My favourite names

One of the jewel names in use a hundred years ago, for both boys and girls, due for revival along with sisters Ruby and Pearl. But interestingly, Garnet means pomegranate, the fruit who shares a deep red color with the jewel.

The additional syllable makes Lark a masculine surname name, borne by poet Philip Larkin.

Dovie was a fairly popular nickname name a century or more ago, dropping off the Top 1000 in the 1940s only to be heading back uphill now. Given to around 30 girls in a recent year, Dovie has a way to go to enter the Top 1000 again but with Novie, Jovie, Goldie, and Stevie in the charts, it might rank in the future.

Petal is the soft and sweet-smelling name of a character in the novel and film, The Shipping News. With the rise of such flower names as Poppy and Posy, we believe Petal — down-to-earth yet romantic — has its own appealingly distinctive style.

Yes, though it seems so extreme, girls were actually sometimes given this name a century ago; now it is so uncommon it would make a strong springtime statement. Biggest obstacle: the nickname Daffy.

Gardener is surely one of the most pleasant and evocative of the occupational options, calling up images of green grass and budding blooms. The name can also be spelled without the first 'e', as in Gardner (born George Cadogan Gardner) McCay, a hunky TV heartthrob of the 1950s and 60s. Gardner is a much more common surname spelling, associated with screen legend Ava, mystery writer Erle Stanley and art collector and patron Isabella Stewart, founder of Boston's Gardner Museum.

Calm, straightforward, patrician sounding: Pace is one new-style name that's well-grounded.