Current Favorite Names- January 12 2016

Ivory

Word name

"hard, white material from the tusks and teeth of animals; pale, white"

Ivory was last popular a hundred years ago. In 2013, it finally began to regain some momentum in the female rankings, reentering the Top 1000, while 2024 saw it jump up the charts again by over 100…

Winter

Word name

Fresher, brisker and, yes, cooler than Summer or Autumn or Spring, Winter is now a full-fledged female choice, especially since Nicole Richie and Joel Madden used it for daughter Harlow's middle…

Indigo

Greek

"Indian dye"

Indigo is one of the most appealing and evocative of the new generation of color names. Color names have joined flower and jewel names -- in a big way -- and Indigo, a deep blue-purple dye from…

Lavender

English color and flower name

"purple flower"

Lavender lags far behind sweet-smelling purple-hued sister names Violet and Lila, but is starting to get some enthusiastic attention from cutting-edge namers along with other adventurous nature names…

Amethyst

Gem and Color name

As flower names become more unique, so can gem names move beyond Ruby and Pearl to names like Topaz, Sapphire, and Peridot. Amethyst, the purple birthstone for February, has never been in the Top…

Arizona

Place-name from Papago Indian

"little springs"

We usually think of place-names as a modern invention, but in fact Arizona ranked on the US Top 1000 from its inception in 1880 until 1911, when it vanished below the surface. It peaked at Number 510…

Indiana

American place-name

"land of the Indians"

Indiana is one of those place-names (think Camden and Trenton) that sounds cooler than the place that inspired it. Its fashionable -ana ending certainly sounds eminently name-like, and…

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…

Oceana

Greek

"ocean"

If you're a lover of the beach and sea, and want a name that relates to the largest body of water, there are several variations you could consider. Oceana is the female form of Oceanus, the god of…

Lilac

English, from Persian

"bluish or lilac"

Could Lilac be the next Lila or Lily or Violet? It certainly has a lot going for it--those lilting double 'l's, the fabulous fragrance it exudes, and the fact that it's a color name as well,…