Names ending in a

Moa is among the Top 100 Swedish baby names but virtually unknown in the US. Might Moa be a substitute for Mia or Maya? An intriguing idea. There is a Swedish author named Moa Martinson.

Is it pronounced MEE-ah or MY-ah? Only the bearer knows for sure, which is one of the central problems with this hybrid name.

A rare and refined Irish place name (Cinn Mhara) turned baby name, belonging to a picturesque harbor town. As a given name, it has received occasional use especially amongst the upper classes in Britain. Lady Kinvara Balfour is an English playwright and novelist.

Ilsa is remembered as the radiant but tragic heroine of "Casablanca," and it's having something of a European resurgence.

Iyla, now a Top 1000 girls' name in the US, resembles many other popular names, from the Top 100 Isla to the Turkish Ayla, with which it shares a moonlit meaning.

More colorful than Blanche, but blanker than Bianca.

In The Hunger Games series, Cinna is the influential costume designer for Katniss. In ancient Rome, one Cinna was the father-in-law of Julius Caesar and another was a conspirator against Caesar.

Traditionally a feminine name from Greek mythology, Peaches Geldolf used it for her son in 2013.

Evanna is the name of a Harry Potter actress who pronounces it ee-vah-na. This might be considered another international feminine form of the many variations of John; Ivana, Giovanna, and even Joan are cousins of Evanna. It could also be a compound name, combining Eva and Anna.

Save this for your next run to Starbucks.

Possibility for a girl born under one of the water signs -- Cancer, Pisces, or Scorpio.

Politics aside, the Cuban capital is one of the most rhythmic of place-names. The question is: can politics be put aside?

Symbolic name given to girls born on TuB'Shevat, the New Year of the Trees.

Mustafa is a name widely used in Turkey, as it was the given name of the man popularly known as Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. Mustafa is also an epithet of the prophet Muhammad and was the name of four Ottoman sultans. Other spellings include Mostafa, Moustafa, and Moustapha.

Laetitia adds a layer of ancient patina to the more prosaic LETITIA.

The calming variety of marijuana, used as a baby name every year since 1992.

Halia is one of Hawaii's top baby names, in the Top 50 for girls in 2021. But it's rare outside its native Hawaii, given to only 57 baby girls in the US last year.

Ed Sheeran put this continental place name on the map when he used it as the middle name for his daughter Lyra, born in 2020.

Rarely heard as a name; Chiara might be preferable.

This name of the final service on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is sometimes given symbolically to girls born on that day.