Happy Names for Pets

Sweet, modern descriptive name, but perhaps a little too cute for its own good.

A fairly common Hebrew name without much crossover potential.

Hephzibah is an Old Testament name that came into use in the 17th century, but is not often used today. It does have less formal nicknames Eppie and Hepsie, which seem revivable. Hephzibah "Eppie" Cass/Marner is the heroine of George Eliot's novel Silas Marner and Hepzibah (the condensed spelling) Smith is a witch in the Harry Potter series.

So sweet it makes our teeth hurt. It has appeared in the US Top 1000 every year since 2006, though it dropped a significant 136 places from 2014 to 2015, and kept dropping to Number 974 in 2016.

Sympathetic new twist on a Puritan virtue name.

Ilario's merry, jovial sound reflects a shared root with the word hilarious.

Hippie name with a sweet meaning. While theoretically gender-neutral, Harmony was given to nearly 1400 baby girls last year....and zero boys.

She'd better be. Merry is one of the classic names for Christmas babies.

This Anglo-Saxon gem was borne by a few medieval women including Saint Merewen, Abbess of Romsey Abbey. It has also been used in literature, for example in Kit Berry's Stonewylde series. Merewen has the mellifluous vowels and Celtic charm of other current favorites like Elowen and Meredith.

Seeley is a Medieval surname with a happy, fortunate meaning.

Divine seems more proper a name with the rise of Heaven and its turned-around twin Nevaeh. Though superlative names like Divine -- Unique, say, or Precious -- sometimes seems as if they're trying to hard and protesting too much.

This version is a bit more in tune with modern tastes.

Intriguing twist on several familiar names, though many people will mistake this for Elsa, Eliza, and so on.

Many virtue names have long been in style or have seen a resurgence in recent years. Happy, however joyous, seems unlikely to join this trend. This could be because it doesn't have a solid history of being popularly used (in comparison to Joy or Hope) and because it's such a familiarly used word in day to day life (unlike Verity or Felicity).

The mythical daughter of Eros and Psyche becomes a modern-sounding word name. Danger: could be seen as X-rated.

Too bad everyone in this country will tend to hear Ronnie.

Tastier than Alicia or Felicia.

Western African variation of Sa'id

A super quirky and upbeat choice, if it can ever shake off its ubiquitous-guy Woody Allen identity.

Merilee and Merrilee were early respelled or word names, ahead of their time in some ways. Merrilee hit the Top 1000 for a couple of years in the 1940s, but last year no baby girls were given either version of the name in the US, which makes it more appealing.