Bad Girl Names

Mythological princess who killed her kids. Eternal no-no.

Some parents are hoping to bestow good karma on their children with this name, derived from the Sanskrit word for "fate". Associated with the Hindu and Buddhist belief that someone's actions in this life (and their previous ones) decide their future existences, it is more informally used in the Western world to refer to good or bad luck.

As this word is less often used to mean derriere, it becomes more possible to view Fanny as the kind of appealingly quaint nickname name, like Josie and Nellie, that many parents are favoring now.

Musical choice that may be a short form of Jasmine or Jazlyn, or might stand on its own like this or as Jaz, the spelling used by tennis duo Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi.

Mitzi is a spunky German nickname name that might appeal to parents drawn to the genre of lively vintage chorus girl names that proliferated in 1930's musicals. Lively entertainer Mitzi Gaynor--who was originally named Francesca Marlene de Czani von Gerber--made the name notable in mid-century America.

Once unique to the Zappa family, now you can have your own little prima donna.

Spicy.

The name of one of the most powerful Marvel superheroes — and the first major black female comic book heroine — is certainly a big one to live up to! Portrayed in the live-action X-Men movies first by Halle Berry and then by Alexandra Shipp, Storm is a mutant descended from a long line of African witch-priestesses, who can bend the weather and atmosphere to her will.

Beware: extremely high pressure, high-expectation name.

A plausible color name, it was chosen by the singer Sting as a middle name for his daughter, after a character in the Gormenghast fantasy trilogy, of which he's a big fan. Another bearer is Fuchsia Voremberg, a member of the BBC Show, Antiques Roadshow who specializes in diaries and manuscripts.

For a boy, Dash is usually short for Dashiell, but as a girl's name it just stands for energetic--and also the stores run by the Kardashian sisters..

More a concept than a place — or a name.

There's only one. Okay, two.

Asking for trouble. Rebel Wilson is a hilarious Australian actress who puts a female spin on this contemporary badass baby name. Still, we think this name is truly gender neutral – though hardly neutral in any other way. Rebel is undoubtedly one of the edgiest girls' names starting with the letter R.

Place names like Memphis, Harlem, Cairo, Vienna, Milan, and Astoria are right on trend at the moment, and Egypt could fit in, thanks to its similarity in sound to the likes of Edith and Eden. Alicia Keys used the name for her son back in 2010, but before that, it was used as a stage name for three famous belly dancers.

You can call your baby "babe," but don't name her that.

A hot name, though perhaps not in the sense you want for your baby. About 20 times as many boys as girls were named Blaze in one recent year, perhaps because it can be seen as a spelling variation of the classic male saint's name Blaise.

This biblical place-name for the region now known as Yemen started to feel fresh again as the name of the heroine of Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal, played on screen by Cate Blanchett.

Beware: Flame is the kind of name used by women named Fran when engaging in endeavors they'd just as soon their parents weren't aware of.

Pistol is one of the new names that entered the lexicon in the US in 2013, when it was given to nine babies of each gender, though last year that number was down to zero. One of the new class of names with an unfortunately violent image.