Whitley ABC Favorite Names for Girls

  1. Rosemary
    • Origin:

      Latin or English
    • Meaning:

      "dew of the sea, or rosemary (herb)"
    • Description:

      Despite appearances, Rosemary is not a "smoosh" name, not even a traditional one. The name derives from two Latin terms "Ros" meaning ‘dew’ and "Marinus" "meaning "of the sea". The plant was termed ‘dew of the sea’ due to its salty texture and its ability to thrive in coastal climes. Only after the Middle Ages did the English names of Rose and Mary become interchanged with the name Rosmarinus and give us the modern name we use today.
  2. Harlow
    • Origin:

      English surname
    • Meaning:

      "rock hill or army hill"
    • Description:

      Jean Harlow (born Harlean Carpenter), the original platinum blonde bombshell, was a symbol of 1930s glamour, a factor that first Patricia Arquette and then Nicole Richie and Joel Madden probably had in mind when they gave their daughters the distinctive surname name Harlow.
  3. Ursula
    • Origin:

      Latin
    • Meaning:

      "little female bear"
    • Description:

      A saint's name with a noteworthy literary background, including uses by Shakespeare in Two Gentlemen of Verona and Much Ado About Nothing, by Ben Johnson, Walter Scott, Longfellow, D. H. Lawrence and Neil Gaiman. In real life, her two most well known representatives are writer Ursula Le Guin and actress Ursula Andress. In literature, there is also Ursula Iguaran, a key, long-lived character in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's major work, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
  4. Olwen
    • Origin:

      Welsh
    • Meaning:

      "white footprint"
    • Description:

      Olwen is a Welsh favorite, the name of a legendary princess in what is believed to have been the earliest Arthurian romance, and in fact one of the first recorded examples of Welsh prose.
  5. Qiturah
    • Origin:

      Arabic
    • Meaning:

      "incense, scent"
    • Description:

      Twist on the attractive and underused biblical name Keturah.
  6. Yael
    • Origin:

      Hebrew
    • Meaning:

      "ibex"
    • Description:

      Yael is an Old Testament name often heard in Israel that could work well here: just remember that it's pronounced with two syllables...it is also spelled Ya'el. In the Bible she was a Kenite woman in the time of Deborah who killed the enemy general, Sisera.

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