Bella

Everything ella, from Ella to Bella to Gabriella, is red hot right now. Bella was one of the less overused examples, with the hint of a nice Old World grandmotherly veneer, until it became attached to Twilight's Bella Swan. Bella shot up the charts in 2009, jumping 64 spots to number 58. It's now holding steady in that general vicinity, though if you're thinking of naming your daughter Bella, be aware there are a lot of little girls whose proper names are Isabella, Arabella etc. who are called Bella.

In pre-Twilight literature, Bella Wilfer is the central character in Charles Dickens's Our Mutual Friend.

Mark Ruffalo, Billy Bob Thornton and Eddie Murphy are all dads to Bellas. A strong feminist namesake is Bella Abzug.

Bella was in use as far back as the thirteenth century, then disappeared until the eighteenth when it became fashionable.