873+ Names That Mean God

When actress Tamera Mowry named her daughter Ariah, she said it was a Hebrew name meaning "lion of God" -- which it is, if you consider Ariah a variation of Ariel. But many sources consider Ariah a spelling variation of the Italian Aria, meaning song or literally air.

Sam as a name standing on its own was given to only 18 girls in 2021, versus over 400 boys. But as a short form it's appealing and down-to-earth for both sexes, and heard far more often: There were over 2500 baby girls named Samantha in the US in one recent year and more than 8500 boys named Samuel, so you will hear the name Sam a lot more often than you might guess judging by the numbers for this short form. Like the wildly popular Charlie, Sam is a nickname that works equally well as a girls' name as a boys'. All forms considered, Sam is still one of the most popular names that start with S.

A girl name common amongst Punjabi and Sikh families in India.

An attractive and little-known member of the group of romantic, Euro-chic boys' names ending in -ian: think Julian, Fabian, Florian, Adrian.

Samael is an archangel in Talmudic lore — a figure who is the accuser, seducer, and destroyer. He is often made to resemble Satan, although his jobs are not all necessarily evil (such as destroying sins).

As a masculine name, Gauri is Finnish in origin and derives from Gabriel.

This Roman mythology (and planet) name would be very hard to handle. It derives from a root meaning cloud.

A softer take on Joaquin or a quirkier version of Joachim, depending on how you look at it.

It looks unfamiliar at first, but we think this strong Danish name is worthy of further consideration. It has a great meaning and is unusual without being a mouthful or too challenging. To us it feels like an arty or creative name, perhaps because one famous bearer, Asger Jorn, was an avant-garde sculptor and painter.

A French name that's lost its chic.

Liza's heyday was the mid-1970s, following on the heels of super-popular sister Lisa. But thanks to the fact that it never became superpopular, Liza remains a name not especially tied to one generation or style.

Thanks to two cultural influences, January has joined March, April, June and August as a plausible month name.

Eliška is warm and friendly, in the Misha, Sasha mode.

This Indian name would make the perfect choice for those looking for a strong water-based name. A variation which may seem more immediately masculine to the English-speaking ear is Varun. The feminine version is Varuni, who was Varuna's consort.

Although Amos is experiencing somewhat of a revival among baby boys, it feels even fresher when applied as a girl name.

Evana is an intriguing feminization, but will often be mistaken for the better-known Ivana, thanks to the first Mrs. Trump.

An attractive, surprisingly uncommon variation of Josiah. To give you an idea of how comparatively rare Josias is, there were about 200 baby boys named Josias in the US last year, versus nearly 6000 named Josiah.

This common Scandinavian name, also spelled Osmund, is only occasionally heard in this country.

It's difficult to imagine anyone using the first name Jonesy -- and in fact, in the most recent US tally, there were nearly 100 babies named Jones but none named Jonesy. Still, this is a name that many people with Jones for a name, last or first, end up being known by, and as a nickname, it's sorta cute in a Skip, Chip, Bitsy kind of way.