Animal Names for Girls

Needlessly confusing; stick with Bailey.

Torquano Tasso likely invented this name for the magical enchantress who beguiles the crusaders in his celebrated poem Jerusalem Delivered. Armida is also the eponymous heroine of a Handel opera.

This name, which sounds like "C.G.", was popularized by the character Ciji Dunne on the soap opera Knot's Landing. She appeared from 1982-3, and her name peaked sharply in 1983 before slowly fading.

Navy, Indigo, Sky, Ocean, and Sapphire already rank as current US favorites, and Demin is another shade of blue that's on the rise. With the stylish, sturdy, and versatile feel of the fabric it denotes, Denim could be an unexpected route to nickname Demi, or a surprising color name that strands out from Scarlett or Hazel.

A whole raft of names that start with Adel are coming back into fashion, from Adele to Adelaide to Adeline to Adelina, and so Adelisa -- a hybrid of the Adel sound and the isa suffix -- was given to a handful of girls last year. While still a quiet variation, we predict we'll see more of Adelisa in the coming years, and as hybrid names go, it's quite charming.

Cherokee is the name of a Native American tribe, the largest in the United States stretching from North Carolina through Oklahoma. The meaning of the word Cherokee is uncertain: It may be Choctaw for "those who live in the mountains" or "those who live in the cave country" or it may be an Anglicization of the word the Cherokee use to refer to themselves, Tsalagi. The name was given to 19 baby girls in the U.S. in 2013 but was not recorded on the boys' roster, though we'd consider it a gender neutral name.

Arrington originated as a habitational surname for those from a town of the same name in Cambridgeshire, England. According to the etymology of the name, the town was settled by an Earn or Earna — nicknames that meant "eagle."

Like the Maori name, Anahera, Atchara is a good option for parents looking for the perfect name for their little angel, but wanting to avoid Angela and Angelina.