Names That Mean Daughter

Cordelia is exactly the kind of old-fashioned, grown-up name for girls that many parents are seeking for their daughters today. The name of King Lear's one sympathetic daughter, Cordelia has both style and substance along with its Shakespearean pedigree.

Rode two rockets to fame, with actress Winona Ryder and singer Wynonna Judd. Winona entered the Top 1000 for the first time since 1957 this past year in 2022, following in the footsteps of trending short form Winnie.

Common in Scandinavia, this name has rarely come to our shores. The name of the heroine in Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Solveig is currently a widely-used name in Norway. Pronounced authentically, with a silent 'g', it becomes much more appealing.

Tauriel is the name of an elf in the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, played by Evangeline Lilly. She is the head of the Mirkwood Elven guard, and a companion of Legolas. Her name was created from the Sindarin elements taur "forest" and riel "maiden’.

Popular with the Puritans, this name of the shrewd and beautiful wife of King David and mother of King Solomon could be a bit of a load for a modern girl to carry.

Anemone is a floral name that relates to the ancient Greek myth of the famous love story of Aphrodite and Adonis, in which Aphrodite transforms her wounded lover's blood into a flower, the crimson anemone, whose blossoms are opened by the wind — accounting for its other name, windflower.

This obscure name found in Sinclair Lewis's 1923 novel Babbitt is a bit hipper than most other is-ending names like Janis and Doris. Some sources consider it a variation of Tanith, who is a Phoenician moon goddess and fertility figure, while others say it is a North American indigenous name from the Cree culture, meaning daughter. It may in fact have two separate derivations and meanings, but in any case is a lovely and unusual name.

Spelling used by country singer Wynonna Judd, one of two celebrities (the other is Winona Ryder) who brought this unusual Native American name widespread notice.

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.

This Hindu goddess name is very popular in India. The goddess of love, fertility and devotion, representing female force, Parvati is the wife of Shiva and the mother of Ganesh. There is a Harry Potter character named Parvati Patil, a twin sister of Padma..

A variation of the Old Testament Bithiah, Batya is a Hebrew variant of the name. Derived from bat meaning "daughter" and yah meaning "Yahweh", Batya (or Bithiah) is the name of one of Pharaoh's daughters, often depicted as the one to take Moses out of the Nile.

Tongue twister of a name common in Ireland in both its Gaelic and its Anglicized forms. American or British parents looking for an Irish name that's still largely unknown in the outside world might consider this.

The short form Shira is more manageable.

Basha bears a family resemblance to other newly popular Slavic names Sasha and Mischa, all of them hearty, warm and welcoming.

Long forgotten Old Testament name with modern potential.

Lúthien Tinúviel is an elf princess in J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendarium, who falls in love with a mortal human, Beren, and chooses to become mortal herself rather than to live without him. Tinúviel is a Sindarin name given to her by Beren, meaning "daughter of twilight" and therefore "nightingale".

Debanhi took the lead in 2022 as the name with the biggest increase in percentage of babies born — a whopping 1,164% increase. The name was given to 177 baby girls, and this rise may be attributed to the tragic murder of Debanhi Escobar in 2022. The name comes from the phrase Dios Eterno Bendiga A Nuestra HIga, meaning "Eternal God bless our daughter".

The kind of feminized male name that never caught on.

A common name in Indonesia that would not work well in English-speaking countries, being too close to putrid or putty.

It looks like a creative respelling of battle, but this name is anything but. Instead, Batel is a Hebrew name with a lovely meaning.