Invented Girl Names

Up-and-coming combo of trendy syllables that could work as a modern way to honor a Brenda or Brendan.

Parents seem to have decided that this spelling of popular boys' name Mason belongs to the girls -- perhaps because of its proximity to fashionable Maisie. It grew significantly in popularity throughout the 2010s.

Variation of Kathryn.

One of a handful of invented names inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, along with Kovid and Krown.

This effort to update Sheryl combines Sher- with the familiar -lyn ending. Sherlyn was given to 145 baby girls in 2022, and seems to be on the rise.

An explosive name brought to public attention by Olympic skateboarder Bombette Martin. Her name was inspired by her dad's boxing nickname, Bomber.

The name Kyubey was created for the primary villain of the anime series Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. It was derived from the word "incubator," which relates to the character's lack of a personal soul and desire to gain energy from girls. Kyubey is sonically resonant to kyuubi, mythical nine-tailed Japanese foxes.

Oakleigh broke into the Top 1000 in 2019, two years after Oaklee and six years after Oakley. Last year, about 600 baby girls were named Oakleigh in the US, almost exactly the same number as Oaklyn -- though three times as many were named Oakley and Oaklynn.

Grimes and Elon Musk created this name for their daughter Y, full name Exa Dark Sideræl. Grimes explained it is "a more elven" spelling of sidereal, "the true time of the universe, star time, deep space time, not our relative earth time."

This unusual name belonging to three generations of Deltha Lee O'Neals, the third being a football cornerback for the New England Patriots, could equally--or better--be used for a girl.

Name invented for the 2017 movie The Florida Project.

A hybrid of Birdie and Ella used briefly in the early 20th century.

Nilin Cartier-Wells is a character from the video game Remember Me. Nilin rhymes with Dylan.

Westlynn and even more so Westlyn are among the hottest new names for baby girls, rising hundreds of percentage points in use every year. Over 50 baby girls were named Westlynn in 2017, and more than 100 were called Westlyn. The attractive unisex nickname is West.

Princess Ozma was the leading character of L. Frank Baum's book Ozma of Oz.

This variation of the English word "blessing" is on the rise, while the original Blessing actually fell in use in 2022. This may soon become a Journee/Journey type of situation, where the misspelled version becomes more popular than the original. The name Blessyn was given to 149 baby girls in 2022, and Blessing to 236.

Quvenzhane Wallis, star of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Annie, is the youngest actress ever nominated for an Academy Award. Her name -- which actually takes an accent over the final e -- is a combination of her parents' names.