Names from the Arts and Pop Culture
By Pamela Redmond · Updated September 2026
Across 5 pages
of 5
Spanish feminization of Elio, Italian and Spanish
"sun"
Though the most famous Elia, screenwriter Kazan, was male, this name sounds like a spin on many popular girls' names, from Ella to Ellie to Isla and Leah. While the Italian pronunciation has the…
Hindi, Sanskrit
"light, saintly woman; prosperous"
Meera Bai, also spelled Mirabai, was a great female Hindu mystical poet whose works are popular throughout India. She was a fifteenth-sixteenth century Indian princess who devoted her life to writing…
Scottish
"dark warrior"
Duncan is jaunty, confident, and open, a Scottish royal name that's brimming with friendly charm and makes it into our golden circle of names that are neither too popular nor too strange. Popularity…
Sanskrit; Swahili
"hope; life"
Asha is an Indian name that comes from the Sanskrit word for hope or desire, but it is also a Swahili name derived from Aisha, meaning life. Since the ascendance of Ashley through the 1980s and 90s,…
Greek
"beautiful"
Calla is a botanical name that is much more distinctive than popular Lily or similar Callie. Rarely heard today, it did appear in the popularity lists in the last decades of the nineteenth century.…
Literature
The name of a warrior and dragonrider in the Game of Thrones universe, played by Matt Smith in the HBO prequel House of the Dragon . The word daemon also features in the His Dark Materials trilogy by…
Literary name
Daenerys is yet another girls' name invented by "Game of Thrones" author George R. R. Martin that is beginning to gain some traction in real life. Daenerys was used for 67 baby girls in 2013 while…
A character name in George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, a dragonrider played by Emma D'Arcy in the GOT prequel House of the Dragon .
Variation of Marlene
"Mary Magdalene; beloved, bitter, drop of the sea + high tower"
Marla might have dropped out of style in the US back in the 90s, but it has seen a resurgence in the UK in recent years. With a little dated charm about it, this variation of Marlene, itself a…
Variation of Shay, Irish
"the stately, dauntless one"
The third-most-popular spelling of this name, after Shea and Shay, is notable mostly for its connection to Game of Thrones . Shae is a "camp follower" -- AKA prostitute -- who becomes the loyal…
Dutch variation of William
"resolute protector"
Common in Holland, the appealing Willem (as in de Kooning and Dafoe) makes William fresh and distinctive.
Invented literary name
A character name in George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, featured in the GOT prequel House of the Dragon .In the series, the name is a feminine form of Baelon, the character's paternal…
English
"wealthy ruler"
Formerly in style limbo, Edric has recently started to see more use by parents. It could be because it sounds medieval yet accessible - which George R. R. Martin took advantage of for several…
Daven is a masculine name with multiple potential origins. It may be an Anglicized form of the Irish name Damhan (pronounced DAV-awn), meaning 'little stag,' or possibly a variant of Davin, a…
"from the ford by the landing place"
A surname style name could feel stuffy and edgy, depending on how you look at it. Originally, it was given to those who came from Staffordshire, a county in the West Midlands of England. The name…
Nicknamed Jace, this name belongs to a Prince of the Targaryen dynasty in the Game of Thrones universe.
A character name in George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, featured in the GOT prequel House of the Dragon . A creative spin on Reign or Rayna.
Welsh form of Alice, German
"noble"
Popular in Wales, familiar across the UK, and ultimately derived from the Germanic Adalheidis, this isn't a creative respelling of a classic, but the Welsh variant of it.
"godly"
Theon, an ancient name attached to a noted Greek teacher of mathematics and astronomy, also father to the first woman mathematician, might appeal to parents in this field. You can think of Theon as…
Tyrion is one of the many new names entering the lexicon thanks to George R. R. Martin, author of the Game of Thrones book. Tyrion's name shares its first two letters with those of his father Tywin…
