What About?

Floral, elegant, and bold, Ophelia re-entered the US Top 1000 in 2015 after more than 50 years off the charts. It has risen more than 700 spots since then and shows no signs of slowing down. Now in the US Top 300, could Ophelia one day become the next Olivia or Amelia?

Though this name properly takes an accent over the first e, most Americans would probably have trouble pronouncing it with French elan.

Orion is a rising star, with both mythical and celestial overtones.

In early, pre-Norman Ireland, this name was borne by both a sister and a niece of high king Brian Boru. Now, the English form Orla is more commonly used.

Orleanna was the young heroine of Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible.

May rise along with other spiritually inclined names, but Americans might find it too close to Osama.

Clad in armor. But while this name may have been forbiddingly antiquated not that long ago, the connection to the trendy nickname Os or Oz makes it a real possibility.

Despite the success of so many O-starting boys names--Oliver, Owen, Otis, Oscar--Oswald has not yet shown any signs of resurrection, though he does have the animating nicknames Ozzie/Ozzy and Oz. The name has some literary cred--in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's King Lear and a novel by H. G.Wells--and there was early cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Ancient name, near obsolete now, but could make a good alternative to Owen for the adventurous baby namer.

Ottilie is trending in the UK, where the pronounced T helps the name sound pretty and delicate, rather like Amelie and Elodie. Ottilie is less popular in the US, where many Americans pronounce it as a near-homonym for "oddly".

Owain is much more unusual than its brother name Owen, and feels a little more rugged, a little more adventurous and ancient.

Paola is the Latinate version of Paula. Its intriguing sound could make it more appealing than the English standard.

Sophisticated, stylish feminine form of Pascal especially appropriate for girls born around Easter or Passover.

While Pasquale is a fairly common Easter name for boys, the female girl version is virtually undiscovered.

The name of several early saints, including one, Pelagia the Penitent, a beautiful and licentious dancing girl who repented, then, disguised as a man, spent the rest of her life living alone in a cave on the Mount of Olives. Because of her early vocation, she is the patron saint of actresses.

The name Persia derives from Avestan Parsa, the name of the Indo-European nomadic people who migrated into southern Iran in about 1000 BCE. Persis or Persea, the feminine form of Perseus, feel more namelike.