meganhopexo's list "A-Z Favorites" of 20 great name ideas: Iliana - Delia!

A-Z Favorites

Iliana is one of the vaguely but usually undefinably international names that have a wide range of spellings and pronunciations. Ilium was the poetic name of the city of Troy, and variations of this name — especially Ileana and Ileanna — have been widely used, projecting a rather bohemian image. The traditional Greek pronunciation would be ee-lee-AH-nah while in English speaking countries, it might be ill-ee-AH-nah.

Iliana

A unique combination of a surname feel and dainty femininity, Lacey is a favorite in the UK where it ranks in the Top 500. Likely derived from the name of a place in Normandy, it might occasionally be considered a diminutive to Wallace ("Welshman") or Larissa ("citadel").
 
The original spelling Lacy was once used for boys in the US, but Lacey has predominantly charted for girls, peaking in the 90s when it reached the Top 200. In the UK, it even made the Top 50 in 2010, having begun to climb the charts after actress Lacey Turner took up her role in the long-running soap, Eastenders back in 2004. 
 
Also spelled Laci and Lacie, the name has seen a decline in popularity in recent years, though it remains a pretty choice.
 
Notable bearers include actress Lacey Chambert and wrestler Lacey Evans.

Lacey

It's far cooler to drop the first syllable and go for Elle. 

Janelle

Flynn, a charming Irish surname, is still used only quietly, despite its easygoing, casual cowboy charm, unlike Finn which is a star of this genre. Flynn was the choice of Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr for their baby boy, and is also the middle name -- used as his first -- of a son of Miranda's fellow supermodel Elle Macpherson, of Gary Oldman's son Gulliver and Marley Shelton's daughter West.
 Flynn Rider (born Eugene Fitzherbert) is the dashing animated hero of the Disney film "Tangled." On TV's "Breaking Bad", Flynn was what young Walter Jr. tried to rename himself. The name was long associated with the swashbuckling Errol Flynn, inspiration of the phrase "in like Flynn." Some may connect this name to controversial former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn
 Flynn entered the U.S. Top 1000 in 2011, and is a highly popular choice in Australia and New Zealand.

Flynn

Like its single "n" sister name (Braelyn), Braelynn is currently enjoying its highest level of popularity. Unlike Braylin and Braylyn, the 'ae' of Braelynn gives the name a Scottish look, making it seem slightly less creative and more sturdy

Braelynn

A favorite in England and Wales where nicknames as given names are very much the norm, Tilly has the potential to catch on in the US, given its similarity to the popular Lily and Ellie and the rising stars Millie, Billie, Kallie, and Nellie. 
 
Most often used as a nickname for the strong but lively Matilda, Tilly might also work for recently popular Ottilie. Other less obvious possibilities could be Chantilly, Talitha, Natalie, or Talia.
 
As a stand alone name, Tilly is cutesy but not flimsy, and in recent years, it has been racing up the US charts. Nearly doubling in usage since 2018, a recent count revealed Tilly is given to nearly 250 babies each year. When you combine this with the number of Tillies too, the figure is more like 400. 
 
Notable Tillys include Tilly Ramsay, daughter of Gordan Ramsay, and a chef, present and influencer in her own right; Tilly Keeper, an actress in British soap Eastenders; and Tilly Edinger, a German-American paleontologist who founded paleoneurology.

Tilly

A play on the spelling of Isaac that's somehow been in the Top 1000 every year since 1880. (If only by a hair: In both 1926 and 1962, it came in at number 999.) It hit an all-time peak at Number 377 in 2007, and has slumped a fair bit in the ensuing decade.

Issac

Alec, a clipped British short form of Alexander, is less fresh than Alex, but leans more off-beat classic than Xander. Used since at least the 19th-century, Alec became particularly popular in the English-speaking world during the 1990s, possibly following actor Alec Baldwin's appearance in the movies Beetlejuice (1988) and The Hunt for Red October (1990). 
 
Used as both a full name and as a nickname, it has also been notably borne by actor Alec Guinness, writer Alec Waugh, and cricketer Alec Stewart. It's got literary credentials too, appearing in Maurice by E.M Forster, while in fiction more generally it has been used in Twilight, The Shadowhunters, GoldenEye, and Broarchurch.
 
Sharing the same strong meaning as long-form Alexander ("defending men"), Alec has been declining in recent years, possibly because it could easily get misheard as Alex, or because the aforementioned Alec Baldwin was accused (and later cleared) of involuntary manslaughter after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed during filming in 2021. 
 
Ranking at #977 in the US in a recent year, it was chosen by Vice President J.D Vance and his wife Usha for their son, born in 2026. For some, this may spark renewed interest in the name, though others may be further put off.

Alec

Joel is one of those <a href="https://nameberry.com/boys-names">boys’ names</a> that's never been super-popular yet has never been UNpopular either -- it's been in the Top 400 in the US since we started keeping statistics in 1880. So it's inevitable that its female form Joelle would gain visibility too, and indeed Joelle was used most widely during Joel's reign in the Top 100, from the late 1960s through the early 1990s. 

Joelle reentered the US Top 1000 in 2016 after a decade long absence. It had been just outside the Top 1000 almost all of those years, so its reentry is no surprise. It's also popular in the Netherlands. Joelle is one of the <a href="https://nameberry.com/search/girls-names/j">girl names starting with J</a> that strikes the balance between familiar and unusual.

Pronunciation is distinctively two syllables, as if it were two names: Jo Elle. Joel, on the other hand, rhymes with bowl and roll.

Joelle

Kellan Lutz is the attractive young actor who plays Emmett Cullen in the Twilight series.

Kellan

One of the most popular of the trendy Caitlin variations, Katelyn points directly to components Kate and Lyn --making it a bit more traditionally feminine.

Katelyn

Short and sharp with a nature related meaning, Vance was trending upwards in recent years thanks to the musicians Foy Vance and Vance Joy. 2024 saw it take a downwards dip however, likely due to its association with the vice president, JD Vance, a controversial association which it might not recover from for a while. Time, however, will tell. 
 Chynna Phillips and William Baldwin used it for their son in 2002.

Vance

Natasha, an appealing, still unusual name, entered the American mainstream post-Cold War but seems to have peaked in the eighties, replaced by the more straightforward Natalie. As is common for Natashas the world over, the Obamas shorten their Natasha's name to Sasha.
 Cultural references range from the central character in Tolstoy's War and Peace to Chekhov's Three Sisters and some of his short stories to comix heroine agent Natasha Romanoff, and was seen on screen in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers.

Natasha

Reece is a less popular respelling of Reese, made famous by actress Witherspoon. Reese is the most popular spelling for girls and Rhys for boys, with Reece given to about four times as many boys as girls.

Reece has ranked in the Top 1000 for boys in the US since the late 1980s, while it made the girls' Top 1000 only once.

Reece

Likely a variation of the Greek name Xenia, Xena is associated with the the TV Warrior Princess, played by Lucy Lawless back in the 90s. Also used as a diminutive form of Alexina or Zenobia, the name was used as a nickname, or temporary name, for the minor planet now known as Eris. It was chosen when it was still being decided how Eris would be classified, and was selected because it began with X and had the mythological, TV connection. 


Xena

An attempt to make this name swing more to the feminine side, though the original Ryan is becoming perfectly acceptable for girls.
 Ryann O'Toole is an American professional golfer.

Ryann

Football great Brett Favre single-handedly kept this name in the limelight, though it continues to sink in popularity.
 Brett originated in the Middle Ages as an ethnic name for one of the Bretons who arrived in Britain in the wake of the Norman Conquest.

Brett

Like Friends, Ross is off the air and into syndication as a baby name, having plummeted from its zenith in the late 80s to fall off the US Top 1000 in 2013. Today, Ross is more likely to be a dad name than a newborn name.
 Ross originated as one of the many <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/428/scottish-baby-names">Scottish names</a> taken from the surname of a famous clan, and is a place name in that country as well. It's a quiet, understated Celtic name that could come back in the current climate of single-syllable boy name popularity, though it will probably take a few years.
 Other notable Rosses besides the Ross Geller character include tycoon and maverick presidential candidate H. (for Henry) Ross Perot, mystery writer Ross (born Kenneth) Macdonald, and one of the twin sons of Jane Pauley and Garry Trudeau.

Ross

Randall

Delia is a somewhat neglected southern charmer that stands on its own but also might be short for Adelia or Cordelia. 
 Delia's name is based on that of the Greek island of Delos, which in Greek myth was the home of Apollo and Artemis and was an epithet of the moon goddess Artemis, and later taken up by the seventeenth century pastoral poets. 
 In Britain it has been associated with the cookbook writer and broadcaster Delia Smith; in the U.S. with novelist/screenwriter Delia Ephron, who often collaborated with her sister Nora. There have been characters named Delia on Everwood and Ghost Whisperer.