German Girl Names

Heidi became known — and popular — via the 1880 eponymous children's classic by Swiss writer Johanna Spyri and, despite decades of American Heidis of all sizes, shapes, and personalities, the name seems permanently tethered to that spunky little girl on the Alpine mountaintop in the book and Shirley Temple movie.

Greta is an Old World name long tied to the iconic Garbo, but now synonymous with environmental activism.

Lost in limbo for decades and decades, Elsa now stands a good chance of following along in the progression from Emma to Ella to Etta, thanks to the ice queen heroine who "Let It Go" in the wildly popular Disney movie Frozen. The name shot all the up to Number 286 (its highest ranking since the 1890s) in the year after the release of the movie, though it's now dropped back down the list in the US.

An up-and-coming nickname-style name, hugely popular in Germany and on the rise in the UK, Leni is stylish but sweet. Chosen for her daughter by high-profile German supermodel Heidi Klum back in 2004, Leni with its concise spelling and European feel is also on the rise in the US, alongside Lennie, Lenny, Lennox, and Lennon.

A "modernization" of Leonora that has suddenly come back on the radar along with the many other Leo names--both male and female. With literary cred via a famous eponymous poem by Edgar Allan Poe (and also in his even more famous The Raven,) Lenore was steadily in the top half of the popularity list until the mid-fifties, falling off in 1973. Cameron Diaz played a Lenore in The Green Hornet.

Maude, also spelled Maud, is a lacy, mauve-tinted name that was wildly popular a hundred years ago, but has been rarely heard in the past fifty. Some stylish parents are starting to choose it again, especially as a middle.

Variously spelled Annalise and Annaliese as well as several other forms, this is not a modern smoosh but a traditional German combo-name with a definite Heidi-esque feel.

Credit the award-winning single-named British singer for taking the girls’ name Adele from a quiet semi-retirement back into currency. Adele reentered the US Top 1000 popular baby names in 2011 and has remained there ever since.

Isa is a name unto itself as both a Persian name meaning "strong-willed" and as Germanic one derived from the element is meaning "ice". It can also be a short form of Isabel, Isabella, Isadora, Louisa, and similar. Currently popular in Brazil and The Netherlands, it has seen some increased use in the US in recent years, perhaps owing to the popularity of other short names like Ava, Mia, and Isla.

A favorite in England and Wales where nicknames as given names are very much the norm, Tilly has the potential to catch on in the US, given its similarity to the popular Lily and Ellie and the rising stars Millie, Billie, Kallie, and Nellie.

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen undoubtedly gave this name a boost. The French pronunciation (jiz-ELLE) gives it a more graceful, balletic, gazellelike feel.

Zinnia is an unusual floral choice with a bit more edge and energy than most and beginning to find its way onto namers' wish lists of botanical possibilities. Named after an eighteenth German botanist called Johann Gottfried Zinn, it appears in Roald Dahl's Matilda as the young protagonist's mother.

Although feminizations ending in "ette" are not particularly popular now, Bernadette is a pleasant, feminine, but strong name that doesn't feel prohibitively dated. And though strongly associated with the saint who saw visions of the Virgin Mary—Saint Bernadette of Lourdes—it is now no longer strictly inhabiting the Catholic diocese.

Clarissa, the daintier version of Claire, has a long literary history of its own, having been featured in the novels of Samuel Richardson, Charles Dickens, and Virginia Woolf—Clarissa was the title character of Mrs. Dalloway—not to mention the 1990s teen sitcom, Clarissa Explains it All.

Jocelyn has gotten new life and popularity as a result of the current passion for lyn endings. Though it was a male name in medieval times, now Jocelyn couldn't sound more softly feminine.

Combining the mild and the innocent, this sweet and feminine name is worthy of a comeback, in the mode of Madeline and Cecilia. Its original, also attractive form is Melisende, which came from Germany to France and was borne by a daughter of Charlemagne.

Amalia is a widely cross-cultural name, heard from Italy to Romania, Germany to Scandinavia. The current heir to the Dutch throne is Princess Catharina-Amalia of Orange. It can be pronounced ah-MAH-lee-a or ah-mah-LEE-a.

Though twin brother Gerald is still in baby name limbo, Geraldine is in line to follow the path of Josephine to imminent revival—even though Gerry is not as spunky a nickname as Josie.

Johanna is the version of this name used in Holland, Germany, and Scandinavia. The extra h makes Johanna a slightly more dignified version of Joanna.

This pretty, succinct Arabic name is also commonly used as a nickname for names like Carolina.