Names That Are Variations

For Sam-lovers who want to make a slight detour off that well-traveled road.

Isidore and variants are remarkably underused and ripe for revival, a la Theodore and company.

Ilyas is the more traditional Arabic spelling, but Ilyes is the common version in Northern Africa and France, which has a large Algerian population.

This is the spelling that old-time film star Katharine Hepburn used, and it's still favored by fans wanting to reference her classic strength and beauty. But in general, it's losing ground to Katherine and even Ms. Hepburn's own favorite short form, Kate.

If Dayton, like Trenton and Camden, is finding favor with parents, it's more because of its popular two-syllable surname feel and -on ending than the industrial city in Ohio.

Emira is one of those pan-international names that feels pleasant enough but seems so unrooted to any one culture that it might as well be made up.

Mattis was most popular in Scandinavia in the 2000s and 2010s, and is now seeing success in Germany. In the US, it's most familiar as a surname.

Rare but attractive female form of Basil.

Hyman was commonly used by first-generation Jewish immigrants to Anglicize Chaim, but similarities to terms like heinie and hymen have taken it out of the realm of modern possibility. The original Chaim would be preferable to Hyman.

Alita is a girls' name threatening to break into the Top 1000. There are many possible sources of this name, but the most plausible is that it's a short form for the popular Spanish name Adelita, a relative of Adele and Adeline.

What works for Paige just doesn’t work for Sage. The added i will likely create a lifetime of spelling mistakes.

Popular in the Hispanic community, unlike its English cousin. It has been very near the bottom of the US Top 1000 for the last three years.

A unisex Scandinavian name. Joa is more common for boys in Finland but equally split between sexes in Sweden and Denmark.

An undiscovered cousin of Garrett and Gerard. Gerrit has some merit, especially for its arty credentials as the name of several Old Master painters.

Variation of Thaddeus.

Pronounced as the English word joy, rather than as the French phrase joie de vivre, Joie might produce more complications than joy.

This unusual spelling was introduced via the hot young star of Gossip Girl, Chace (born Christopher Chace) Crawford, and experienced some mass interest, though it has fallen down the charts since it peaked in 2009. Think of it as a combination of cool-guy names Chase and Ace.

A name that gained some currency through its rhyming relationship to Breanna, though it has been on a downward trend since 1989.

Sounds like and is often confused with Asia, though it has an air of retro cool via the seminal Steely Dan album. Or, pronounced eye-ah, it can be an alternate spelling of the international favorite Aya.

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