Names That Mean Foreign

The lyrical and melodious Elodie, a Nameberry favorite, is starting to rise through the US popularity charts for the first time since the 1880s. This once uncommon member of the El- family is a Top 100 name in the UK, Canada, and New Zealand, while in the US, it was one of the fasted rising names of 2024 and now sits in the Top 400.

Barbara is back! Among the fastest-rising names of 2023, Barbara came back from oblivion at the very bottom of the Top 1000, gaining nearly 100 places on the popularity list.

This unique Scottish name for girls is taken from the name of a small, inhabited Shetland island off the coast of Scotland, and fits into the tradition of Scottish parents choosing Scottish place names for their babies. From Fife to Oban, Lomond to Iona, Vaila is a rare choice outside of its native country, but in the Top 300 there. 2024 saw it given to 13 baby girls in Scotland.

Gallagher is, like so many of its genre, friendly, open, and optimistic. Some might associate it with the fraternal members of the band Oasis, Noel and Liam Gallagher.

A melodious ancient saint's name now more commonly heard in its French form, Elodie.

As Elodie filters into the mainstream, parents may turn to the rarer Spanish form Elodia as an alternative.

Baby is rarely seen as a given name — or even nickname — these days, although it did rank in the Top 1000 from 1989 to 2003. These instances can be accounted for in two ways. Firstly, infants whose birth certificates are not filled out on time are given generic placeholders for registration, such as Infant, Unknown, or Baby. But more influential during this decade was the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, starring Jennifer Grey as Frances "Baby" Houseman. It's the origin of the famed line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

Short form of the Russian Varvara, a feistier version of Barbara.

This name of an ancient Greek historian sounds too long-ago and faraway to consider for a modern child.

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

This is a name used as a pseudonym by Celia in Shakespeare's As You Like It to conceal her real identity. It was later seen as a character in the Ken Follett novel Pillars of the Earth. Can also be spelled Alienna, taking it further away from the alien connection.

The Czech, Slovak and Lithuanian form of Barbara isn't quite far enough from the English one to make it sound fresh to us. Our favorite international version is Greek Varvara.

Babs is an old-fashioned nickname for Barbara, itself an old-fashioned name that was hugely popular in the 20th century but that's not (yet) on its way back in. If you really want a vintage-y nickname name with a lot of attitude that bucks the current friends, go for Babs instead of Betty or Bea.

In Medieval England, Barbary was a common given name and short form of Barbara. Today it exists as a surname, either derived from Barbara itself, or in French, from the Occitan barbari, meaning "barbarian."