Polished Baby Names

A variant form of Laurence or Lawrence which ranked in the #200s in the US from the 1900s through to the 1960s. It didn't fall off the boys' Top 1000 until the late 1990s, following the huge popularity of Lauren for girls.

Kate and William shocked the world when they announced that they'd named their third child Louis -- Prince Louis Arthur Charles, to be more precise. But we've been predicting a comeback for this classic name for a long time.

Louisa, a quaint vintage name, is an example of the idea that these days, old-style girls’ names are more fashionable when they end with an a rather than with an e, as in Julie/Julia, Diane/Diana. So for the next generation, Louisa may rise again, especially with the growing popularity of other Lou/Lu-starting names, like Lucy and Luna. Louisa reentered the US Top 1000 in 2014 after a 45 year absence.

Lucian is a sleeker, more sophisticated version of Lucius that is climbing in tandem with other Lu-starting names.

This streamlined Italian and Spanish spelling of Louisa is currently very popular in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Portugal, where it's usually spelt Luísa.

The name of a fifth century Breton saint, Mael is a popular boys' name in contemporary France, though it is usually spelled with a diaeresis or umlaut - Maël. Mael is the Breton spelling, and the pronunciation is almost like the English word mile, with two distinctive syllables.

Another feminine form of the old saint's name Mael. Spelled Maëlys, it is a very popular name in France today.

Magnolia, a sweet-smelling Southern belle of a name made famous via the iconic Edna Ferber novel and musical Showboat, is one of the latest wave of botanical names, along with unexpected blossoms Azalea and Zinnia. It is named for French botanist Pierre Magnol.

Pronounced MAW-rayt or ma-REYD, Mairead is close enough to Maureen to be accepted here. The name became popular in Ireland due to admiration for the saint of that name. Peig and Peigi are its Irish-language nicknames.

This ancient Roman family name, first borne by the distinguished Marcus Claudius Marcellus and later by two popes, is a possibilty in the hot new category of names from antiquity.

Margo and Margot sound exactly the same, so why has the Margot spelling hopped back onto the Top 1000, outpacing Margo in numbers more than two to one? (Over 350 baby girls were named Margot in the most recent year, versus 150 named Margo.)

Marigold, once found almost exclusively in English novels and aristocratic nurseries, is beginning to be talked about and considered here. It has a sweet, sunny, quirky feel. The marigold was the symbol of the Virgin Mary.

While Marlowe (and Marlow and Marlo) are surname names that are not intrinsically or traditionally gendered and so in theory work equally well for boys and girls, only about 5 percent of the babies given these attractive names are male.

While the (male) French form is pronounced in English like the girls' name Michelle and the German form had a hard k-like sound in the middle, this variation of Michael is distinguished by being used evenly for girls and boys in the U.S. For either gender, though, pronunciation issues will dominate.

This image of this distinguished Anglo-Scottish surname, drawn from the French place name of the ancient castle of Saint Foi de Montgomery, is rapidly shifting from fusty and formal to cool. And dashing short form Monty (or Monte) nudges it to cute.