Bird Names

Pacific island member of the currently-in-favor Lila/Leila family and one of the most attractive and unique girls' names starting with P.

Phoenix rolls a lot of cool trends into one: it's a place-name and a bird name, it ends in the oh-so-hip letter x, and as the mythic bird that rose from the ashes, it's a symbol of immortality.

Make that bird name, and while it does work for both genders, it's far more popular for girls, via Raven Symone.

Old-style creative name of the Greek mythological earth mother of all the gods. A lot better than the Roman equivalent: Ops. Rhea reentered the US Top 1000 in 2015. Its only previous appearance on the list since 1968 was 2004.

Now that it's no longer fashionable for girls, Robin is rising for boys again. Robin Hood, Robin Williams, Christopher Robin, and Robin the Boy Wonder are all male namesakes, after all. It reentered the US Top 1000 boys names in 2015 for the first time since 1999 and continues to bounce around the lower end of the Top 1000.

Rosella can be seen as a nature name (a rosella is the name of a variety of beautiful Australian cockatoos and an Australian flower) or a diminutive version of Rose.

Hippie name of the Jonathan Livingston Seagull era.

Unusual choice that was the original name of children's illustrator Tasha Tudor, but is an interesting elaboration of Star, taking it into avian territory.

Obsolete Swanhild gives way to oh-so-modern Swan, joining the flock of newly fashionable bird names such as Wren and Lark. In France, the Swann spelling is fashionable for both sexes. But Swan carries an image of grace, though perhaps also a bit of languor. It's a lovely and original name, right for our times.

Teal is one of the prettiest and most straightforward of the new color names -- an ideal middle name choice.

Weaver, which made an appearance as a first name on the U.S. Top 1000 in the late 19th century and then vanished, may rise again along with its occupational brethren, from already-popular choices such as Cooper and Parker to au courant ones like Archer to occupational hotties of the future, including Booker and Sayer.

A new entry is the fashionable new occupational name category -- and a jolly job it must be -- with the added attraction of relating to the great early 20th century American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, of "Whistler's Mother" fame.

Wren may not be as time-honored a bird name choice as Robin or even Lark, but it's more fashionable and fresh, with a gentle and earthy vibe.