Names From My Favorite Musicals

This spelling variation of Mabel clears up the pronunciation — "may-belle", as opposed to "may-bull". Maybelle is packed with Southern charm, and like sister name Mabel is on the rise, but still on a much smaller scale.

Marty and Martie are old-fashioned gender-neutral nickname names, boyish nicknames not heard much since the middle of the last century. That could change, though, with the rise of vintage boyish nicknames for girls. They have a certain charm and may come back into style along with mother names such as Martha.

Eponine is attracting new notice via the movie of Les Miserables, based on the book by Victor Hugo. Eponine is the spoiled daughter of Cosette's foster parents whose name, according to the story, was lifted by her mother from a romance novel. As in a romance, Eponine redeems herself by becoming a martyr to love.

Depending on your cultural references, you may think of Phantom of the Opera author Gaston Leroux, or the macho villain of Beauty and the Beast. While he's hardly a role model (unless you too use antlers in all of your decorating), his name was likely chosen because it's a classic in France. It's been used there since the middle ages, partly in honor of the Frankish bishop St Gaston. It went out of style in France mid-century, but now it's having a revival, entering the Top 300 in 2017.

Fantine is a rarely heard French name except as a character in the Victor Hugo novel Les Misérables.