Animal Names for Girls

Do everyone a favor and spell it Coco, an up-and-coming choice.

Cool, cruising choice for either sex.

Another candidate for mispronunciation.

An alluring option — literally — introduced in 1997.

No - not a creative spelling of Amber. Amba is an Indian name. Due to its meaning, Amba is a name often related with the Hindu goddess Parvati, who is a fertility deity.

A minor goddess in Celtic mythology, associated with the river Aisne.

The name of the ferrymen of dead souls to the Greek underworld and the name of Pluto's desolate moon, Charon makes an interesting, if somewhat macabre, choice for a baby. There are two pronunciations of this name, depending on whether you're referring to the ferryman or the moon. While the Greek version is pronounced with a hard "k" sound, the astronomer who named the moon did not know about the Greek myth - he named the moon after his wife Charlene, so many astronomers pronounce it with a "sh" sound.

A name with an ancient pedigree which might prove confusing to the modern ear.

In the Bible, Elim is an oasis where the Israelites stopped during their Exodus from Egypt. It is a place of plenty representing the natural blessings of God, with twelve springs of fresh water and seventy date palm trees to provide food and shade.

In the Hebrew bible, Azazel is the name of the place where the scapegoat bearing the Jews' sins during Yom Kippur was sacrificed. In Christian and Islamic traditions, Azazel is the name of a fallen angel.

Clotho is one of the three Fates of Greek Mythology. She and her sisters determined life from birth to death—Clotho spun the thread of life. Her Roman name is Nona because she was active during the ninth month of pregnancy.

The Spanish name Belén is a well-established girl name, but parents have been slower to use the English equivalent. It is beginning to come into wider use, along with other New Testament place names like Galilee and Nazareth.