-jə-LEE-nə(English)
Evander 1
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized), Roman Mythology
Other Scripts: Εὔανδρος(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: ee-VAN-dər(English) ə-VAN-dər(English)
Variant of
Evandrus, the Latin form of the Greek name
Εὔανδρος (Euandros) meaning
"good of man", derived from
εὖ (eu) meaning "good" and
ἀνήρ (aner) meaning "man" (genitive
ἀνδρός). In Roman
mythology Evander was an Arcadian hero of the Trojan War who founded the city of Pallantium near the spot where Rome was later built.
Euphie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Archaic)
Euphemia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek [1], English (Archaic)
Other Scripts: Εὐφημία(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: yoo-FEE-mee-ə(English) yoo-FEH-mee-ə(English)
Means
"to use words of good omen" from Greek
εὐφημέω (euphemeo), a derivative of
εὖ (eu) meaning "good" and
φημί (phemi) meaning "to speak, to declare".
Saint Euphemia was an early martyr from Chalcedon.
Eulalie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: UU-LA-LEE
Eulalia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish, Italian, Polish, English, Ancient Greek [1]
Other Scripts: Εὐλαλία(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: ew-LA-lya(Spanish, Italian) yoo-LAY-lee-ə(English)
Derived from Greek
εὔλαλος (eulalos) meaning
"sweetly-speaking", itself from
εὖ (eu) meaning "good" and
λαλέω (laleo) meaning "to talk". This was the name of an early 4th-century
saint and martyr from Mérida in Spain. Another martyr by this name, living at the same time, is a patron saint of Barcelona. These two saints might be the same person.
Eugena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Etheria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Late Roman
The name of woman in the 4th/5th century who wrote a report of her pilgrimage to the Holy land.
Ethel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ETH-əl
Short form of names beginning with the Old English element
æðele meaning
"noble". It was coined in the 19th century, when many Old English names were revived. It was popularized by the novels
The Newcomes (1855) by William Makepeace Thackeray and
The Daisy Chain (1856) by C. M. Yonge. A famous bearer was American actress and singer Ethel Merman (1908-1984).
Esti 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Basque (Rare)
Means "sweet, honey", from Basque ezti.
Esther
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Jewish, Biblical, Biblical Latin, Biblical Greek
Other Scripts: אֶסְתֵר(Hebrew) Ἐσθήρ(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: EHS-tər(English, Dutch) EHS-TEHR(French) ehs-TEHR(Spanish) EHS-tu(German)
From the Hebrew name
אֶסְתֵר (ʾEsṯer), which possibly means
"star" in Persian. Alternatively it could be a derivative of the name of the Near Eastern goddess
Ishtar. The Book of Esther in the
Old Testament tells the story of Queen Esther, the Jewish wife of the king of Persia. The king's advisor
Haman persuaded the king to exterminate all the Jews in the realm. Warned of this plot by her cousin
Mordecai, Esther revealed her Jewish ancestry and convinced the king to execute Haman instead. Her original Hebrew name was
Hadassah.
This name has been used in the English-speaking world since the Protestant Reformation. In America it received a boost in popularity after the birth of Esther Cleveland (1893-1980), the daughter of President Grover Cleveland [1].
Estelle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French
Pronounced: ehs-TEHL(English) EHS-TEHL(French)
From an Old French name meaning
"star", ultimately derived from Latin
stella. It was rare in the English-speaking world in the Middle Ages, but it was revived in the 19th century, perhaps due to the character Estella Havisham in Charles Dickens' novel
Great Expectations (1860).
Esta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: EHS-tə
Espie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Filipino
Esperanza
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish
Pronounced: ehs-peh-RAN-tha(European Spanish) ehs-peh-RAN-sa(Latin American Spanish)
Spanish form of the Late Latin name Sperantia, which was derived from sperare "to hope".
Esme
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: EHZ-may, EHZ-mee
Enid
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh, English, Arthurian Cycle
Pronounced: EH-nid(Welsh) EE-nid(English)
Probably derived from Welsh
enaid meaning
"soul, spirit, life". In Arthurian tales she first appears in the 12th-century French poem
Erec and Enide by Chrétien de Troyes, where she is the wife of Erec. In later adaptations she is typically the wife of
Geraint. The name became more commonly used after the publication of Alfred Tennyson's Arthurian poem
Enid in 1859, and it was fairly popular in Britain in the first half of the 20th century.
Endellion
Gender: Feminine
Usage: History (Ecclesiastical)
Pronounced: ehn-DEHL-ee-ən(English)
Anglicized form of
Endelienta, the Latin form of a Welsh or Cornish name. It was borne by a 5th or 6th-century Cornish
saint whose birth name is lost. According to some traditions she was a daughter of
Brychan Brycheiniog (identifying her with Cynheiddon).
Emberley
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare)
Elswyth
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Variant of
Elswith. It was borne by American romance novelist Elswyth Thane (1900-1984), original name Helen Ricker.
Elspeth
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Scottish
Pronounced: EHLS-peth
Elsie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Swedish
Pronounced: EHL-see(English)
Elowyn
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Cornish
Elowen
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Cornish
Means "elm tree" in Cornish. This is a recently coined Cornish name.
Eloise
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: EHL-o-eez, ehl-o-EEZ
From the Old French name
Héloïse, which was probably from the Germanic name
Helewidis, composed of the elements
heil meaning "healthy, whole" and
wit meaning "wide". It is sometimes associated with the Greek word
ἥλιος (helios) meaning "sun" or the name
Louise, though there is no etymological connection. This name was borne by the 12th-century French scholar and philosopher Héloïse. Secretly marrying the theologian Peter Abelard at a young age, she became a nun (and eventually an abbess) after Abelard was violently castrated by order of her uncle Fulbert.
There was a medieval English form of this name, Helewis, though it died out after the 13th century. In the 19th century it was revived in the English-speaking world in the form Eloise.
Elodie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Elliott
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: EHL-ee-ət
From an English surname that was derived from a
diminutive of the medieval name
Elias.
Elise
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, English
Pronounced: eh-LEE-zə(German) eh-LEE-seh(Norwegian, Danish, Swedish) i-LEES(English) EE-lees(English)
Elisabetta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian
Pronounced: eh-lee-za-BEHT-ta
Elisabeth
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, English, Biblical, Biblical Latin
Pronounced: eh-LEE-za-beht(German) eh-LEE-sa-beht(Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian) eh-LEE-sa-behd(Danish) i-LIZ-ə-bəth(English)
German and Dutch form of
Elizabeth. It is also a variant English form, reflecting the spelling used in the Authorized Version of the
New Testament.
Eleanora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ehl-ə-NAWR-ə
Eleanor
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: EHL-ə-nawr
From the Old French form of the Occitan name
Alienòr. Among the name's earliest bearers was the influential Eleanor of Aquitaine (12th century), who was the queen of Louis VII, the king of France, and later Henry II, the king of England. She was named
Aenor after her mother, and was called by the Occitan phrase
alia Aenor "the other Aenor" in order to distinguish her from her mother. However, there appear to be examples of bearers prior to Eleanor of Aquitaine. It is not clear whether they were in fact Aenors who were retroactively recorded as having the name Eleanor, or whether there is an alternative explanation for the name's origin.
The popularity of the name Eleanor in England during the Middle Ages was due to the fame of Eleanor of Aquitaine, as well as two queens of the following century: Eleanor of Provence, the wife of Henry III, and Eleanor of Castile, the wife of Edward I. More recently, it was borne by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), the wife of American president Franklin Roosevelt.
Egwene
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: e-GWAYN
Name of a central character in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
Effie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Scottish
Pronounced: EHF-ee(English)
Eevee
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American)
Pronounced: EE-vee(American English)
Edwina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ehd-WEEN-ə, ehd-WIN-ə
Edwige
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: EHD-VEEZH
Edward
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, Polish
Pronounced: EHD-wərd(English) EHD-vart(Polish)
Means
"rich guard", derived from the Old English elements
ead "wealth, fortune" and
weard "guard". This was the name of several Anglo-Saxon kings, the last being
Saint Edward the Confessor shortly before the
Norman Conquest in the 11th century. He was known as a just ruler, and because of his popularity his name remained in use after the conquest when most other Old English names were replaced by Norman ones. The 13th-century Plantagenet king Henry III named his son and successor after the saint, and seven subsequent kings of England were also named Edward.
This is one of the few Old English names to be used throughout Europe (in various spellings). A famous bearer was the British composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934). It was also used by author Charlotte Brontë for the character Edward Rochester, the main love interest of the title character in her novel Jane Eyre (1847).
Edna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Hebrew, Biblical
Other Scripts: עֶדְנָה(Hebrew)
Pronounced: EHD-nə(English)
Means
"pleasure" in Hebrew, a derivative of
עָדַן (ʿaḏan) meaning "to delight". This name appears in the
Old Testament Apocrypha, for instance in the Book of Tobit belonging to the wife of
Raguel. It was borne by the American poet Edna Dean Proctor (1829-1923). It did not become popular until the second half of the 19th century, after it was used for the heroine in the successful 1866 novel
St. Elmo by Augusta Jane Evans
[1]. It peaked around the turn of the century and has declined steadily since then, falling off the American top 1000 list in 1992.
Edith
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch
Pronounced: EE-dith(English) EH-dit(German, Swedish)
From the Old English name
Eadgyð, derived from the elements
ead "wealth, fortune" and
guð "battle". It was popular among Anglo-Saxon royalty, being borne for example by
Saint Eadgyeth;, the daughter of King Edgar the Peaceful. It was also borne by the Anglo-Saxon wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. The name remained common after the
Norman Conquest. It became rare after the 15th century, but was revived in the 19th century.
Eden
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Hebrew, English (Modern), French (Modern)
Other Scripts: עֵדֶן(Hebrew)
Pronounced: EE-dən(English)
From the biblical place name, itself possibly from Hebrew
עֵדֶן (ʿeḏen) meaning "pleasure, delight"
[1], or perhaps derived from Sumerian
𒂔 (edin) meaning "plain". According to the
Old Testament the Garden of Eden was the place where the first people,
Adam and
Eve, lived before they were expelled.
Echo
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Ἠχώ(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: EH-ko(English)
From the Greek word
ἠχώ (echo) meaning
"echo, reflected sound", related to
ἠχή (eche) meaning "sound". In Greek
mythology Echo was a nymph given a speech impediment by
Hera, so that she could only repeat what others said. She fell in love with
Narcissus, but her love was not returned, and she pined away until nothing remained of her except her voice.
Drusilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical, Ancient Roman, Biblical Latin
Pronounced: droo-SIL-ə(English)
Dottie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DAHT-ee
Dorothy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DAWR-ə-thee, DAWR-thee
Usual English form of
Dorothea. It has been in use since the 16th century. The author L. Frank Baum used it for the central character, Dorothy Gale, in his fantasy novel
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and several of its sequels.
Dorian
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, French, Romanian
Pronounced: DAWR-ee-ən(English) DAW-RYAHN(French)
The name was first used by Oscar Wilde in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), which tells the story of a man whose portrait ages while he stays young. Wilde may have taken it from the name of the ancient Greek tribe the Dorians.
Dolly
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DAHL-ee
Diminutive of
Dorothy.
Doll and
Dolly were used from the 16th century, and the common English word
doll (for the plaything) is derived from them. In modern times this name is also sometimes used as a diminutive of
Dolores.
Diana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Armenian, Georgian, Roman Mythology
Other Scripts: Диана(Russian, Bulgarian) Діана(Ukrainian) Դիանա(Armenian) დიანა(Georgian)
Pronounced: die-AN-ə(English) DYA-na(Spanish, Italian, Polish) dee-U-nu(European Portuguese) jee-U-nu(Brazilian Portuguese) dee-A-nə(Catalan) dee-A-na(German, Dutch, Latin) dyee-A-nu(Ukrainian) DI-ya-na(Czech) DEE-a-na(Slovak)
Means
"divine, goddesslike", a derivative of Latin
dia or
diva meaning
"goddess". It is ultimately related to the same Indo-European root *
dyew- found in
Zeus. Diana was a Roman goddess of the moon, hunting, forests and childbirth, often identified with the Greek goddess
Artemis.
As a given name, Diana has been regularly used since the Renaissance. It became more common in the English-speaking world following Walter Scott's novel Rob Roy (1817), which featured a character named Diana Vernon. It also appeared in George Meredith's novel Diana of the Crossways (1885). A notable bearer was the British royal Diana Spencer (1961-1997), the Princess of Wales.
Dennis
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, German, Dutch
Pronounced: DEHN-is(English) DEH-nis(German, Dutch)
Usual English, German and Dutch form of
Denis.
Denise
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, English, Dutch
Pronounced: DU-NEEZ(French) də-NEES(English) deh-NEE-zə(Dutch)
French feminine form of
Denis.
Dellie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Della
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DEHL-ə
Delilah
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical, English
Other Scripts: דְּלִילָה(Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: di-LIE-lə(English)
Means
"delicate, weak, languishing" in Hebrew. In the
Old Testament she is the lover of
Samson, whom she betrays to the Philistines by cutting his hair, which is the source of his power. Despite her character flaws, the name began to be used by the
Puritans in the 17th century. It has been used occasionally in the English-speaking world since that time.
Delia 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Δηλία(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: DEE-lee-ə(English) DEH-lya(Italian, Spanish) DEH-lee-a(Romanian)
Means
"of Delos" in Greek. This was an epithet of the Greek goddess
Artemis, given because she and her twin brother
Apollo were born on the island of Delos. The name appeared in several poems of the 16th and 17th centuries, and it has occasionally been used as a given name since that time.
Delia 2
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Del
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Welsh
Pronounced: dehl
Welsh, meaning "pretty". A modern Welsh name.
The modern Welsh name Delyth, which is more frequently encountered, is an elaboration of this name.
Deirdre
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Irish, Irish Mythology
Pronounced: DIR-drə(English) DIR-dree(English) DYEHR-dryə(Irish)
From the Old Irish name
Derdriu, meaning unknown, possibly derived from
der meaning
"daughter". This was the name of a tragic character in Irish legend who died of a broken heart after
Conchobar, the king of Ulster, forced her to be his bride and killed her lover
Naoise.
It has only been commonly used as a given name since the 20th century, influenced by two plays featuring the character: William Butler Yeats' Deirdre (1907) and J. M. Synge's Deirdre of the Sorrows (1910).
Declan
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Irish, English
Pronounced: DEHK-lən(English)
Anglicized form of Irish
Deaglán, Old Irish
Declán, which is of unknown meaning.
Saint Declan was a 5th-century missionary to the Déisi peoples of Ireland and the founder of the monastery at Ardmore.
In America, this name received boosts in popularity from main characters in the movies The Jackal (1997) and Leap Year (2010).
Deacon
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: DEE-kən
Either from the occupational surname
Deacon or directly from the vocabulary word
deacon, which refers to a cleric in the Christian church (ultimately from Greek
διάκονος (diakonos) meaning "servant").
Dawn
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DAWN
From the English word dawn, ultimately derived from Old English dagung.
Darina 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish
Darcy
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DAHR-see
From an English surname that was derived from Norman French d'Arcy, originally denoting one who came from the town of Arcy in La Manche, France. This is the surname of a character, Fitzwilliam Darcy, in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice (1813).
Daphne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology, English, Dutch
Other Scripts: Δάφνη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: DA-PNEH(Classical Greek) DAF-nee(English) DAHF-nə(Dutch)
Means
"laurel" in Greek. In Greek
mythology she was a nymph turned into a laurel tree by her father in order that she might escape the pursuit of
Apollo. It has been used as a given name in the English-speaking world since the end of the 19th century.
Dallas
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DAL-əs
From a surname that could either be of Old English origin meaning "valley house" or of Scottish Gaelic origin meaning "meadow dwelling". A city in Texas bears this name, probably in honour of American Vice President George M. Dallas (1792-1864).
Daisy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DAY-zee
Simply from the English word for the white flower, ultimately derived from Old English
dægeseage meaning "day eye". It was first used as a given name in the 19th century, at the same time many other plant and flower names were coined.
This name was fairly popular at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. The American author F. Scott Fitzgerald used it for the character of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (1925). The Walt Disney cartoon character Daisy Duck was created in 1940 as the girlfriend of Donald Duck. It was at a low in popularity in the United States in the 1970s when it got a small boost from a character on the television series The Dukes of Hazzard in 1979.
Dahlia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: DAL-yə, DAHL-yə, DAYL-yə
From the name of the flower, which was named for the Swedish botanist Anders Dahl.
Daffodil
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: DAF-ə-dil
From the name of the flower, ultimately derived from Dutch de affodil meaning "the asphodel".
Cyrilla
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Cosmo
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Italian, English
Pronounced: KAWZ-mo(Italian) KAHZ-mo(English)
Italian variant of
Cosimo. It was introduced to Britain in the 18th century by the second Scottish Duke of Gordon, who named his son and successor after his friend Cosimo III de' Medici. On the American sitcom
Seinfeld (1989-1998) this was the seldom-used first name of Jerry's neighbour Kramer.
Cordelia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, English
Pronounced: kawr-DEE-lee-ə(English) kawr-DEEL-yə(English)
From
Cordeilla, a name appearing in the 12th-century chronicles
[1] of Geoffrey of Monmouth, borne by the youngest of the three daughters of King
Leir and the only one to remain loyal to her father. Geoffrey possibly based her name on that of
Creiddylad, a character from Welsh legend.
The spelling was later altered to Cordelia when Geoffrey's story was adapted by others, including Edmund Spenser in his poem The Faerie Queene (1590) and Shakespeare in his tragedy King Lear (1606).
Cora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, German, Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Κόρη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: KAWR-ə(English) KO-ra(German)
Latinized form of
Kore. It was not used as a given name in the English-speaking world until after it was employed by James Fenimore Cooper for a character in his novel
The Last of the Mohicans (1826). In some cases it may be a short form of
Cordula,
Corinna and other names beginning with a similar sound.
Clyde
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: KLIED
From the name of the River Clyde in Scotland, from Cumbric
Clud, which is of uncertain origin. It became a common given name in America in the middle of the 19th century, perhaps in honour of Colin Campbell (1792-1863) who was given the title Baron Clyde in 1858
[1].
Cleopatra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Κλεοπάτρα(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: klee-o-PAT-rə(English)
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.
Cleone
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Κλεώνη(Ancient Greek)
Latinized form of
Κλεώνη (Kleone), derived from
κλέος (kleos) meaning
"glory". This is the name of a naiad in Greek
myth.
Cleona
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek (Latinized), Greek Mythology, English (Rare)
Originally a Latinization of
Kleone, this name is sometimes understood as a feminine form of
Cleon in the English-speaking world.
In Greek mythology, Cleona (or Kleone) was the Naiad Nymph of the spring, well or fountain of the town of Kleonai (Cleonae) in Argos-Sikyonia, southern Greece. She was a daughter of the river-god Asopos.
Cleodora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized), American (South, Archaic)
Pronounced: klee-o-DAWR-ə(American (South))
Latinized form of
Kleodora. In Greek mythology, Cleodora was a nymph of Mount Parnassos in Phokis. She was one of the prophetic Thriai, nymphs who divined the future by throwing stones or pebbles. She was loved by the sea god Poseidon and had a son called Parnassos by him. This name was also borne by one of the Danaids (i.e., the 50 daughters of Danaus).
Cleo
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: KLEE-o
Clementine
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: KLEHM-ən-teen, KLEHM-ən-tien
Claudia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Biblical, Biblical Latin, Ancient Roman
Pronounced: KLAW-dee-ə(English) KLOW-dya(German, Italian, Romanian) KLOW-dee-a(Dutch, Latin) KLOW-dhya(Spanish)
Feminine form of
Claudius. It is mentioned briefly in the
New Testament. As a Christian name it was very rare until the 16th century.
Claire
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, English
Pronounced: KLEHR
French form of
Clara. This was a common name in France throughout the 20th century, though it has since been eclipsed there by
Clara. It was also very popular in the United Kingdom, especially in the 1970s.
Circe
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Κίρκη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: SUR-see(English)
Latinized form of Greek
Κίρκη (Kirke), possibly from
κίρκος (kirkos) meaning
"hawk". In Greek
mythology Circe was a sorceress who changed
Odysseus's crew into hogs, as told in Homer's
Odyssey. Odysseus forced her to change them back, then stayed with her for a year before continuing his voyage.
Cienna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: see-EN-ə
Chestnut
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English (American)
From the English word "chestnut" referring to "a tree or shrub of the genus Castanea; the nut or wood of said tree; and a dark, reddish-brown color". From the Middle English chasteine, from the Old French chastaigne, from the Latin castanea, from the Ancient Greek καστάνεια (kastaneia) 'chestnut'.
Cherry
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: CHEHR-ee
Simply means "cherry" from the name of the fruit. It can also be a
diminutive of
Charity. It has been in use since the late 19th century.
Cherie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: SHEHR-ee, shə-REE
Derived from French
chérie meaning
"darling". In America,
Cherie came into use shortly after the variant
Sherry, and has not been as common.
Charlotte
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch
Pronounced: SHAR-LAWT(French) SHAHR-lət(English) shar-LAW-tə(German) sha-LOT(Swedish) shahr-LAW-tə(Dutch)
French feminine
diminutive of
Charles. It was introduced to Britain in the 17th century. It was the name of a German-born 18th-century queen consort of Great Britain and Ireland. Another notable bearer was Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), the eldest of the three Brontë sisters and the author of
Jane Eyre and
Villette. A famous fictional bearer is the spider in the children's novel
Charlotte's Web (1952) by E. B. White.
This name was fairly common in France, England and the United States in the early 20th century. It became quite popular in France and England at the end of the 20th century, just when it was at a low point in the United States. It quickly climbed the American charts and entered the top ten in 2014.
Cersei
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Literature, Popular Culture
Pronounced: SUR-say(Literature) SUR-see(Popular Culture)
Created by American author George R. R. Martin for his series of epic fantasy novels
A Song of Ice and Fire, published beginning 1996, and the television adaptation
Game of Thrones (2011-2019), where it belongs to an evil queen who is one of the main antagonists. The name is popularly claimed to be a variant of
Circe, but Martin has stated that the mythological character was not the inspiration: 'I know my Homer, of course, but Cersei is not based on Circe. Many names sound alike.'
Celeste
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, English
Pronounced: cheh-LEH-steh(Italian) theh-LEHS-teh(European Spanish) seh-LEHS-teh(Latin American Spanish) sə-LEST(English)
Italian feminine and masculine form of
Caelestis. It is also the Portuguese, Spanish and English feminine form.
Cecil
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: SEE-səl, SEHS-əl
From the Roman name
Caecilius. Though it was in use during the Middle Ages in England, it did not become common until the 19th century when it was given in honour of the noble Cecil family, who had been prominent since the 16th century. Their surname was derived from the Welsh given name
Seisyll, which was derived from the Roman name
Sextilius, a derivative of
Sextus.
Cassiopeia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Κασσιόπεια, Κασσιέπεια(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: kas-ee-ə-PEE-ə(English)
Latinized form of Greek
Κασσιόπεια (Kassiopeia) or
Κασσιέπεια (Kassiepeia), possibly meaning
"cassia juice". In Greek
myth Cassiopeia was the wife of
Cepheus and the mother of
Andromeda. She was changed into a constellation and placed in the northern sky after she died.
Cassandra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French, Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Κασσάνδρα(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: kə-SAN-drə(English) kə-SAHN-drə(English)
From the Greek name
Κασσάνδρα (Kassandra), possibly derived from
κέκασμαι (kekasmai) meaning "to excel, to shine" and
ἀνήρ (aner) meaning "man" (genitive
ἀνδρός). In Greek
myth Cassandra was a Trojan princess, the daughter of
Priam and
Hecuba. She was given the gift of prophecy by
Apollo, but when she spurned his advances he cursed her so nobody would believe her prophecies.
In the Middle Ages this name was common in England due to the popularity of medieval tales about the Trojan War. It subsequently became rare, but was revived in the 20th century.
Caspian
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: KAS-pee-ən(English)
Used by author C. S. Lewis for a character in his Chronicles of Narnia series, first appearing in 1950. Prince Caspian first appears in the fourth book, where he is the rightful king of Narnia driven into exile by his evil uncle Miraz. Lewis probably based the name on the Caspian Sea, which was named for the city of Qazvin, which was itself named for the ancient Cas tribe.
Caroline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch
Pronounced: KA-RAW-LEEN(French) KAR-ə-lien(English) KAR-ə-lin(English) ka-ro-LEE-nə(German, Dutch) ka-ro-LEEN(Dutch)
Carmella
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: kahr-MEHL-ə
Carmel
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English, Jewish
Other Scripts: כַּרְמֶל(Hebrew)
Pronounced: KAHR-məl(English) KAR-məl(English)
From the title of the Virgin
Mary Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
כַּרְמֶל (Karmel) (meaning "garden" in Hebrew) is a mountain in Israel mentioned in the
Old Testament. It was the site of several early Christian monasteries. As an English given name, it has mainly been used by Catholics. As a Jewish name it is unisex.
Carina 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Late Roman
Pronounced: kə-REE-nə(English) ka-REE-na(Spanish, German)
Late Latin name derived from
cara meaning
"dear, beloved". This was the name of a 4th-century
saint and martyr. It is also the name of a constellation in the southern sky, though in this case it means "keel" in Latin, referring to a part of
Jason's ship the Argo.
Camellia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: kə-MEE-lee-ə, kə-MEHL-ee-ə
From the name of the flowering shrub, which was named for the botanist and missionary Georg Josef Kamel.
Callie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: KAL-ee
Cain
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Biblical, Biblical Latin
Other Scripts: קָיִן(Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: KAYN(English)
From the Hebrew name
קָיִן (Qayin) possibly meaning
"acquired", from the root
קָנָה (qana) meaning "to acquire, to purchase". In Genesis in the
Old Testament Cain is the first son of
Adam and
Eve. He killed his brother
Abel after God accepted Abel's offering of meat instead of his offering of plant-based foods. After this Cain was banished to be a wanderer.
Cadence
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: KAY-dəns
From an English word meaning "rhythm, flow". It has been in use only since the 20th century.
Brietta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (American, Rare, ?)
Bridget
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish, English
Pronounced: BRIJ-it(English)
Anglicized form of the Irish name
Brighid, Old Irish
Brigit, from old Celtic *
Brigantī meaning
"the exalted one". In Irish
mythology this was the name of the goddess of fire, poetry and wisdom, the daughter of the god
Dagda. In the 5th century it was borne by
Saint Brigid, the founder of a monastery at Kildare and a patron saint of Ireland. Because of the saint, the name was considered sacred in Ireland, and it did not come into general use there until the 17th century. In the form
Birgitta this name has been common in Scandinavia, made popular by the 14th-century Saint Birgitta of Sweden, patron saint of Europe.
Breezy
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: BREE-zee
From the adjective (see
Breeze). It is also used as a diminutive for names containing
-bri/bre(e)-, like
Brianna or
Sabrina.
Bowie
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English (Modern), Dutch (Modern)
Pronounced: BO-ee(English) BOO-ee(English)
From a Scottish surname, derived from Gaelic
buidhe meaning
"yellow". It has been used as a given name in honour of the British musician David Bowie (1947-2016), born David Robert Jones, who took his
stage name from the American pioneer James Bowie (1796-1836), though with a different pronunciation.
Bonnie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BAHN-ee
Means "pretty" from the Scottish word bonnie, which was itself derived from Middle French bon "good". It has been in use as an American given name since the 19th century, and it became especially popular after the movie Gone with the Wind (1939), in which it was the nickname of Scarlett's daughter.
Bonnibel
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Obscure
Apparently a combination of
Bonnie and the popular name suffix
-bel.
Bonita
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: bə-NEE-tə
Means "pretty" in Spanish, ultimately from Latin bonus "good". It has been used as a name in the English-speaking world since the beginning of the 20th century.
Blythe
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: BLIEDH
From a surname meaning "cheerful" in Old English.
Bluebonnet
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
From the English name for the bluebonnet flower.
Bluebell
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Popular Culture
Pronounced: BLOO-bel(English)
From the name of the flower, used to some extent as a first name when flower names were in vogue at the end of the 19th century.
Blossom
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BLAH-səm
From the English word blossom, ultimately from Old English blóstm. It came into use as a rare given name in the 19th century.
Blanche
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, English
Pronounced: BLAHNSH(French) BLANCH(English)
From a medieval French nickname meaning
"white, fair-coloured". This word and its cognates in other languages are ultimately derived from the Germanic word *
blankaz. An early bearer was the 12th-century Blanca of Navarre, the wife of Sancho III of Castile. Her granddaughter of the same name married Louis VIII of France, with the result that the name became more common in France.
Bishop
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BISH-əp
Either from the English occupational surname, or else directly from the English word. It is ultimately derived from Greek
ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos) meaning "overseer".
Birdie
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BUR-dee
Diminutive of
Bertha,
Bernice and other names with a similar sound, or sometimes simply from the English word
bird.
Billie
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BIL-ee
Bidelia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish (Rare)
Bex
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: BEKS
Beowulf
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Anglo-Saxon Mythology
Pronounced: BAY-ə-wuwlf(English)
Possibly means
"bee wolf" (in effect equal to "bear") from Old English
beo "bee" and
wulf "wolf". Alternatively, the first element may be
beadu "battle". This is the name of the main character in the anonymous 8th-century epic poem
Beowulf. Set in Denmark, the poem tells how he slays the monster Grendel and its mother at the request of King
Hroðgar. After this Beowulf becomes the king of the Geats. The conclusion of the poem tells how Beowulf, in his old age, slays a dragon but is himself mortally wounded in the act.
Bennett
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BEHN-it
Medieval form of
Benedict. This was the more common spelling in England until the 18th century. Modern use of the name is probably also influenced by the common surname
Bennett, itself a derivative of the medieval name.
Benedetta
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian
Pronounced: beh-neh-DEHT-ta
Belle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BEHL
Short form of
Isabella or names ending in
belle. It is also associated with the French word
belle meaning "beautiful". A famous bearer was Belle Starr (1848-1889), an outlaw of the American west, whose real given name was Maybelle.
Bellamy
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English (Modern)
From an English surname derived from Old French bel ami meaning "beautiful friend".
Beau
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English, Dutch (Modern)
Pronounced: BO
Means
"beautiful, handsome" in French. It has been used as a given name since the middle of the 20th century. In Margaret Mitchell's novel
Gone with the Wind (1936) this is the name of Ashley and Melanie's son.
Although this is a grammatically masculine adjective in French, it is given to girls as well as boys in Britain and the Netherlands. In America it is more exclusively masculine. It is not commonly used as a name in France itself.
Beatrice
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, English, Swedish, Romanian
Pronounced: beh-a-TREE-cheh(Italian) BEE-ə-tris(English) BEET-ris(English) BEH-ah-trees(Swedish) beh-ah-TREES(Swedish)
Italian form of
Beatrix. Beatrice Portinari (1266-1290) was the woman who was loved by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. She serves as Dante's guide through paradise in his epic poem the
Divine Comedy (1321). This is also the name of a character in Shakespeare's comedy
Much Ado About Nothing (1599), in which Beatrice and
Benedick are fooled into confessing their love for one another.
Bean
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BEEN
Basil 1
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BAZ-əl
From the Greek name
Βασίλειος (Basileios), which was derived from
βασιλεύς (basileus) meaning
"king".
Saint Basil the Great was a 4th-century bishop of Caesarea and one of the fathers of the early Christian church. Due to him, the name (in various spellings) has come into general use in the Christian world, being especially popular among Eastern Christians. It was also borne by two Byzantine emperors.
Bambi
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: BAM-bee
Derived from Italian bambina meaning "young girl". The American novelist Marjorie Benton Cooke used it in her novel Bambi (1914). This was also the name of a male deer in a cartoon by Walt Disney, which was based on a 1923 novel by Swiss author Felix Salten.
Babette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, German, Dutch, English
Pronounced: BA-BEHT(French)
Azalea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: ə-ZAY-lee-ə
From the name of the flower (shrubs of the genus Rhododendron), ultimately derived from Greek
ἀζαλέος (azaleos) meaning "dry".
Axel
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German, French, English
Pronounced: A-ksehl(Swedish) A-ksəl(German) A-KSEHL(French) AK-səl(English)
Avis
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: AY-vis
Probably a Latinized form of the Germanic name
Aveza, which was derived from the element
awi, of unknown meaning. The
Normans introduced this name to England and it became moderately common during the Middle Ages, at which time it was associated with Latin
avis "bird".
Ava 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: AY-və
Variant of
Eve. A famous bearer was the American actress Ava Gardner (1922-1990). This name became very popular throughout the English-speaking world in the early 21st century, entering the top ten for girls in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It began to rise sharply after 1997, possibly inspired by the actress Heather Locklear and musician Richie Sambora when they used it for their baby daughter that year.
Audrey
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French
Pronounced: AWD-ree(English) O-DREH(French)
Medieval
diminutive of
Æðelþryð. This was the name of a 7th-century
saint, a princess of East Anglia who founded a monastery at Ely. It was also used by William Shakespeare for a character in his comedy
As You Like It (1599). At the end of the Middle Ages the name became rare due to association with the word
tawdry (which was derived from
St. Audrey, the name of a fair where cheap lace was sold), but it was revived in the 19th century. A famous bearer was British actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).
Atticus
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Literature, Ancient Greek (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Ἀττικός(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: AT-i-kəs(English)
Latinized form of Greek
Ἀττικός (Attikos) meaning
"from Attica", referring to the region surrounding Athens in Greece. This name was borne by a few notable Greeks from the Roman period (or Romans of Greek background). The author Harper Lee used the name in her novel
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) for an Alabama lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman.
Astraea
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Ἀστραία(Ancient Greek)
Latinized form of the Greek
Ἀστραία (Astraia), derived from Greek
ἀστήρ (aster) meaning
"star". Astraea was a Greek goddess of justice and innocence. After wickedness took root in the world she left the earth and became the constellation Virgo.
Artie
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: AHRT-ee
Apple
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: AP-əl
From the English word for the fruit, derived from Middle English appel, Old English æppel. The American actress Gwenyth Paltrow and British musician Chris Martin gave this name to their daughter in 2004.
Apollo
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Ἀπόλλων(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: ə-PAHL-o(English)
From Greek
Ἀπόλλων (Apollon), which is of unknown meaning, though perhaps related to the Indo-European root *
apelo- meaning
"strength". Another theory states that Apollo can be equated with Appaliunas, an Anatolian god whose name possibly means
"father lion" or
"father light". The Greeks later associated Apollo's name with the Greek verb
ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi) meaning
"to destroy". In Greek
mythology Apollo was the son of
Zeus and
Leto and the twin of
Artemis. He was the god of prophecy, medicine, music, art, law, beauty, and wisdom. Later he also became the god of the sun and light.
Aoife
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Irish, Irish Mythology
Pronounced: EE-fyə(Irish)
From Old Irish
Aífe, derived from
oíph meaning
"beauty" (modern Irish
aoibh). This was the name of several characters in Irish legend, including a woman at war with
Scáthach (her sister in some versions). She was defeated in single combat by the hero
Cúchulainn, who spared her life on the condition that she bear him a child (
Connla). Another legendary figure by this name appears in the
Children of Lir as the jealous third wife of
Lir.
This name is sometimes Anglicized as Eve or Eva.
Anya
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Russian, English
Other Scripts: Аня(Russian)
Pronounced: A-nyə(Russian) AN-yə(English)
Antoinette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: AHN-TWA-NEHT
Feminine
diminutive of
Antoine. This name was borne by Marie Antoinette, the queen of France during the French Revolution. She was executed by guillotine.
Antoine
Gender: Masculine
Usage: French, African American
Pronounced: AHN-TWAN(French) an-TWAWN(English)
French form of
Antonius (see
Anthony). A famous bearer was the French writer Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944), the author of
The Little Prince.
Antheia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Ἄνθεια(Ancient Greek)
Annika
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Swedish, Dutch, Finnish, Estonian, German, English (Modern)
Pronounced: AN-ni-ka(Swedish) AH-nee-ka(Dutch) AHN-nee-kah(Finnish) A-nee-ka(German) AN-i-kə(English) AHN-i-kə(English)
Anneliese
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German, Dutch
Pronounced: A-nə-lee-zə(German) ah-nə-LEE-sə(Dutch)
Annabelle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French
Pronounced: AN-ə-behl(English)
Variant of
Annabel. It can also be interpreted as a combination of
Anna and French
belle "beautiful".
Anna
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Armenian, Icelandic, Faroese, Catalan, Occitan, Breton, Scottish Gaelic, Biblical, Biblical Greek [1], Biblical Latin, Old Church Slavic
Other Scripts: Άννα(Greek) Анна(Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Church Slavic) Աննա(Armenian) Ἄννα(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: AN-ə(English) AN-na(Italian, Polish, Icelandic) A-na(German, Swedish, Danish, Greek, Czech) AH-na(Dutch) AHN-nah(Norwegian, Finnish, Armenian) AWN-naw(Hungarian) AN-nə(Russian, Catalan) ahn-NAH(Armenian)
Form of
Hannah used in the Greek and Latin
Old Testament. Many later Old Testament translations, including the English, use the
Hannah spelling instead of
Anna. The name appears briefly in the
New Testament belonging to a prophetess who recognized
Jesus as the Messiah. It was a popular name in the Byzantine Empire from an early date, and in the Middle Ages it became common among Western Christians due to veneration of
Saint Anna (usually known as Saint Anne in English), the name traditionally assigned to the mother of the Virgin
Mary.
In England, this Latin form has been used alongside the vernacular forms Ann and Anne since the late Middle Ages. Anna is currently the most common of these spellings in all English-speaking countries (since the 1970s), however the biblical form Hannah is presently more popular than all three.
The name was borne by several Russian royals, including an 18th-century empress of Russia. It is also the name of the main character in Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina (1877), about a married aristocrat who begins an ultimately tragic relationship with Count Vronsky.
Angelina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, English, Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Armenian
Other Scripts: Ангелина(Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian) Αγγελίνα(Greek) Անգելինա(Armenian)
Pronounced: ang-jeh-LEE-na(Italian) an-jə-LEE-nə(English) un-gyi-LYEE-nə(Russian) ang-kheh-LEE-na(Spanish)
Latinate
diminutive of
Angela. A famous bearer is American actress Angelina Jolie (1975-).
Angel
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: English, Bulgarian, Macedonian
Other Scripts: Ангел(Bulgarian, Macedonian)
Pronounced: AYN-jəl(English)
From the medieval Latin masculine name
Angelus, which was derived from the name of the heavenly creature (itself derived from the Greek word
ἄγγελος (angelos) meaning "messenger"). It has never been very common in the English-speaking world, where it is sometimes used as a feminine name in modern times.
Andromeda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Ἀνδρομέδα, Ἀνδρομέδη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: AN-DRO-MEH-DA(Classical Greek) an-DRAH-mi-də(English)
Derived from Greek
ἀνήρ (aner) meaning "man" (genitive
ἀνδρός) combined with one of the related words
μέδομαι (medomai) meaning "to be mindful of, to provide for, to think on" or
μέδω (medo) meaning "to protect, to rule over". In Greek
mythology Andromeda was an Ethiopian princess rescued from sacrifice by the hero
Perseus. A constellation in the northern sky is named for her. This is also the name of a nearby galaxy, given because it resides (from our point of view) within the constellation.
Andrew
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, Biblical
Pronounced: AN-droo(English)
English form of the Greek name
Ἀνδρέας (Andreas), which was derived from
ἀνδρεῖος (andreios) meaning
"manly, masculine", a derivative of
ἀνήρ (aner) meaning "man". In the
New Testament the apostle Andrew, the first disciple to join
Jesus, is the brother of
Simon Peter. According to tradition, he later preached in the Black Sea region, with some legends saying he was crucified on an X-shaped cross.
Andrew, being a Greek name, was probably only a nickname or a translation of his real Hebrew name, which is not known.
This name has been common (in various spellings) throughout the Christian world, and it became very popular in the Middle Ages. Saint Andrew is regarded as the patron of Scotland, Russia, Greece and Romania. The name has been borne by three kings of Hungary, American president Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), and, more recently, English composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948-).
Amy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: AY-mee
English form of the Old French name Amée meaning "beloved" (modern French aimée), a vernacular form of the Latin Amata. As an English name, it was in use in the Middle Ages (though not common) and was revived in the 19th century.
Amora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Apparently a modern coinage based on Latin
amor meaning
"love".
Amity
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: A-mi-tee
From the English word meaning "friendship", ultimately deriving from Latin amicitia.
Amelia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Medieval French
Pronounced: ə-MEE-lee-ə(English) ə-MEEL-yə(English) a-MEH-lya(Spanish, Italian, Polish)
Variant of
Amalia, though it is sometimes confused with
Emilia, which has a different origin. The name became popular in England after the German House of Hanover came to the British throne in the 18th century — it was borne by daughters of both George II and George III. The author Henry Fielding used it for the title character in his novel
Amelia (1751). Another famous bearer was Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), the first woman to make a solo flight over the Atlantic Ocean.
This name experienced a rise in popularity at the end of the 20th century. It was the most popular name for girls in England and Wales from 2011 to 2015.
Alydia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Dutch (Rare), South African (Rare)
Alouette
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern, Rare), Dutch (Rare), Afrikaans (Rare), Spanish (Mexican, Rare)
Derived from French
alouette "lark, skylark".
Alouette is a popular Quebecois children's song, commonly thought to be about plucking the feathers from a lark. Although it is in French, it is well known among speakers of other languages as many US Marines and other Allied soldiers learned the song while serving in France during World War I and took it home with them, passing it on to their children and grandchildren.
This is a nickname used for
Cosette as a young girl in Victor Hugo's novel
Les Misérables (1862). As a given name, however, it is not used in France itself.
Allen
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: AL-ən
Variant of
Alan, or from a surname that was derived from this same name. A famous bearer of this name was Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), an American beat poet. Another is the American film director and actor Woody Allen (1935-), who took the
stage name Allen from his real first name.
Alice
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Czech, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch
Pronounced: AL-is(English) A-LEES(French) u-LEE-si(European Portuguese) a-LEE-see(Brazilian Portuguese) a-LEE-cheh(Italian) a-LEES(German) A-li-tseh(Czech)
From the Old French name
Aalis, a short form of
Adelais, itself a short form of the Germanic name
Adalheidis (see
Adelaide). This name became popular in France and England in the 12th century. It was among the most common names in England until the 16th century, when it began to decline. It was revived in the 19th century.
This name was borne by the heroine of Lewis Carroll's novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871).
Alexandrina
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Portuguese, Romanian, English (Rare)
Pronounced: al-ig-zan-DREE-nə(English)
Elaborated form of
Alexandra. This was the first name of Queen Victoria; her middle name was Victoria.
Alexandria
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: al-ig-ZAN-dree-ə
Feminine form of
Alexander. Alexander the Great founded several cities by this name (or renamed them) as he extended his empire eastward. The most notable of these is Alexandria in Egypt, founded by Alexander in 331 BC.
Alexandra
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, German, Dutch, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Greek, Portuguese, Romanian, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Catalan, Russian, Ukrainian, Ancient Greek [1], Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Αλεξάνδρα(Greek) Александра(Russian, Ukrainian) Ἀλεξάνδρα(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: al-ig-ZAN-drə(English) a-leh-KSAN-dra(German, Romanian) a-lehk-SAHN-dra(Dutch) A-LEHK-ZAHN-DRA(French) a-leh-KSAN-dhra(Greek) u-li-SHUN-dru(European Portuguese) a-leh-SHUN-dru(Brazilian Portuguese) A-lehk-san-dra(Czech, Slovak) AW-lehk-sawn-draw(Hungarian) A-LEH-KSAN-DRA(Classical Greek)
Feminine form of
Alexander. In Greek
mythology this was a Mycenaean epithet of the goddess
Hera, and an alternate name of
Cassandra. It was borne by several early Christian
saints, and also by the wife of Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia. She was from Germany and had the birth name
Alix, but was renamed
Александра (Aleksandra) upon joining the Russian Church.
Aleksander
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Polish, Slovene, Estonian, Norwegian, Danish
Pronounced: a-lehk-SAN-dehr(Polish)
Alaska
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
From Aleut alaxsxaq "object to which the action of the sea is directed" or "mainland". It is the name of a US state.
Alana
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Breton
Pronounced: ə-LAN-ə(English) a-LAHN-a(Breton)
Aimee
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: AY-mee
Variant of
Amy, influenced by French
Aimée.
Agatha
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, German, Dutch, Ancient Greek (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Ἀγαθή(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: AG-ə-thə(English) a-GHA-ta(Dutch)
Latinized form of the Greek name
Ἀγαθή (Agathe), derived from Greek
ἀγαθός (agathos) meaning
"good".
Saint Agatha was a 3rd-century martyr from Sicily who was tortured and killed after spurning the advances of a Roman official. The saint was widely revered in the Middle Ages, and her name has been used throughout Christian Europe (in various spellings). The mystery writer Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was a famous modern bearer of this name.
Ælfwig
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Anglo-Saxon [1][2]
Derived from the Old English elements
ælf "elf" and
wig "war, battle".
Adena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Hebrew (Rare)
Other Scripts: עֲדִינָה(Hebrew)
Adelle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ə-DEHL
Adele
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German, English, Italian
Pronounced: a-DEH-lə(German) ə-DEHL(English) a-DEH-leh(Italian)
Form of
Adela used in several languages. A famous bearer was the dancer and actress Adele Astaire (1896-1981). It was also borne by the British singer Adele Adkins (1988-), known simply as Adele. Shortly after she released her debut album in 2008 the name reentered the American top 1000 chart after a 40-year absence.
Adelaide
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, Portuguese
Pronounced: A-də-layd(English) a-deh-LIE-deh(Italian) a-di-LIE-di(European Portuguese) a-di-LIED(European Portuguese) a-deh-LIE-jee(Brazilian Portuguese)
Means
"nobleness, nobility", from the French form of the Germanic name
Adalheidis, which was composed of
adal "noble" and the suffix
heit "kind, sort, type". It was borne in the 10th century by
Saint Adelaide, the wife of the Holy Roman emperor Otto the Great.
In Britain the parallel form Alice, derived via Old French, has historically been more common than Adelaide, though this form did gain some currency in the 19th century due to the popularity of the German-born wife of King William IV, for whom the city of Adelaide in Australia was named in 1836.
Ada 1
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Finnish, Germanic [1]
Pronounced: AY-də(English) A-dha(Spanish) A-da(Polish) AH-dah(Finnish)
Originally a short form of Germanic names such as
Adelaide or
Adelina that begin with the element
adal meaning "noble".
Saint Ada was a 7th-century Frankish abbess at Le Mans. This name was also borne by Augusta Ada King (1815-1852), the Countess of Lovelace (known as Ada Lovelace), a daughter of Lord Byron. She was an assistant to Charles Babbage, the inventor of an early mechanical computer.
Acacia
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: ə-KAY-shə
From the name of a type of tree, ultimately derived from Greek
ἀκή (ake) meaning "thorn, point".
Abilene
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Various (Rare)
Other Scripts: Ἀβιληνή(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: AB-i-leen(English) ab-i-LEE-nee(English)
From a place name mentioned briefly in the
New Testament. It is probably from Hebrew
אָבֵל (ʾavel) meaning "meadow, grassy area". It has occasionally been used as a given name in modern times.
Abel
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Georgian, Armenian, Biblical, Biblical Latin, Biblical Greek [1]
Other Scripts: აბელ(Georgian) Աբել(Armenian) הֶבֶל(Ancient Hebrew) Ἄβελ, Ἅβελ(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: AY-bəl(English) A-BEHL(French) a-BEHL(Spanish, European Portuguese) a-BEW(Brazilian Portuguese) A-bəl(Dutch) ah-BEHL(Eastern Armenian) ah-PEHL(Western Armenian)
From the Hebrew name
הֶבֶל (Hevel) meaning
"breath". In the
Old Testament he is the second son of
Adam and
Eve, murdered out of envy by his brother
Cain. In England, this name came into use during the Middle Ages, and it was common during the
Puritan era.
Aaliyah
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arabic, English (Modern), African American (Modern)
Other Scripts: عالية(Arabic)
Pronounced: ‘A-lee-ya(Arabic) ə-LEE-ə(English) ah-LEE-ə(English)
Feminine form of
Aali. It was popularized in the English-speaking world by the singer Aaliyah Haughton (1979-2001), who was known simply as Aaliyah. This name received a boost in popularity after she released her debut album in 1994, and also in 2001 after her untimely death in an airplane crash.
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