Alice

Alice is a classic name that's both strong and sweet, which got a big bounce via Tina Fey's choice of the name for her daughter. In the past two years alone, Alice has jumped from #258 to #142!

Alice is quite unique among traditional girls' names--more feminine and dainty than Mary and Helen, more substantive than Ann or Jane, yet with more lightness and innocent charm than Margaret or Katharine.

Alice is a darling of literature, from the immortal heroine in Alice in Wonderland to an unusual number of fine modern writers like Alices Munro, Walker, Sebold, Hoffman, McDermott, Adams, and Elliott Dark. In other fields there were First Daughter Alice Roosevelt, painter Alice Neel, food innovator Alice Waters and literary figure Alice B. Toklas, to name a few.

Alice is also a British royal, as Queen Victoria's second daughter, the princess who shocked her Victorian mother by breast feeding her baby.

At the moment, Alice is being revived all across the Western world: she's the top name in Sweden, a surprising Number 8 in Italy,and in the Top 50 in England and Wales, France, Belgium and Australia.