Fairy Tale Names

Odette

French, from German

"wealthy"

Odette is the good swan in Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake , a role for which Natalie Portman won an Oscar ---and it would make a particularly sophisticated yet upbeat choice. In fact, it charted in…

Snow

English word name

There's definitely a cold front of names for winter babies moving in, with Summer, Spring and Autumn giving way to Winter--plus North, January, Frost--and Snow. This name feels brisk, fresh, pure,…

Belle

Short form of Isabelle or French

"beautiful"

Belle has nothing but positive associations, from "belle of the ball" to "Southern belle" to the heroine of Disney's Beauty and the Beast . As if this weren't enough good things, Belle is also one of…

Pocahontas

Algonquin

"playful one"

Seen from our vantage point, Pocahontas is a name that will please no one. It's sure to invite playground mockery, and parents without Algonquin ancestry will be engaging in cultural appropriation.…

Maude

English and French diminutive of Matilda, German

"battle-mighty"

Maude, also spelled Maud, is a lacy, mauve-tinted name that was wildly popular a hundred years ago, but has been rarely heard in the past fifty. Some stylish parents are starting to choose it again,…

Antonina

Slavic, Italian and Nordic from Latin

"priceless"

Despite the popularity of Anthony and its masculine variants, female derivatives of its source – the Roman family name Antonius , of unknown meaning – have never caught on in the same way. Sister…

Echo

Greek mythology name

"echo or sound"

Echo, the pretty, resonant name of a legendary nymph, was the heroine of Joss Whedon's sci-fi series Dollhouse . Nick Hexum, of the band 311, named his daughter Echo Love. In the Greek myth, Echo was…

Rosetta

Persian

"splendid"

Associated with the ancient Rosetta stone, this is also the pretty Italian pet form of Rosa.

Silver

English word name

" a metallic chemical element with atomic number 47"

Among the first wave of word names used in the hippie era, it actually is a legitimate girl's name with a lot of luster.

Misty

English

"mist"

The Play Misty for Me jokes will get old really fast.

Fawn

Nature name

"a young deer"

The doe-eyed Fawn is as gentle and soft as the baby deer it represents. And much like that baby deer, it carries with it the potential of new life. Fawn was featured at the bottom of the Top 1000…

Rani

Hindi, Hebrew

"queen; she is singing"

Rani, alternatively spelled Ranee, is the female equivalent of Raja in Hindi. In many Indo-Aryan languages it can mean "queen" or "lady". The Hebrew version is used for both genders in modern Israel.…