User-created list
By turnip · Updated May 2023
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Word name
"gold colored"
Like Silver, Golden is a shimmering, metallic color name, similar enough to the likes of Arden, Eden, and Gwendolyn that it might not over dazzle. It could work as an unexpected route to the vintage…
Lovina is a feminine name with several possible origins. It may be derived from Latin 'lovina' relating to love, or could be a variant of Lavinia, an ancient Roman name associated with Latin…
English
"woven with a double thread; twilight; star"
The intriguing and creative feeling Twila is a vintage name that was semi-popular in the first half of the 20th century. Evoking the glowing light of twilight, it might appeal as an alternative to…
Latin
"springtime"
Verna may mean "springtime," but May or Spring is fresher.
English word name
"cherry"
With other fruity names like Clementine, Olive and Plum ripe for the picking, sweet Cherry remains remarkably underused: just 27 baby girls received the name in 2017, down from 343 at its peak in…
French variation of Helen
"bright, shining one"
Whether it's pronounced with an "een" or an "aine" or an "enn" sound at the end, Helene doesn't feel as current the more forthright Helen or the airier Helena. Helene reached a high of Number 228 in…
Diminutive of Wilhelmina
"resolute protection"
In the US, Wilma is appears to be eternally fossilized in Bedrock as Fred Flintstone's wife, but in Sweden it's a Top 10 hottie. It did have its moment in the US--from 1912 to 1940 it was a Top 100…
"prayer"
Short and slight, with great potential now that names like Ava, Ida and Orla are popular. Ora Beach is a tourist destination on Seram Island, Indonesia.
Choctaw, English, Spanish, Hindi, or Kiswahili
"leaping waters; town; spear strength; mountain peak"
Tula is a multicultural name, linked to the names Tallulah, Gertrude, and Tullia, a mountain range in Antarctica, and to the Greek Toula, used for the heroine of the hit film My Big Fat Greek Wedding…
"fairy"
Fay, also spelled Faye, who had been napping quietly since the 1930's, has, like cousins May/Mae and Ray/Rae, sat up and started rubbing her eyes, ready for a mini-comeback, especially as a middle…
Spanish place-name
"covered in snow"
Named for its snowcapped mountains, Nevada is a state name which, unlike Carolina, Montana, and Dakota, has been relatively undiscovered. Warning: today's unvisited place-name could become tomorrow's…
French, feminine variation of George
Has a musty 1940s feel. Try Georgia -- or Georgiana.
Diminutive of Joanna or Josephine, Hebrew
"Jehovah increases"
The name Jo still evokes the spunky image of the character in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women . Its literary status makes Jo one of the OG boyish nicknames for girls, ala Frankie, Billie, and…
"noble maiden"
Ethel is a name we once declared as 'So Far Out They'll Probably Always Be Out,' but with the return of other names on that list and with its new starbaby cred via Lily Allen, its soft sound and…
"elevated, high"
Familiar in the 19th- and early 20th-centuries, Alta is little heard today, but it does have that four letter, A-a formula of Alma, Alba, Anna, Ayla, and Anya. Derived from the Latin altus , it has…
English, diminutive of Nora
Noreen's in limbo, especially now that Nora has made a comeback.
Diminutive of Wilhelmina, German and Dutch
Historically a diminutive of Wilhelmina, Elma's parent name and soundalike sisters are slowly stirring back to life as the trend for vintage baby names continues. With Alma on the rise in the US,…
Welsh
"white spear; famous friend; fame and joy"
A fabled storybook name via the heroine of Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe (1819), which featured a heroine called Rowena of Hargottstanstede, and also a Harry Potter name, as Rowena Ravenclaw,…
Norse
"fair victory"
Sigrid is a distinctly Scandinavian name that is starting to edge out into the wider world, a la cousin Ingrid. Unfortunately, short form Siri is now off the table, but Sigrid is still a possibility.
German
"bright, glorious"
Ever since Allied soldiers in World War I dubbed the enormous German cannon "Big Bertha", this name hasn't worked for a sweet little baby girl. But this was not always so. Hard as it might be to…
