Names ending in a

Lorca is a Spanish place name from the province of Navarre, but more famous as the last name of the eminent Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, who was the direct inspiration for the name of Leonard Cohen's daughter Lorca.

Cana is well-known to readers of the Bible as the city where Jesus performed his first miracle. If other place names, both modern and ancient, real and mythical, can be baby names, why not Cana? Rhyming with Dana, it can work for either gender.

A cheerful-sounding name from ancient Rome that would be an offbeat route to Poppy as a nickname. Poppaea Sabina was the second wife of the emperor Nero.

Another intriguing and virtually unused Spanish nature name to add to the books.

Benedita is easy for an English speaker to pronounce yet sounds just uncommon enough to be intriguing. And with Benedict more in mainstream use, Benedita feels possible.

Once a common girl name in Hawaii, today Leialoha is virtually unheard of.

A literary name, originally created as a male name by the poet Mihály Vörösmarty, that is now in the Hungarian Top 100 for girls.

In Estonia, short-form Riina is more common than its mother name, Katariina.

The infamous name Dracula technically means "son of Dracul" but since Dracul means devil in modern Romanian, we thought we'd cut right to the chase.

The name Merkaba comes from Merkabah Mysticism, a type of Jewish mysticism that was practiced during the first century.