Girl Names That Mean Life

Hillbilly twang.

A lovely Arabic name for girls mostly used for Muslim girls of South Asian descent.

An energetic and distinctive choice.

Another candidate for mispronunciation.

Pretty Slavic name, with some obvious pronunciation challenges.

We all know that Chaka really means disco.

This pretty African girls' name has not one but two admirable meanings.

Anima is a name that could work in so many languages, blessed as it is with easy spelling and pronunciation. It works equally well in the East and in the West, as its roots can either come from Latin, where it means "soul", or from Sanskrit, where it means "minute, tiny".

A hauntingly lovely Indian name.

A name rarely heard outside Russia; the first syllable could cause problems.

Shaw is a streamlined and more modern-sounding Shawn, with many notable surname namesakes.

A perfectly fine Eastern European girls' name, tainted slightly by its use as the name of a village near Chernobyl in Ukraine that has been devastated by radiation.

see BEATHAG

A vibrant and lively name, Živanka is likely to be a variation of Živa or Živana. Deriving from the Old Slavic word živŭ meaning "alive, living", it is also related to a Slavic goddess, associated with life and fertility.

A zippy and spirited name and a feminine form of Vivaldo, this name possibly originates from the Germanic Wigbald meaning "bold, brave warrior" and the Latin Vitale meaning "life". Associated with the 17th century Italian composer, Antonio Vivaldi, Vivalda is a rare choice, but with familiar nicknames Vivi, Viv, Alda, and Val, and could work for those seeking alternatives to Vivian, Ada, Valentina, and Olivia.

A feminine form of Vitale, Vitalia is a bright and spirited name that could lead to nicknames Vita and Talia. It derives from the Latin word and name Vitalis meaning "of life".