classic and unusual character names for Women

Could serve as an alternative to the more common Latifah.

The added h turns Anita alluring and breathy.

Queen Hecuba was the legendary queen of King Priam of Troy, mother of Hector, Paris, Cassandra and others. Euripedes' tragedy Hecuba depicts Hecuba's grief over the death of her daughter Polyxena, and the revenge she takes for the murder of her youngest son Polydorus.

Hephzibah is an Old Testament name that came into use in the 17th century, but is not often used today. It does have less formal nicknames Eppie and Hepsie, which seem revivable. Hephzibah "Eppie" Cass/Marner is the heroine of George Eliot's novel Silas Marner and Hepzibah (the condensed spelling) Smith is a witch in the Harry Potter series.

Hereswith is a rare name that comes to us from the dark ages. She was a Northumbrian saint, whose more famous sister, Hilda, was the Abbess at Whitby and patron of the first English poet, Caedmon. The name has a soft, lispy sound that is more wearable than its spelling would suggest.

Despite the possibility of gender confusion, the Hero in Greek myth was a woman. Myleene Klass got that when she chose Hero for her daughter, and Sam Taylor-Wood and Aaron Johnson used it as their daughter's middle--and we wouldn't be surprised to see more girls with this heroic name.

A term of endearment turned cute British celebrity baby name, used by actress Kate Winslet, chef Jamie Oliver, and TV presenter Fearne Cotton, among others. Honey was given to only 40 girls in the US in 2017, but it's relatively popular across the pond, where it ranks in the current Top 500 baby names for girls.

Honora and Honoria are two ways of softening the severity of Honor, while retaining its righteous meaning. They were predominant until the Reformation, when the Puritans adopted the abstract virtue names, and were introduced to Britain by the Normans.

Hortensia is an ancient Roman name that's also the common name of the flower hydrangea. The French form of the name is Hortense, which is coming back into style in Paris but has never caught on in English-speaking countries. A secondary character in Roald Dahl's Matilda is named Hortensia.

An ancient Nordic name with a powerful meaning, borne by Icelandic playwright Hrafnhildur Hagalín Guðmundsdóttir.

Though it may not be as sweet and gentle as, say, Violet, the purple-hued Hyacinth still might hold some appeal for the parent seeking a truly unusual flower name.

Illumination is a many-syllabled entrant in the new-fashioned virtue name group, but doesn't stand much chance of rivaling shorter choices like Hope and Faith.

Rather imperious as a baby name, but has an interesting history. Imperia is the name of an obscure French saint, also known as Impère and Impérie, also borne by the famous Italian courtesan Imperia Cognati. Honoré de Balzac later used it in his short story La belle Impéria (1832), where it belongs to a fictional courtesan. A similar name, Bel-imperia, was used by Elizabethan dramatist Thomas Kyd for a character in his play The Spanish Tragedy.

Io may be one of the slightest names in the book, but there aren't many two-letter names with as much substance as this Greek mythological example. Io, a name used for the largest moon of Jupiter, was in classic myth raped by Zeus and escaped from him by changing herself into a cow.

Iolanthe is known primarily through the 1882 Gilbert & Sullivan operetta of that name, in which the title character is a fairy. Iolanthe is a softer version of Yolanda, and is the kind of multi-syllabic classical name once considered too weighty for a modern baby girl, but now within the realm of possibility--this one as a dramatic twist on Violet. The biggest drawback is its variety of legitimate pronunciations in English.

This unusual Greek flower and color name has gained considerable recent attention via actress Ione Skye, who is the daughter of sixties folksinger Donovan.