User-created list
Names of Woe and Whimsy
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Cain
Hebrew
"spear; possessed"
Biblical name Cain was, until recently, seldom heard outside of the Old Testament and soap operas. Although Cain's murderous actions will always make this name difficult for some, Cain, Eve and…
Alchemy
Latin word name
"a medieval chemical science"
One of the most extreme of the new word names, recommended only to the most mystical-minded parents. Actor Lance Henriksen spelled his daughter's name Alchamy.
Antimony
Element name
Antimony is a lustrous grey metal. Beware though - antimony is very poisonous and harmful to the environment, so a bit of a harsh name to give to a child.
Antiquity
English word name
"antiquity"
Your daughter will like this better at twenty than she will at fifty.
Arcana
word name
This name has many different connotations, from Tarot cards to a species of butterfly. It is related to the English word arcane, which means esoteric, mysterious, enigmatic.
Absinthe
Arachnia
Belladonna
English from Italian
"nightshade, beautiful lady"
Literally meaning "beautiful lady" in Italian, Belladonna is the name of a poisonous flower also known as nightshade. This connection gives an otherwise flowery name a darker, more dramatic edge.
Calamity
English word name
Although this name literally means disaster, the use of Calamity as a descriptor of Martha Jane Cannery, aka Calamity Jane, was meant to signal that she was a good person to have in troubled times.…
Carmilla
Carmilla is a feminine name with literary origins, most famously associated with Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 Gothic novella featuring a female vampire character named Carmilla, predating even Bram…
Dalary
American invented name
Prior to 2013, this name was unheard of. That was the year that Larry Hernandez, singer and star of reality show Larrymania , gave the name to his daughter. It has now entered the US Top 1000,…
Dawn
English word name
"dawn, sunrise"
Associated with the first light of the day, and more figuratively with new beginnings and fresh starts, Dawn's heyday came in the 1960s and 70s in the US, Canada and the UK. It had been in the charts…
Desdemona
Greek
"ill-starred"
Desdemona is as Shakespearean as a name can be, but because the beautiful and innocent wife of Othello came to such a tragic end, her name has been avoided for centuries. But at this point in time,…
Desiree
French
"desired, wished"
One of the original French names chosen by midcentury parents for their sophistication and je ne sais quoi , Desiree has since become completely assimilated in the US. It ranked in the Top 1000 from…
Dia
Mbama, Sanskrit, Latin, and Spanish
"love; lamp; heavenly; day"
A sweet and simple multicultural choice which has several different meanings and origins. Widely used in Africa, it means "love" in Lembaama. It's a variant spelling of Diya, an Arabic, Hindi and…
Dusk
English word name
"twilight; darkening"
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…
Elysium
Latin from Greek
"home of the blessed after death"
In Greek mythology, Elysium, or the Elysian Fields, was the paradise inhabited by the blessed and righteous after death. Greek poet Homer attested that the Elysian Fields were on the western edge of…
Endora
Famously the name of Samantha's mother on Bewitched .
Enid
Welsh
"life, spirit"
This Celtic goddess and Arthurian name may sound terminally old-ladyish to many ears--but so did names like Ella and Etta not so long ago. So Enid is yet another forgotten four-letter E-possibility:…