Favorite Girl Names!

Like its cousin Tessa, Nessa -- a shortening of Vanessa or Agnes or Anastasia among other possibilities -- is an attractive nickname that can stand on its own.

Portia is a perfect role-model name, relating to Shakespeare's brilliant and spirited lawyer in The Merchant of Venice, and is now also a Hunger Games name .

Eulalie hasn't ranked in the US Top 1000 since 1899, but its French roots might make it more appealing to modern ears than its sister Eulalia.

Attracted attention as the stepmother of Princess Diana.

Pronounced MAW-rayt or ma-RAYD, 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.

Most names that start with Cam- are on the upswing, so why not this obscure term for Wales as well as for a prehistoric time period.

An attractive and unusual name that may be a variation of Cleo, Clea was possibly invented by Lawrence Durrell for a character in his Alexandria Quartet.

A fun and confident choice, Holiday is a celebratory name, particularly associated with Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, and New Year, and with rest, leisure, and vacations more generally. Fitting for a winter baby, but totally sunny too, it comes from the Old English hāligdæg meaning "holy day" as it was originally used to mark religious festivals and celebrations.

Arbor is an original unisex tree-related choice we're sure to hear more of. Highly unusual now, Arbor takes its place alongside other new arborial names ranging from the mighty Oak (or Oakley) to the more delicate Birch to the more flowery Juniper, Acacia, and Hazel.

This unusual unisex surname name is pretty evenly divided between the sexes these days than it was in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when it was almost entirely male.

Charmaine is an ancient name connected to Charmion, the name of one of Cleopatra's servants, and Charmian, a Shakespearean name. Its meaning is related to the word charm, though some sources tie it to the Charles family, which means "free man".

No one will ever forget it. But Remember as a name came over on the Mayflower, so it has deep history as well as modern potential.

This is an attractive Celtic mythological name, popular in Wales and a cousin of the better known Bronwyn. In Welsh mythology, Branwen was turned into a bird.

Very popular surname choice — it's in the Boys' Top 100 — beginning to catch on for girls. First female association: novelist Carson McCullers.

A kind of old-fashioned nickname name that's enjoying some fresh life thanks to trendy brother Lane. Lainie is a more old-school spelling.

This lovely name is a softened French version of Tziporah, the biblical wife of Moses. Unfortunately, in the US, it's become attached to the cosmetics franchise.

This still attractive place name was one of the first to gain popularity, though it now probably owes some of its favor to the similar Aisha. Asia ranked as high as Number 195 on the US baby names popularity list in 1997.

Save this for your next run to Starbucks.

Rayne is the unique name used for one of the girl sextuplets on the Sweet Home TV show.

Originally a Dutch surname, imported by the early Dutch colonists, has been all but overpowered by the phonetic spellings in the US -- Skyler for boys and Skylar for girls. With the surnames-as-first-names trend, however, and the popularity of the Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical Hamilton, which features the Schuyler sisters, perhaps Schuyler might receive some more interest in the coming years.