Names That Are Variations

Faunia is more often rendered as Fauna, who was a Roman goddess of fertility, women and healing. Faunia was the downtrodden yet loving heroine of Philip Roth's Human Stain. Faunia and Fauna have more gravitas than the doe-like Fawn.

An old name still occasionally heard in the U.K., but still and perhaps forever a foreigner in the U.S. Can be spelled Ranulf.

Diminutive of Tomás in Portuguese, in which Tomás is the common transcription of Thomas.

Most famously borne by Loja Saarinen, a Finnish-American artist and wife of architect Eliel Saarinen. She was born Minna Carolina Mathilde Louise Gesellius and went by Louise or Loja.

Given a new shot of style by singer Lauryn Hill, this spelling of the name has fallen quite a bit in popularity since its peak of 167 in 1996.

This fresh variation of the classic Noel is beginning to rise along with the popular Noelle. Given to just around 50 babies in 2022 compared to only 14 in 2021, this rise reflect American parents' current love of names ending in -i.

Kaeli, a form of the trendy Kaylee, was the fastest-rising girls' name of 2023, inspired by social media influencer Kaeli Mae.

Vies with Maximiliana for the title of most obscure Maximilian variant. You could argue that both were made obsolete by Jessica Simpson's use of Maxwell for her daughter.

Though it makes the name more distinctive, we'd advise dropping the 'z'.

A rarer variant of Viridiana. Saint Veridiana is the patron saint of snakes.

Lilyana is variant of "Lillian" or "Liliana", which are elaborations of the flower name "Lily".

This spelling variation of the name only recently entered the Top 1000 in 2008. The popular Layla is currently very popular in the United States, while the more traditional Leila is also widely used. The added h at the end of this version could be considered superfluous, possibly leading to confusion down the road.

Lakelyn is a fast-rising girl name of the last decade, combining a nature word with the ever-fashionable -lyn suffix. It is occasionally given to baby boys too (eight of them in 2020), no doubt helped by the similarity to Lachlan.

This is one you will get tired of explaining.

Eetu is a perennial favorite in Finland, but is rarely if ever used in the States - probably because of the unfamiliar (to most people) spelling and pronunciation.

Popular in Ireland, as is the similarly difficult spelling EOGHAN, but over here, most would stick with Owen.

Unlikely to catch on the way the male original has, though it may appeal to some parents as a more formal version of Nina.