Names That Mean Little

This Indonesian name meaning little goddess is also common in the Netherlands due to the old colonial relationship between the two countries.

Julietta feels newly fresh and friendly thanks to the growing familiarity of Juliet and French sister Juliette.

Rowan has been shooting up the charts on both the boys' and the girls' side, carrying the appeals of a trendy "o" vowel, a soft sound, and a nature connection to top it off. The modern variation Rowyn has followed in its footsteps and while the traditional spelling is used five times more often, Rowyn is still given to around 250 girls each year.

Fiorello is one of the few floral names that works well for a boy. The colorful three-term World War II New York Mayor La Guardia made this one famous -- in fact he was nicknamed "the Little Flower". His life was the basis for the 1959 musical called, appropriately, "Fiorello!"

Spelled Géza in Hungarian, this is the modern form of Gyeücsa. It derives from a Hungarian noble title: gyeü, with a diminutive suffix. This was the name of a 10th-century leader of the Hungarians, father of the first king István.

A saint’s name, Anglicized from Adomnán or Ádhamhnán, which may derive either from Ádhamh (Adam) or from Gaelic adomnae "great fear". St Eunan was a 7th century abbot of Iona best known for his "Law of Innocents", which protected women, children and non-combatants.

A Norse goddess who was one of the nine mothers of Heimdall. Atli, the masculine form, is related to the popular Hungarian name Attila.

Long popular in Ireland and England, Ciarán is the name of Ireland's first-born saint and twenty-five other saints. While this is the authentic Irish spelling, it is more familiar in the US in the Anglicized Kieran spelling.

Aiden/Aidan is just beginning to wander into the girls' side of the name popularity list, but it's so huge for boys in all its spellings that it will be a long time before it can be called a unisex name.

An Irish surname name with a combination of boldness and élan. Some might connect it to the founder of the group T. Rex -- Marc Bolan.

Italianate variation of Cosette, from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.

This Manx form of the popular Irish name Oisín is perhaps a more intuitive spelling outside of Ireland.

Sweet Irish saint's name related to the rising star Fiadh.

One of the most common ancient Roman forenames, but extremely rare today. Other Roman names like Aurelius are trending upwards, so this could be an off-the-radar option.

A possible new entry in the Hayden-Corbin two-syllable boys' name club.

It’s unlikely Madden will be the next Madison, but we do love hearing this famous football surname on baby girls. Madden is on the rise now, having been given to 108 baby girls in 2022, compared to just 88 in 2021.

If Liv can stand on it's own, why not Miv?

An old Irish surname cousin of Tierney that makes an unusual and appealing Irish gender switch.

Used primarily for girls in Ireland, but sounds unisex to us.

While the lin ending is more commonly found in girls' names, Carlin is an authentic Irish male choice and was used just about evenly for both sexes in the US last year.