Personal favorite girl names

Millie is back. It's a Top 100 name throughout much of the English-speaking world, though not yet in the US. Millicent would be an appealing long form, but many people are using Millie all by its cute self -- so many, in fact, that it returned to the Top 500 in 2015 for the first time since World War 2 and continues to climb.

Most famous as a Dracula victim (where Mina is short for Wilhelmina), Mina is a name that can stand on its own or be a diminutive of any name ending in -mina, most usually Wilhelmina.

A recently popular spiritual name that entered the Top 500 in 2003.

A pretty and unusual path to the nickname Mira. Mira is the main character in Nobel Prize-winner Federico Mistral's poem of the same name. Mireya Moscoso was Panama's first female president.

The oldest-known form of Mary, serious and solemn Miriam has been a particular favorite of observant Jewish parents. But we can see it extending beyond that sphere into the next wave of Old Testament names post-Rachel, Rebecca, Sarah, Hannah, and Leah. Miriam is currently the Number 1 girls' name in Israel.

The 6th century Irish saint Mirin emigrated to Scotland and now is the patron saint of both the Glasgow suburb of Paisley and the game of football.

Molly is one of the original nickname names, ALWAYS ranking among the US Top 500 girl names since statistics began, in 1880. Molly peaked in 1991 only to rise just as high again in 2011, and though softening retains a good measure of popularity and charm.

There are many lovely day/month/seasonal names -- and this is one of the most intriguing.

This name of one of the three tribes in the Great Sioux Nation could provide an interesting alternative to Dakota.

A name rarely heard outside the Latino community, but it was popular enough in the early 2000s to crack the Top 200. Since then, it's lost ground.

This is one of the more unusual examples of a group of Greek names connected to the sea, which makes sense for a nation of coastline and islands. The Nereids or water nymphs were the daughters of sea god Nereus.

Like its cousin Tessa, Nessa -- a shortening of Vanessa or Agnes or Anastasia among other possibilities -- is an attractive nickname that can stand on its own.

Not quite Nanette and not quite Ninon, this is one of the more unusual 'ette' options. There was an eponymous Spanish film, starring Elsa Pataky, based on a novel.

This name of an admired Puerto Rican pop singer has been picked up by hundreds of Hispanic parents.

Nova has the feel of both newness, from its meaning, and great energy as an astronomical term for a star that increases suddenly in brightness before fading.