skybluecandle's Personal Name List

Willow
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: WIL-o
Rating: 64% based on 15 votes
From the name of the tree, which is ultimately derived from Old English welig.
Wendy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: WEHN-dee
Rating: 51% based on 13 votes
In the case of the character from J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan (1904), it was created from the nickname fwendy "friend", given to the author by a young friend. However, the name was used prior to the play (rarely), in which case it could be related to the Welsh name Gwendolen and other names beginning with the element gwen meaning "white, blessed". The name only became common after Barrie's play ran.
Violet
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: VIE-lit, VIE-ə-lit
Rating: 80% based on 14 votes
From the English word violet for the purple flower, ultimately derived from Latin viola. It was common in Scotland from the 16th century, and it came into general use as an English given name during the 19th century.
Tabitha
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Biblical, Biblical Greek [1]
Other Scripts: Ταβιθά(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: TAB-i-thə(English)
Rating: 36% based on 14 votes
Means "gazelle" in Aramaic. Tabitha in the New Testament was a woman restored to life by Saint Peter. Her name is translated into Greek as Dorcas (see Acts 9:36). As an English name, Tabitha became common after the Protestant Reformation. It was popularized in the 1960s by the television show Bewitched, in which Tabitha (sometimes spelled Tabatha) is the daughter of the main character.
Skye
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: SKIE
Rating: 71% based on 15 votes
From the name of the Isle of Skye off the west coast of Scotland. It is sometimes considered a variant of Sky.
Scarlet
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English (Modern)
Pronounced: SKAHR-lit(American English) SKAH-lit(British English)
Rating: 66% based on 15 votes
Either a variant of Scarlett or else from the English word for the red colour (both of the same origin, a type of cloth).
Ruby
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ROO-bee
Rating: 71% based on 15 votes
Simply from the name of the precious stone (which ultimately derives from Latin ruber "red"), which is the traditional birthstone of July. It came into use as a given name in the 16th century [1].
Presley
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: PREHS-lee
Rating: 40% based on 15 votes
From an English surname that was originally derived from a place name meaning "priest clearing" (Old English preost and leah). This surname was borne by musician Elvis Presley (1935-1977).
Phoebe
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Greek Mythology (Latinized), Biblical, Biblical Latin
Other Scripts: Φοίβη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: FEE-bee(English)
Rating: 60% based on 17 votes
Latinized form of the Greek name Φοίβη (Phoibe), which meant "bright, pure" from Greek φοῖβος (phoibos). In Greek mythology Phoibe was a Titan associated with the moon. This was also an epithet of her granddaughter, the moon goddess Artemis. The name appears in Paul's epistle to the Romans in the New Testament, where it belongs to a female minister in the church at Cenchreae.

In England, it began to be used as a given name after the Protestant Reformation. It was moderately common in the 19th century. It began to rise in popularity again in the late 1980s, probably helped along by characters on the American television shows Friends (1994-2004) and Charmed (1998-2006). It is currently much more common in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand than the United States.

A moon of Saturn bears this name, in honour of the Titan.

Penelope
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology, English
Other Scripts: Πηνελόπη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: PEH-NEH-LO-PEH(Classical Greek) pə-NEHL-ə-pee(English)
Rating: 47% based on 15 votes
Probably derived from Greek πηνέλοψ (penelops), a type of duck. Alternatively it could be from πήνη (pene) meaning "threads, weft" and ὄψ (ops) meaning "face, eye". In Homer's epic the Odyssey this is the name of the wife of Odysseus, forced to fend off suitors while her husband is away fighting at Troy.

It has occasionally been used as an English given name since the 16th century. It was moderately popular in the 1940s, but had a more notable upswing in the early 2000s. This may have been inspired by the Spanish actress Penélope Cruz (1974-), who gained prominence in English-language movies at that time. It was already rapidly rising when celebrities Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick gave it to their baby daughter in 2012.

Paige
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: PAYJ
Rating: 35% based on 16 votes
From an English surname meaning "servant, page" in Middle English. It is ultimately derived (via Old French and Italian) from Greek παιδίον (paidion) meaning "little boy".

As a given name for girls, it received some public attention from a character in the 1958 novel Parrish and the 1961 movie adaptation [1]. It experienced a larger surge in popularity in the 1980s, probably due to the character Paige Matheson from the American soap opera Knots Landing.

Olive
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, French
Pronounced: AHL-iv(American English) AWL-iv(British English) AW-LEEV(French)
Rating: 51% based on 14 votes
From the English and French word for the type of tree, ultimately derived from Latin oliva.
Noelle
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: no-EHL
Rating: 44% based on 16 votes
English form of Noëlle.
Nayeli
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Zapotec (Hispanicized), Spanish (Mexican)
Pronounced: na-YEH-lee(Spanish)
Rating: 51% based on 14 votes
Possibly from Zapotec nadxiie lii meaning "I love you" or nayele' meaning "open".
Meredith
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Welsh, English
Pronounced: MEHR-ə-dith(English)
Rating: 48% based on 16 votes
From the Welsh name Maredudd or Meredydd, from Old Welsh forms such as Margetud, possibly from mawredd "greatness, magnificence" combined with iudd "lord". The Welsh forms of this name were well used through the Middle Ages. Since the mid-1920s it has been used more often for girls than for boys in English-speaking countries, though it is still a masculine name in Wales. A famous bearer of this name as surname was the English novelist and poet George Meredith (1828-1909).
Melody
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MEHL-ə-dee
Rating: 52% based on 16 votes
From the English word melody, which is derived (via Old French and Late Latin) from Greek μέλος (melos) meaning "song" combined with ἀείδω (aeido) meaning "to sing".
Lucy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: LOO-see
Rating: 74% based on 14 votes
English form of Lucia, in use since the Middle Ages.
June
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JOON
Rating: 64% based on 14 votes
From the name of the month, which was originally derived from the name of the Roman goddess Juno. It has been used as a given name since the 19th century.
Jade
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English, French
Pronounced: JAYD(English) ZHAD(French)
Rating: 63% based on 15 votes
From the name of the precious stone that is often used in carvings. It is derived from Spanish (piedra de la) ijada meaning "(stone of the) flank", relating to the belief that jade could cure renal colic. As a given name, it came into general use during the 1970s. It was initially unisex, though it is now mostly feminine.
Jacqueline
Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, English
Pronounced: ZHAK-LEEN(French) JAK-ə-lin(English) JAK-wə-lin(English) JAK-ə-leen(English)
Rating: 60% based on 13 votes
French feminine form of Jacques, also commonly used in the English-speaking world.
Ivy
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: IE-vee
Rating: 74% based on 16 votes
From the English word for the climbing plant that has small yellow flowers. It is ultimately derived from Old English ifig.
Iris
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Slovene, Croatian, Greek
Other Scripts: Ἶρις(Ancient Greek) Ίρις(Greek)
Pronounced: IE-ris(English) EE-ris(German, Dutch) EE-rees(Finnish, Spanish, Catalan, Italian) EE-REES(French)
Rating: 77% based on 15 votes
Means "rainbow" in Greek. Iris was the name of the Greek goddess of the rainbow, also serving as a messenger to the gods. This name can also be given in reference to the word (which derives from the same Greek source) for the iris flower or the coloured part of the eye.
Holly
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: HAHL-ee(American English) HAWL-ee(British English)
Rating: 54% based on 14 votes
From the English word for the holly tree, ultimately derived from Old English holen. Holly Golightly is the main character in the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) by Truman Capote.
Helena
Gender: Feminine
Usage: German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Portuguese, Catalan, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Finnish, Estonian, Slovene, Croatian, Sorbian, English, Ancient Greek (Latinized), Greek Mythology (Latinized)
Other Scripts: Ἑλένη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: HEH-leh-na(German, Czech) heh-LEH-na(German, Dutch) heh-LEH-nah(Swedish, Danish, Norwegian) i-LEH-nu(European Portuguese) eh-LEH-nu(Brazilian Portuguese) ə-LEH-nə(Catalan) kheh-LEH-na(Polish) HEH-leh-nah(Finnish) HEHL-ə-nə(English) hə-LAYN-ə(English) hə-LEEN-ə(English)
Rating: 66% based on 16 votes
Latinate form of Helen. This is the name of the heroine of William Shakespeare's play All's Well That Ends Well (1603).
Harper
Gender: Feminine & Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: HAHR-pər(American English) HAH-pə(British English)
Rating: 64% based on 16 votes
From an English surname that originally belonged to a person who played or made harps (Old English hearpe). A notable bearer was the American author Harper Lee (1926-2016), who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. It rapidly gained popularity in the 2000s and 2010s, entering the American top ten for girls in 2015.
Hadassah
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical, Hebrew
Other Scripts: הֲדַסָּה(Hebrew)
Pronounced: hə-DAS-ə(English)
Rating: 49% based on 15 votes
From Hebrew הֲדַס (haḏas) meaning "myrtle tree". In the Old Testament this is the Hebrew name of Queen Esther.
Genevieve
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JEHN-ə-veev
Rating: 56% based on 18 votes
English form of Geneviève.
Fiona
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Scottish, English
Pronounced: fee-O-nə(English)
Rating: 59% based on 16 votes
Feminine form of Fionn. This name was (first?) used by the Scottish poet James Macpherson in his poem Fingal (1761), in which it is spelled as Fióna.
Eve
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Estonian, Biblical
Other Scripts: חַוָּה(Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: EEV(English)
Rating: 51% based on 15 votes
From the Hebrew name חַוָּה (Ḥawwa), which was derived from the Hebrew word חָוָה (ḥawa) meaning "to breathe" or the related word חָיָה (ḥaya) meaning "to live". According to the Old Testament Book of Genesis, Eve and Adam were the first humans. God created her from one of Adam's ribs to be his companion. At the urging of a serpent she ate the forbidden fruit and shared some with Adam, causing their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Despite this potentially negative association, the name was occasionally used by Christians during the Middle Ages. In the English-speaking world both Eve and the Latin form Eva were revived in the 19th century, with the latter being more common.

Esmeralda
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Spanish, Portuguese, English, Albanian, Literature
Pronounced: ehz-meh-RAL-da(Spanish) izh-mi-RAL-du(European Portuguese) ehz-meh-ROW-du(Brazilian Portuguese) ehz-mə-RAHL-də(English)
Rating: 55% based on 16 votes
Means "emerald" in Spanish and Portuguese. Victor Hugo used this name in his novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), in which Esmeralda is the Romani girl who is loved by Quasimodo. It has occasionally been used in the English-speaking world since that time.
Daphne
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology, English, Dutch
Other Scripts: Δάφνη(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: DA-PNEH(Classical Greek) DAF-nee(English) DAHF-nə(Dutch)
Rating: 51% based on 14 votes
Means "laurel" in Greek. In Greek mythology she was a nymph turned into a laurel tree by her father in order that she might escape the pursuit of Apollo. It has been used as a given name in the English-speaking world since the end of the 19th century.
Bianca
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Romanian
Pronounced: BYANG-ka(Italian, Romanian) bee-AHNG-kə(English) bee-ANG-kə(English)
Rating: 54% based on 16 votes
Italian cognate of Blanche. Shakespeare had characters named Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew (1593) and Othello (1603). The German singer Freddy Breck's 1973 song Bianca boosted the name's popularity elsewhere in Europe.
Aurora
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Romanian, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Roman Mythology
Pronounced: ow-RAW-ra(Italian) ow-RO-ra(Spanish, Latin) ə-RAWR-ə(English) OW-ro-rah(Finnish)
Rating: 72% based on 16 votes
Means "dawn" in Latin. Aurora was the Roman goddess of the morning. It has occasionally been used as a given name since the Renaissance.
Ariel
Gender: Masculine & Feminine
Usage: Hebrew, English, French, Spanish, Polish, Biblical, Biblical Greek
Other Scripts: אֲרִיאֵל(Hebrew) Ἀριήλ(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: a-ree-EHL(Hebrew) EHR-ee-əl(English) AR-ee-əl(English) A-RYEHL(French) a-RYEHL(Spanish) A-ryehl(Polish)
Rating: 68% based on 16 votes
Means "lion of God" in Hebrew, from אֲרִי (ʾari) meaning "lion" and אֵל (ʾel) meaning "God". In the Old Testament it is used as another name for the city of Jerusalem. Shakespeare utilized it for a spirit in his play The Tempest (1611) and Alexander Pope utilized it for a sylph in his poem The Rape of the Lock (1712), and one of the moons of Uranus bears this name in his honour. As an English name, it became more common for females in the 1980s, especially after it was used for the title character in the Disney film The Little Mermaid (1989).
Annika
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Swedish, Dutch, Finnish, Estonian, German, English (Modern)
Pronounced: AN-ni-ka(Swedish) AH-nee-ka(Dutch) AHN-nee-kah(Finnish) A-nee-ka(German) AN-i-kə(English) AHN-i-kə(English)
Rating: 56% based on 20 votes
Swedish diminutive of Anna.
behindthename.com   ·   Copyright © 1996-2024