Colonial Names for Girls

Place-name mentioned in the New Testament and not yet on the name map. Philadelphia Thursday was the character played by Shirley Temple in John Ford's 1948 "Fort Apache."

No one will ever forget it. But Remember as a name came over on the Mayflower, so it has deep history as well as modern potential.

The Early Americans invented names too, sometimes variations of classical or biblical favorites. This one appears in Colonial rosters; the Aur beginning is Latin and means "gold."

An old royal name in England and Scotland that's also spelled Marjorie. Popular in the Middle Ages and Tudor period, it was revived at the end of the 19th century, peaked in 1921 and dropped off the list in 1958, enough time to be reconsidered as a Margaret alternative. The name Margery Daw is familiar via the seesaw nursery rhyme and Margery Williams wrote the children's classic The Velveteen Rabbit..

In the Zulu and Xhosa languages of Southern Africa, Phila is a unisex name pronounced "PEE-la" and means "to live of life" It's also the feminine version of the ancient Greek name Philo, pronounced "FEE-la", meaning friend or lover and present in several contemporary names and words used throughout the Western World. The name Philip, for instance, means lover of horses, while the city name Philadelphia means "brotherly love" and philosophy means "love of wisdom".

A name mentioned in the Old Testament as the wife of a king of Edom. A curious blend of clunky biblical style, and a "bel" ending that mirrors the feminine sound of names like Isabel and Annabel. Hettie and Belle / Bella are nickname possibilities.

Young rocker Tennessee Thomas has brought this former one-person name over to the girls' side -- though the census roles of North Carolina in 1850 included a female named Tennessee and called Tincy.

Adeliza is a unique member of the popular Adelaide-Adeline family. Different enough to distinguish it from all the others? Maybe, and it's definitely got an appealing sound that makes it sound a bit like a smoosh of Adele and Eliza.

Long forgotten Old Testament name with modern potential.

Eighteenth-century nickname that still appears occasionally as an alternative to Suzy. Suki Waterhouse is a lovely English actress.

Kizzy remains the most popular spelling of the Keziah short form, at least in some part thanks to its appearance in the 1977 television show Roots.

Mellie is not Millie and it's not Nellie, though it will forever be confused with those too more familiar nicknames. It's cute, too, and while some of the names it's usually short for may be sailing into the sunset (so long, Melody!), others like Amelia are rising through the ranks and may give Mellie a new chance to shine as a cute girls' nickname. Just be prepared for endless confusion.

Abiah is a Biblical name that appears for both female and male figures. It may be considered the same as the name Abijah in the Bible; one female Abijah was a queen and ancestor of Christ. Abiah may also be considered a relative of the Arabic name Abia. However you spell or pronounce it -- a - BY -a or a - BEE - a -- this name can be an original way to the nickname Abi.

It may have been used by the Puritans, but any modern child would chafe under this name.

A poetic name first used in Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" in 1596, it had a literary vogue in the 18th century, especially favored by Robert Burns. "inda" names--Melinda, Belinda, Linda" are not particularly in right now.

Takes the priss out of Priscilla.

A once very common Irish diminutive of Bridget that has unfortunately been associated since the 18th century with a pejorative slang term for an old or fussy woman.

Modesty is a virtue name dating to Roman times, but never widely used, except for hot 1960s movie spoof heroine, Modesty Blaise, based on a comic strip.

Melvina ranked in the Top 1000 for over 65 years in the US, coinciding to a large extent with the years its much more popular masculine counterpart Melvin ranked in the Top 100. Today, Melvin is still hanging on in the Top 1000 for boys, but Melvina hasn't been given to more than 20 babies in a year since 1991.

Replaced Patsy as the midcentury's popular, peppy babysitter.