Strong Girl Names

Makes Donna into a cool twenty-first-century unisex Irish surname.

Tetsu is a female name with an unusually strong and powerful meaning. It sounds spunky and cute too.

Gunhilde is a strong feminine name borne by various notable women in Norse and Germanic history, including Gunhild of Denmark, a 10th-century Danish queen. The name embodies feminine strength and warrior spirit, reflecting the valuation of courage and fortitude in Nordic cultures.

Though some sources list this as a Greek variation of Emily, it is in fact used there only as a male name.

Clunky Gertrude is heading towards obscurity in the US, but here's a variation that might intrigue - Gesine, also spelled Gesina.

Alevtina is a Russian form of the spirited Valentina, and while it may have a slightly gentler sound to it, the name retains the level of grandeur, elegance, and liveliness of the Latin variation. Notable bearers include tennis player Alevtina Ibragimova and actress Alevtina Tukan.

This name was used by the royal House of Luxembourg in the Middle Ages, as a diminutive of Irmentrude. We definitely think this spunky shortening improves upon the heavy German original.

A vintage Dutch name, Berendina is the feminine form of Berend, a Dutch variant of Bernard. Can be shortened to Dina or Diny.

Mahi is another name for the Hindu earth goddess Bhumi. It also means strong in Hawaiian and might be a medieval French variation of Mary. But most modern Americans would hear it as the name of the fish mahi-mahi.

Used for girls in Scotland in the sixteenth century; this would make a bold but bonnie choice.

Girlish for Ethan: attractive and unusual.

A mighty lion in sheep's clothing. Though Amandla looks, to the untrained eye, like a variant of milquetoast Amanda, it actually derives from the word for "power" in the Zulu and Xhosa languages, two of the major languages of South Africa. Anti-Apartheid activists often used the phrase "Amandla Awethu!", meaning "power to the people," as a rallying cry at protests. There was also a 2002 documentary about the role of music in the downfall of Apartheid called "Amandla."