Bad Girl Names

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.

Some parents are hoping to bestow good karma on their children with this name, derived from the Sanskrit word for "fate". Associated with the Hindu and Buddhist belief that someone's actions in this life (and their previous ones) decide their future existences, it is more informally used in the Western world to refer to good or bad luck.

There's only one. Okay, two.

Fifi is a perfect name -- for a French poodle. But Fifi may seem more child-friendly as names like Coco and Lulu rise. Fifi in its fluffiness also balances the seriousness of such full names as Josephine or Federica.

For a boy, Dash is usually short for Dashiell, but as a girl's name it just stands for energetic--and also the stores run by the Kardashian sisters..

Mary was such a common name for so long that it sprouted a whole family of chimeric name splices: Maryann, Marybeth, Mary-Lousie, ad infinitum. Spiderman's Mary Jane Watson, the closed toe shoe with a strap, and the common nickname for marijuana have helped keep this one especially familiar to the American ear.

As this word is less often used to mean derriere, it becomes more possible to view Fanny as the kind of appealingly quaint nickname name, like Josie and Nellie, that many parents are favoring now.

Unlike the other fruit names that are just coming onto the baby name menu, Peaches is an old-timey nickname previously reserved for spangled showgirls, and now would be considered an outrageous -- verging on hip -- choice. Or perhaps it was, until 2023, when it entered the UK Top 1000, not sounding too out of place beside other 2023 favorites, Honey, Blossom, Sage, Halo, and Dolly.

More a concept than a place — or a name.

A hot name, though perhaps not in the sense you want for your baby. About 20 times as many boys as girls were named Blaze in one recent year, perhaps because it can be seen as a spelling variation of the classic male saint's name Blaise.

Mythological princess who killed her kids. Eternal no-no.

A plausible color name, it was chosen by the singer Sting as a middle name for his daughter, after a character in the Gormenghast fantasy trilogy, of which he's a big fan. Another bearer is Fuchsia Voremberg, a member of the BBC Show, Antiques Roadshow who specializes in diaries and manuscripts.

Once unique to the Zappa family, now you can have your own little prima donna.

Beware: extremely high pressure, high-expectation name.

Musical choice that may be a short form of Jasmine or Jazlyn, or might stand on its own like this or as Jaz, the spelling used by tennis duo Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi.

Beware: Flame is the kind of name used by women named Fran when engaging in endeavors they'd just as soon their parents weren't aware of.

Place names like Memphis, Harlem, Cairo, Vienna, Milan, and Astoria are right on trend at the moment, and Egypt could fit in, thanks to its similarity in sound to the likes of Edith and Eden. Alicia Keys used the name for her son back in 2010, but before that, it was used as a stage name for three famous belly dancers.

Pistol is one of the new names that entered the lexicon in the US in 2013, when it was given to nine babies of each gender, though last year that number was down to zero. One of the new class of names with an unfortunately violent image.

You can call your baby "babe," but don't name her that.

Spicy.