By Abby Sandel of Appellation Mountain

Heartbroken that Addison and Amelia are so popular?  Did your best friend just name her daughter Aria Alexandra, stealing two of your long-time favorites?  Never fear!  Here are some of my favorite A names for girls – and none of them currently rank in the US Top 1000.

Ariadne – In Greek myth, she helped Theseus defeat the Minotaur.  Top 100 choices Arianna and Ariana are derived from the same roots, but Ariadne is seldom heard in the English-speaking world.  But why not?  If Penelope can catch on, why not this clever heroine?

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Angela Mastrodonato, creator of the trend-watching blog Upswing Baby Names, will be a regular contributor to our Bonus Blog.  Today she looks at girls’ names with a new twist at the end.

There’s one vowel that’s found at the end of seemingly every girl name. That vowel, of course, is the A. Today the focus is on girl names ending in a different vowel– the incredible I.

The most popular ends-in-i name for the moment is Naomi, an Old Testament name long popular in the Jewish community, which is at an all-time popularity peak. Naomi broke the top 100 for the first time in 2010, and has gradually reached #93 for 2011 (the most recent year Social Security name data is available).

Another ends-in-i name that has seen recent success is Maci, which has dramatically ascended the charts. After spending a decade in the bottom top 1000, Maci achieved Top 200 status within a short two-year span, probably thanks to being the name of a teen mom featured on MTV reality shows.

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We’re always adding new names to Nameberry, and the ten newest on the site all just happen to be for girls.

Half of these names existed on Nameberry before as variations of other names, but without commentary of their own, and the other half are new entries.  All have ancient roots though are unusual — yet usable — in modern times.

Our newest girls’ names for 2013:

Adelina

Adelina is back in the Top 1000 after an absence of nearly a century, thanks to the meteoric rise of her sister name Adeline — along with Adelaide, Adele, and Ada.  Some parents choose Adelina because they want to get to cute vintage nickname Addie, but others favor it as a slightly more unusual form of this sweet vintage girls’ name. 

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This week’s Nameberry 9 by Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel shows us the wide range of girl baby names available to today’s parents.

Did you read Swistle’s post about a woman named Justin?

Some of us probably felt vindicated.  Of course you shouldn’t give a boy’s name to a girl!

Others probably thought: If only they’d chosen Justine instead.

Miss Justin might be an extreme case, but this week’s name news reminds us that the range of possibilities for girls is vast.  From conventionally masculine names to modern inventions to antique revivals, we are willing to be daring when naming daughters.

That’s not just a name nerd perspective, either.  In 2011, almost 79% of newborn boys in the US received a Top 1000 name.  For girls?  Just under 67% received a Top 1000 choice.

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