Invented Girl Names

The family of Kaylin names includes a wide variety of spellings—Kaylen, Kaelyn, and Kaylynn are a few—that enjoy varying degrees of popularity. This particular spelling plays on a couple contemporary trends, namely the ae vowel combination and the -lynn ending. While it's definitely a distinct spelling, it's likely to be misspelled more often than not.

Amalisa is a smoosh of the prefix of Amabel and Amanda, which means lovable, and Lisa, a diminutive of Elizabeth that's long been used on its own. In some ways, it's an improvement on all of its root names -- fresher and more distinctive than Amanda or Lisa and easier to understand than Amabel, which is often confused with Annabel. Though Amalisa can be similarly confused with Annalisa which will inevitably become annoying.

Along with Brenley, a rising surname-style name for girls.

It sounds like a genuine French name, but it's an invention, made famous by actress Garcelle Beauvais.

Caitlin, but with the popular -lynn suffix.

Rydia of Mist is a sprite-like character in the Final Fantasy video game series. Fans of the game may consider it for their daughters as a rarer alternative to Lydia. Rydia first appeared on the charts in 2008.

One of the sha-la-la sisters.

"May" is a hot sound in girl names — just look at the rise of Maeve — which makes it ripe for creative new inventions. This cheerful, breezy number has been low-key on the US charts since 2011.

The Early Americans invented names too, sometimes variations of classical or biblical favorites. This one appears in Colonial rosters; the Aur beginning is Latin and means "gold."

Arizbeth is a compound name particularly popular in Mexico and among Hispanic parents in the US. Created by blending Ariel or Ariana with classic Elizabeth, it is one of the hottest unique names currently around.

Actress Gabrielle Union and basketball great Dwyane Wade brought this one into the lexicon when they chose in for their daughter, Kaavia James.

Prior to 2013, this name was unheard of. That was the year that Larry Hernandez, singer and star of reality show Larrymania, gave the name to his daughter. It has now entered the US Top 1000, following in the footsteps of Daleyza, the invented name Hernandez bestows upon his older daughter.

See JALEN.

A current creation used far more for boys at this point.

Tissaia de Vries is a sorceress character on the Netflix series The Witcher. The origins of this created name are uncertain, but a quick search will pull up many theories, from a variation of Tess, Taisia, or Tasia, or spawned from the Latin word "titulus" (we're not sure if we buy that one).