Country Names

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.

Long before the current place-name craze, a pair of the more daring pop singers of the Age of Aquarius picked this name for their daughters. Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick used the conventional spelling, the Mamas and the Papas's Michelle Phillips went further afield with Chynna (of the group Wilson Phillips).

Most parents would prefer London for their daughters.

The capital of the United Kingdom makes a solid and attractive twenty-first-century choice, with a lot more substance than Paris. It's in the unisex column, with both girls and boys given the name in recent years.