B girl names

A less common relic of the Claudette-Paulette-Annette era.

Bailey -- a jaunty surname -- was first used for a female TV character in 1978 in the show WKRP in Cincinnaati, then caught on big time. Bailey's still an appealing choice, though, and a celebrity fave. Parents of daughters named Bailey include Scot Baio and Stella McCartney.

If you can get the lively young Barbara Bush to replace her grandmother's white-haired image, you might discover a rhythmic classic with an interesting history. Barbara is undoubtedly among the most classic girl names starting with B.

Despite the voluptuous doll's various career choices, from astronaut to doctor, her name still remains a euphemism for "bimbo".

Popular with the Puritans, this name of the shrewd and beautiful wife of King David and mother of King Solomon could be a bit of a load for a modern girl to carry.

One of the most usable of the pleasant, newly adopted nature/water names (like Lake and Ocean), especially in middle position.

Bea is a former old lady name that's cute again as a short form -- and is now beginning to stand on its own. Bee is a variation that, like Bea, can work as a diminutive for any name that starts with the letter B, or in the middle. Bea actually stood alone on the popularity lists for four years at the beginning of the twentieth century--and it could happen again.

Beatrice is back. Stored in the attic for almost a century, the lovely Beatrice with its long literary (Shakespeare, Dante) and royal history is being looked at with fresh eyes by parents seeking a classic name with character and lots of upbeat nicknames, like Bea and Bee.

Beatrix has a solid history of its own apart from Beatrice, with that final x adding a playful, animated note to the name's imposing history.

Attractive translation of Beatrice, popular with Hispanic parents. Beatriz is currently a Top 10 girl name in Portugal.

Adjectives names are the latest class of word names to gain popularity in the US, a trend spurred by celebrities. Beautiful is one of the more established adjective names — first used in 1997 — yet has never been given to more than 70 baby girls in a single year.

Better yet, find a name with the same meaning: Belle, Cosima, Indira, Uilani, Zeynep.

High-kicking cohort of Coco, Gigi, Fifi, Kiki, et al.

The currently preferred replacement for Becky, sometimes used on its own.

One of those casual down-home names last popular in the 1960s.

We've seen Beatrice and Beatrix climb in popularity, along with traditional nickname Bea. And now there's Bee, giving it a buzzy nature world spin, plus a tie to popular late night TV''s Samantha Bee, not to mention Aunt Bee on the old The Andy Griffith Show TV show. Bee can theoretically be short for any girl names starting with B.

Belinda, cousin of Linda and Melinda, enjoyed a brief return to the Top 1000 from 2005 through 2013, only to fall off again in 2014. A name that some may consider a modern spin on the midcentury popularity queen Linda is in fact a classic with deep and fascinating roots. In Babylonian mythology Belinda was the goddess of heaven and earth, and the name later was used for the heroine of Alexander Pope's satirical poem The Rape of the Lock.

Everything ella, from Ella to Bella to Arabella, is red hot right now. Bella is one of the most, well, beautiful girl names starting with B. It carried a hint of a nice Old World grandmotherly veneer, until it became attached to Twilight's Bella Swan.

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.

Bellamy is emerging as an up-and-coming girls' name, an Irish surname-y riff on the super-popular Bella series of names. While the Bella connection makes Bellamy sound a little trendier and more popular than it really is, we see the name possibly rising through the ranks for both genders in the coming years.