Updated November 2023
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Hebrew
"daughter of an oath"
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. Bathsheba is the name of the…
Hebrew, short variation of Bathsheba
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. Sheba is…
Arabic
"seventh daughter"
The short form Shira is more manageable.
"daughter of the right hand"
The kind of feminized male name that never caught on.
"daughter of Jehovah"
Long forgotten Old Testament name with modern potential.
Polish, diminutive of Kordelja
"daughter of the sea"
Pretty in a polka-dancing way.
Anglicized form of Irish Dearbhla or Deirbhile
"daughter of the poet"
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…
Indonesian
"princess; daughter"
A common name in Indonesia that would not work well in English-speaking countries, being too close to putrid or putty.
"Daughter of Jehovah"
Also spelled Bethia and Bithiah, this Old Testament name could wear well today. Bethea might make an original way to honor an ancestral Elizabeth or get to the nickname Beth.
Irish
Dearbhla along with its Anglicized form Dervla are both well-used in modern Ireland. There was a medieval Saint Dearbhla. The spelling Deirbhile is also used.
"daughter of God"
It looks like a creative respelling of battle, but this name is anything but. Instead, Batel is a Hebrew name with a lovely meaning. Jenna Jameson chose this name for her daughter in 2017, putting it…
Literary name
"Daughter of the twilight / nightingale"
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…