Romantic names for girls – loosely defined as creative and elaborate names that suggest an earlier era and a Latinate emotionality – have become more fashionable in recent years. As we grow more comfortable with the notion of equality for girls, we may also become confident enough to give our daughters elaborately feminine names rather than having to make our point with androgynous, modern monikers like Blair or Blake.
Of course, not every romantic name is a feminist statement. These names may just feel fresh again after decades of sleeker, more straightforward girls’ names like Mary and Betty, Karen and Lisa. Even Jennifer and Ashley pale in the face of these flagrantly feminine names.
The rise of Isabella and Sophia to the Top 10 means that Romantic Names are now mainstream. Some choices further off the beaten track:
The names of romantic heroines also carry a special romantic aura, even when they’re less elaborate than the classically romantic names like Seraphina and Lilliana. While some of the most romantic heroines of literature have decidedly unromantic names – nothing can really elevate Jane of Jane Eyre and Cathy of Wuthering Heights to the level of romanticism – other names take on a more romantic glow thanks to the heroines who bear them.
Some examples from literature, classic and modern, as well as romantic films include:
CHRISTABEL – Possession
CLARE – The Time Traveler’s Wife
CLEOPATRA – Antony and Cleopatra
DOROTHEA – Middlemarch
EMMA – Madame Bovary
JULIET – Romeo & Juliet, The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society
ROSE – Titanic
SABRINA — Sabrina
SCARLETT – Gone with the Wind
TESS – Tess of the D’Urbervilles
VIVIAN – Pretty Woman
And then there are romance novels, both conventional and paranormal. Names of the newer romantic heroines include:
BRYNA – Spellbound
CHLOE – The Dark Highlander
DOUGLESS – Knight in Shining Armor
IDESS – Ecstasy Unveiled: Demonica Series
PHOEBE – It Had To Be You
VASILISA/LISSA – The Vampire Academy (Vasilisa is also the name of the heroine of a classic Russian fairy tale)
Thanks to our intern DANIELLE MIKSZA for help researching the names.
Pamela Redmond
Pamela Redmond is the cocreator and CEO of Nameberry and Baby Name DNA. The coauthor of ten groundbreaking books on names, Redmond is an internationally-recognized baby name expert, quoted and published widely in such media outlets as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, CNN, and the BBC. She has written about baby names for The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and People.
Redmond is also a New York Times bestselling novelist whose books include Younger, the basis for the hit television show, and its sequel, Older. She has three new books in the works.