Alternatives to Athena

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.

The name of a heavenly planet and the Roman goddess of beauty and love was an intimidating no-no until tennis champ Venus Williams put an athletic, modern spin on it.

Viola has several positive elements going for it: the rhythm of the musical instrument, the association with the flower, the trending 'Vi' beginning and its leading role in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

As long as nobody connects it with xenophobia -- the fear of strangers and the unknown.

Yolanda conjures up visions of midcentury films like "Yolanda and the Thief," complete with gauzy veils, harem pants, and invisible navels. Iolanthe, with the first syllable pronounced the same as in Yolanda, is a softer version, but most modern parents would opt for the English Violet.

With historical roots as a beautiful and intelligent ancient queen and literary ties to Hawthorne and Edith Wharton novels, this rarity could appeal to adventurous parents seeking the romantically unusual. Tina Fey used it as her daughter Alice's middle name.