Names That Mean Song

Aria is a multi-cultural name with two extremely popular versions: this more word-like one along with Arya, the spelling used for the feisty young heroine of Game of Thrones. There were about 6400 baby girls named Aria in the US last year alog with 2400 named Arya, which counted together places the name in the Top 10.

A melodious choice big in the sixties, Melody is now starting to pick up tempo again. It cracked the Top 150 for the first time ever in 2015. Melody is also the name of Ariel's equally curious and more tom-boyish daughter in The Little Mermaid sequel. Read more about Melody and other Disney Princess Names in our featured blog.

This spelling of the name has ties to Hebrew, Slavic, and Scandinavian cultures, in addition to being another alternative to Reina and Reyna. It is most recently attached to hit television show Nashville's Rayna Jaymes, played by Connie Britton.

Popular Israeli choice, ripe for adoption here. Parents who great up in the 1980s may remember animated heroine Shira, Princess of Power.

Could there be a more poetic name than Sonnet? Actor Forest Whitaker was inspired to choose it for his daughter.

Madrigal might be a pretty and highly distinctive choice for a child of a musical family--or for the parent looking for a less conventional path to the nickname Maddie than Madeline or Madison . Definitely more striking than Cadence or even the increasingly popular Aria.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian added this new word name to the lexicon when they chose it for their second son and fourth child in 2019. It is now 7 times more popular than it was then, given to 120 boys and 40 girls in a recent year.

When actress Tamera Mowry named her daughter Ariah, she said it was a Hebrew name meaning "lion of God" -- which it is, if you consider Ariah a variation of Ariel. But many sources consider Ariah a spelling variation of the Italian Aria, meaning song or literally air.

Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren invented the name Ronja for her book Ronja, the Robber's Daughter. She was inspired by the lake Juronjaure, located in Norrbotten, Sweden.

Rona ranked in the US Top 1000 in the mid-20th century but holds new meaning in the 2020s. "Rona" has become slang for coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, which gives the name a dark and somber edge. In 2020, Rona was given to 17 baby girls (a fall from 26 the previous year). In 2021, it dropped to just 5 — we expect it to drop off the list entirely in the years to come.

Well used in Russia, this is a distinctive and undiscovered choice here. Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is the fictional protagonist of Crime and Punishment by Feodor Dostoyevsky.

Hebrew name related to Ronit and Roni, also used in different cultures as Ronya, Ronja, and Roniya. Virtually unknown in the English-speaking world though certainly an easily-translatable choice.

Is Villanelle the new Sonnet? This elaborate name is a form of poetry — an example is Dylan Thomas's Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night — but many know it better as an assassin's codename in the TV show Killing Eve. Inspired by that, Villanelle debuted on the American charts in 2022 when it was used for five baby girls.

A nouveau elaboration of Arya that may have also been influenced by the rise of -ani ending names such as Leilani.

Some sources say Mele is a South Sea Islander form of Mary, but it's also a name in its own right meaning song.

Vocal name seldom heard, with most elle-ending names these days dropped in favor of the more straightforward Elle and Ella.

Roni may sound like the Doowop-era Ronnie or Ronni, often named for her dad Ron, but it's actually a freestanding Hebrew name with an uplifting meaning.

Sounds a lot like the recently revived Adele.

Ronen derives from the Hebrew word ron, meaning "song," but in America it is also used as a spelling variation of the Irish name Ronan. With both Ronan and Ronin is the Top 500, Ronen has also gained more attention. Given to 86 babies in 2023, it has more than doubled in use over the last decade.

A canto is a literary term denoting a long passage in a poem. Dante's Divine Comedy is broken into such cantos. As a name, Canto packs in literary credentials with pithy punch.