WorldPrincessII's Personal Name List

Meaning uncertain, possibly a derivative of Anne 1 or Agnès. It was used in Jean-Henri Guy's opera Anacréon chez Polycrate (1798), where it is borne by the daughter (otherwise unnamed in history) of the 6th-century BC tyrant Polycrates of Samos. Guy could have adapted it from a classical name such as Anaitis or Athénaïs.

A famous bearer was the Cuban-French writer Anaïs Nin (1903-1977), known for her diaries.

French form of April. A famous bearer is the Canadian musician Avril Lavigne (1984-).

Probably from Viatrix, a feminine form of the Late Latin name Viator meaning "voyager, traveller". It was a common name amongst early Christians, and the spelling was altered by association with Latin beatus "blessed, happy". Viatrix or Beatrix was a 4th-century saint who was strangled to death during the persecutions of Diocletian.

In England the name became rare after the Middle Ages, but it was revived in the 19th century, more commonly in the spelling Beatrice. Famous bearers include the British author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), the creator of Peter Rabbit, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (1938-).

German form of Brunhild, used when referring to the character from the Nibelungenlied.

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.

Variant of Fay.

Means "little wolf", derived from Old Irish fáel "wolf" combined with a diminutive suffix. This was the name of an Irish saint who did missionary work in Scotland.

Medieval Italian nickname meaning "gem, precious stone". It was borne by the wife of the 13th-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

From Yiddish גוט (gut) meaning "good".

Short form of Margareta. A famous bearer of this name was the Swedish actress Greta Garbo (1905-1990).

German diminutive of Adelheid. This is the name of the title character in the children's novel Heidi (1880) by the Swiss author Johanna Spyri. The name began to be used in the English-speaking world shortly after the 1937 release of the movie adaptation, which starred Shirley Temple.

Latinate form of Helen. This is the name of the heroine of William Shakespeare's play All's Well That Ends Well (1603).

English form of Inés.

From the Old Norse name Ingríðr meaning "Ing is beautiful", derived from the name of the Germanic god Ing combined with fríðr "beautiful, beloved". A famous bearer was the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982).

Greek form of Egyptian ꜣst (reconstructed as Iset, Aset or Ueset), possibly from st meaning "throne". In Egyptian mythology Isis was the goddess of the sky and nature, the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus. She was originally depicted wearing a throne-shaped headdress, but in later times she was conflated with the goddess Hathor and depicted having the horns of a cow on her head. She was also worshipped by people outside of Egypt, such as the Greeks and Romans.

Originally a medieval English diminutive of Jane. Since the middle of the 20th century it has been primarily considered a diminutive of Jennifer.

Diminutive of Yekaterina.

Short form of names ending in lena, such as Helena, Magdalena or Yelena. It is often used independently.

Originally a diminutive of Magdaléna or Helena. It is now used as an independent name.

Latinate form of Lillian.

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.

Variant of Magdalene.

Hungarian variant of Mária, and a Croatian and Serbian variant of Marija.

French feminine form of Marcellinus.

Feminine form of Marinus. This name was borne by a few early saints. This is also the name by which Saint Margaret of Antioch is known in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

From Japanese 恵 (megumi) meaning "favour, benefit" or 愛 (megumi) meaning "love, affection", as well as other kanji or kanji combinations that have the same reading. It is often written using the hiragana writing system.

Variant of Morwenna.

Means "hope" in Russian and Bulgarian.

Latinate form of Natalia (see Natalie).

Russian form of Natalia (see Natalie).

Derived from Greek Νηρηΐδες (Nereides) meaning "nymphs, sea sprites", ultimately derived from the name of the Greek sea god Nereus, who supposedly fathered them.

Feminine form of Noël.

Feminine form of Peter. This was also the name of an ancient city in the region that is now Jordan.

Simply from the English word rain, derived from Old English regn.

Means "queen" in Spanish.

From Japanese 凛 (rin) meaning "dignified, severe, cold" or other kanji that are pronounced the same way.

Hebrew form of Rebecca.

Means "rose" in Breton.

Either a variant of Sarah or a short form of Seraphina.

Feminine form of the Late Latin name Seraphinus, derived from the biblical word seraphim, which was Hebrew in origin and meant "fiery ones". The seraphim were an order of angels, described by Isaiah in the Bible as having six wings each.

This was the name of a 13th-century Italian saint who made clothes for the poor. As an English name, it has never been common.

Means "star" in Welsh. This is a recently created Welsh name.

From Japanese 星 (se) meaning "star" combined with 林 (rin) meaning "woods; grove; forest; copse", 鈴 (rin) meaning "bell, chime" or 凛 (rin) meaning "dignified, severe, cold". Other kanji combinations are possible.

Means "gazelle" in Aramaic. Tabitha in the New Testament was a woman restored to life by Saint Peter. Her name is translated into Greek as Dorcas (see Acts 9:36). As an English name, Tabitha became common after the Protestant Reformation. It was popularized in the 1960s by the television show Bewitched, in which Tabitha (sometimes spelled Tabatha) is the daughter of the main character.

From Chinese 太 (tài) meaning "very, extreme" or other characters pronounced in a similar way.

Meaning unknown. This was the name of the Phoenician goddess of love, fertility, the moon and the stars. She was particularly associated with the city of Carthage, being the consort of Ba'al Hammon.

Anglicized form of the Irish place name Teamhair, which possibly means "elevated place". This was the name of the sacred hill near Dublin where the Irish high kings resided. It was popularized as a given name by the novel Gone with the Wind (1936) and the subsequent movie adaptation (1939), in which it is the name of the O'Hara plantation.

Means "darling" in Welsh, derived from a diminutive of Welsh teg "beautiful, pretty". It was somewhat common in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada in the 1980s and 90s. It was borne by an Australian character on the television series Doctor Who from 1981 to 1984.

Variant of Tuuli.

From the English word for the small songbird. It is ultimately derived from Old English wrenna.

Probably a variant of Xenia. This was the name of the main character in the 1990s television series Xena: Warrior Princess.

Feminine form of Yaakov.

Bulgarian, Russian and Ukrainian form of Jana 1.

Russian form of Katherine. This name was adopted by the German princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1744 shortly before she married the future Russian emperor Peter III. She later overthrew her husband and ruled as empress, known as Catherine the Great in English.

Russian form of Helen.

French form of Iseult.

Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Bulgarian form of Julia.

Meaning unknown, possibly of Romani origin. This name was (first?) used by Aleksandr Pushkin in his poem The Gypsies (1827).