Names That Mean Beloved

One of the oldest and most widely used compound names, now a bit dated but not as much so as its opposite Mary-Ann. The hyphen is optional.

Combination of Mary and Ann which has been more popular than Marianne in recent years, although still below the Top 1000, after a peak in the 1940s.

Actress Hargitay made us notice this one, it makes a robust, energetic Slavic impression.

Davis may seem an unlikely choice for a girl, but over 50 baby girls received the name in the US last year, perhaps in honor of an ancestral David. Viola Davis is a notable female namesake.

Truncated form of Marylouise.

Star Wars fans may know the lore behind the origin of the word and the concept Jedi well enough to confidently choose their name for their child. It has to do with balancing the forces of the universe.

Varying Filbert does not improve the name: it still makes one think of a nut.

An anglicized spelling of Muirne, the name of the mother of Finn mac Cool in Irish legend, Myrna has a unique sound and two possible meanings, both of which are positive. Actress Myrna Loy was a notable bearer and her fame caused a spike in popularity of the name, when it reached the US Top 150 in the 1930s.

Beach boy name of the 1960s, Darrell is still a presence on the charts and may graduate into a stately surname name.

A top ten choice in Chile and a popular name throughout the Spanish-speaking world, Maite is a mighty-sounding name with a soft and sweet meaning. It is also found as a contracted form of María Teresa or María Esther.

An unconventional Spanish and Portuguese smoosh name made up of feminine Maria and masculine Jose.

Armas is an antiquated Finnish word with a loving meaning and a straightforward spelling and pronunciation. A rare name with potential.

Derived from Marie, the meaning of which is uncertain. Theories include "drop of the sea" (from Hebrew roots mar "drop" and yam "sea"); "bitter" (from Hebrew marah "bitterness"); and "beloved" (from the Egyptian root mr).

Taffy, in addition to being a diminutive of Dafydd, is a slang term for Welsh people in general – probably from the River Taff. Too candy-like to be used in the US.

A paramour of Alexander the Great and the heroine of a Massenet opera, this name is nothing if not dramatic.

Derived from Old English leof "dear, beloved" + ric "power; reign; kingdom". A notable historical bearer is Leofric, Earl of Mercia: he was the husband of Lady Godiva, who (legend has it) promised his wife that he would reduce taxation if she rode naked through the streets of Coventry.

Marybeth, something written like this as one word and sometimes as Mary Beth, is one of those compound versions of Mary popular in the midcentury US. Parents were trying to move away from plain old Mary, long the #1 girls' name, but not too far away. Marybeth is one of the most classic combinations, pairing Mary with the also-long-popular Elizabeth. About 400 baby girls were named Marybeth every year at its peak in the mid-1960s; today, it's fewer than 20.

Davi is a Portuguese variant of David, meaning 'beloved'. It is especially popular in Brazil, where it ranks in the Top 10 names for boys. A rising star in the UK in 2023, Davi was also given to around 140 boys in the US in the same year. While some parents outside of Portuguese speaking communities might be using the name as a streamlined and modern twist on David, the original Portuguese pronunciation is slightly different to the English DAY-vee, and is said da-VEE.

Mary was such a common name for so long that it sprouted a whole family of chimeric name splices: Maryann, Marybeth, Mary-Lousie, ad infinitum. Spiderman's Mary Jane Watson and the common nickname for marijuana have helped keep this one especially familiar to the American ear.

Phonetic spelling of Esme, popular in the UK.