Olympic Baby Names

Used especially in Latin America, this would make a funky spin on Maria.

With an X at the start and an O at the end, Xeno is undeniably modern and cool. If you're looking for a derivation, it could come from either the Greek male name Xenon, meaning "foreigner"; of from Zeno, a latinized form of the Greek name Zenon, meaning "dedicated to Zeus".

This name is currently best known on The Bachelorette's Tenley Molzahn. In the 1950s, it was attached to the Olympic figure skating champion Tenley Albright, and Jessica Biel played a Tenley in the movie Summer Catch.

The Olympic gymnast Sunisa "Suni" Lee was named after her mother's favorite Thai actress.

Listed in the Quran as one of the "People of the Book," this male equivalent of Sabina is undiscovered and ripe for the adventurous baby namer.

With the rising popularity of Kai, this more phonetic spelling has been gaining traction as well. Kye debuted in the US Top 1000 in 2015, and was one of the fastest-rising names of the year in 2016.

Eliška is warm and friendly, in the Misha, Sasha mode.

In India, Shiva is an unambiguously male name; but in the middle east, Shiva derives from the Persian words for charm and eloquence, and is usually used as a female name.

Five girls were given the name Perrine last year. More modern-sounding are Perrin, Perry, or even Petra.

Faustine has a positive meaning, although the association with the character who sold his soul to the devil may be off-putting. This name is among the Top 100 girls' names in France, but was given to fewer than five baby girls in the US last year.

Dynamic and creative; common in Africa, challenging here. Pronunciation isn't as difficult as you'd guess, but everyone will have to ask. Many favor n-GO-zee, but a native speaker tells us that it is closer to n-GAW-zee, and we've found at least one n-GAH-zee, too.

A name borne by nine popes and several saints, which carries strong Catholic connotations. British politician Jacob Rees-Mogg named his sixth child Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher in 2017.

This surname related to Clement is strongly associated with Major League pitcher Roger Clemens, winner of more Cy Young awards than any other pitcher in baseball history, and has a softer sound than Clement. Some variations are Clemen, Clementio, Clemention, and Clemons.

Depending on your cultural references, you may think of Phantom of the Opera author Gaston Leroux, or the macho villain of Beauty and the Beast. While he's hardly a role model (unless you too use antlers in all of your decorating), his name was likely chosen because it's a classic in France. It's been used there since the middle ages, partly in honor of the Frankish bishop St Gaston. It went out of style in France mid-century, but now it's having a revival, entering the Top 300 in 2017.

As this word is less often used to mean derriere, it becomes more possible to view Fanny as the kind of appealingly quaint nickname name, like Josie and Nellie, that many parents are favoring now.

Oh, the many spellings of Rafaella. Those with Fs and double-Ls denote Italian origins, while an F and a single L is Spanish and Portuguese. The original Hebrew form is Raphaela.

Pavel may be widespread in the former Soviet Union, but it has a somewhat impoverished image here.

Strong and attractive form of Cyril.

A wearable update to the New Testament classic.

Many popular Dutch short forms are drawn from the middle or end of their proper name: Sanne from Susanne, Bas from Sebastian. Jette could be from a name like Henriette or Mariette.