6000+ Dog Names

While Faust, who sold his soul to the devil, was anything but fortunate, this Latinate variation is more commonly heard and accepted.

Why is Evangeline so popular -- close to Number 200 in the US -- while Evangelina hasn't charted in the Top 1000 since the early 1950s? The stardom of Evangeline Lilly has something to do with the relative popularity of that form, but Evangelina is just as pretty and romantic but given to only 10% as many baby girls.

From the botanical name for common heather, Calluna vulgaris, which ultimately derives from the Greek kallos "beauty". A unique, nature-inspired route to the fashionable nicknames Callie and Luna.

Literally, the Odyssey is Homer's epic tale of Odysseus's voyage home from the Trojan wars, and it is also used figuratively for any long, challenging journey. It is used rarely but steadily for girls, and makes a recognizable and meaningful, yet uncommon, word name.

A forward-looking word name.

The surname of the 44th US President has been been adopted as a first, for girls as well as boys, by admiring parents around the world. And the O beginning even makes it fashionable. Though Barack Obama's name derives from the Luo people of Kenya, Obama is also a Japanese place name and a surname that means "little beach."

Many will associate Rihanna with the Barbados-born singer, known mononymously by her middle name. During her early years of fame, when "Umbrella" was on the radio and "Take a Bow" was playing through the iPod Shuffle, the name shot up the charts in the US, UK, France, and Puerto Rico. Though the name did fall out of the charts as rapidly as it entered and while some parents might feel it is way too tied to the mid-2000s, Rihanna was given to 165 babies in 2023.

This gender-neutral Indonesian name feels familiar but unique. Damar is also used among African-American parents for boys.

A widely used Hebrew form of Joseph, with a sophisticated and continental air.

Gertie has a certain homespun charm, summoning to mind butter-yellow braids and denim overalls, summoning mind the adorable character played by little Drew Barrymore in E.T. Is the world ready for the return of Gertie and Gertrude? Maybe?

The bright yellow weed lends itself to a creative baby name, although we don't recommend the nickname Dandy.

Sidda is a name made famous by the heroine of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood; it probably started life as a nickname.

Delmer is kind of a smoosh of two dated names, Delmar and Elmer, that does not improve on either. While Elmer is making a return as a Geek Chic name, Delmar was given to only 14 baby boys last year while Delmer is extinct.

Lisbeth is one of the many short forms of Elizabeth that are used on their own. Not only is it the name of the mother of the main character in George Eliot's novel Adam Bede, but it takes on a whole new, powerful image as the heroine of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. Lizbeth is another spelling.

The name of the first dog in space is the quintessential Russian dog name, equivalent to Fido or Rover. Fittingly, it derives from the verb layat', meaning "to bark".

The revival of long-dormant Roman names would put this back in the lexicon if it wasn't so connected to a telecommunications network.

Names that have not historically been names are not intrinsically gendered, so though we originally pinned Arrow as a boys' name, both starbaby Arrows that have been born recently have been girls. And with Arrow given to 60 girls in the US in 2015 and 94 boys, we call that a pretty decidedly gender neutral name. With its forward-moving, true-landing imagery, Arrow is one of the new inspirational names.

Blu is a new (nu?) spin on an increasingly popular color name, also spelled Blue and Bleu by celebrity parents. Blu is the spelling used for one of the (male) Waldrop quintuplets, but the name is gender neutral.

Mar — Spanish for "sea" — was a fast-riser in 2022. The beautiful Marea, meaning "tide" certainly deserves consideration as well.