Girl First Names List

Rebecca is a name representing beauty in the Bible, an Old Testament classic that reached the heights of revived popularity in the seventies but is still a well-used choice. It derives from the Hebrew name Rivkah, from the verb ribbqah, meaning "noose." The biblical Rebecca was the wife of Isaac and the mother of Esau and Jacob. Rebekah was a common spelling of the name in the Bible.

Most of us had never heard this lovely Welsh name with links to the moon until we heard the 1976 smash hit Fleetwood Mac song of that name, with lyrics by Stevie Nicks. That same year it popped onto the U.S. Top 1000 at Number 593.

As sweet-smelling as Rose but with an international flavour, Rosa is one of the most classic Portuguese, Spanish and Italian names, which is also favored by upper-class Brits, having an ample measure of vintage charm. Rosa has been on the popularity charts for every year that's been counted, especially popular from the 1880s through the beginning of the twentieth century.

A name commonly used in Spain and Italy, it refers back to the annual Roman ceremony of hanging garlands of roses on tombs.

Rosalie hit its apex in 1938 and then slid straight downhill until it fell off the U.S. Top 1000 completely in the 1980s, only to spring back to life in 2009 as the name of a character in the Twilight series. The beautiful vampire Rosalie Hale has breathed fresh life back into this mid-century name, and the fact that the character is both sympathetic and relatively minor means Rosalie has the chance to thrive again as a baby name without feeling unduly tied to Twilight.

Rose lovers today would probably prefer Rosemary, Rosamund, or even Rose itself, all more stylish variations of the name. Some may associate this form of the name with actress Rosanna Arquette and your mom may think of SNL's Rosanne Rosanna-Danna, though that reference is lost on millennials.

A fabled storybook name via the heroine of Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe (1819), which featured a heroine called Rowena of Hargottstanstede, and also a Harry Potter name, as Rowena Ravenclaw, founder of one of the Hogwarts houses.. Rowena has some old-fashioned charm, though most modern parents seem to prefer Rowen. Pronunciation, however, is NOT like Rowen with an a at the end, but with a long e and an emphasis on the middle syllable.. She was on the popularity list until 1963, several years in the Top 500.

Sarah was derived from the Hebrew word sarah, meaning "princess." Sarah is an Old Testament name—she was the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. According to the Book of Genesis, Sarah was originally called Sarai, but had her name changed by God to the more auspicious Sarah when she was ninety years old.

Seren is a top girls' name in Wales – and a lovely choice almost unknown elsewhere. Seren, in the Sirona form, was an ancient goddess of the hot springs.

Serena, a name used since Roman times, was given fresh life by tennis star Williams, and then again with the leading character on Gossip Girl, Serena van der Woodsen. There have also been Serenas on soap operas and other shows from Bewitched to Law & Order.

Sophia, which was the Number 1 girls' name in the US from 2011 to 2013, is among the top girl names in the Western World, with a sensuous sound and high-minded meaning. A real winner, Sophia reached the top of the charts without losing any—okay, much—of its sophisticated beauty.

Susanna is an old and under-appreciated name, perhaps because of the recent overpopularity of Susan, that is certainly due for a comeback.

Thalia was one of the Three Graces in Greek mythology, and also the Muse of comedy and pastoral poetry, making this a Hellenic choice worthy of consideration.

Vanessa was invented by writer Jonathan Swift for a lover named Esther Vanhomrigh—he combined the first syllable of her last name with the initial syllable of her first. Swift used it in the poem Cadenus and Vanessa in 1713. A century later, Johan Christian Fabricius used Vanessa as the name of a genus of butterfly.

This name, whose sweet and fragrant floral essence has always been widespread across the Near Eastern world, has now landed on US popularity lists in a variety of spellings. It's been dropping precipitously over the past few years, though, perhaps due to a combination of tensions in the Middle East and the fading fashion status of Jasmine itself.

Zara has multiple origins, but most notably is a variation of Zahrah, a name derived from the Arabic zahrah, meaning "blooming flower." Zara can also be a diminutive of the Bulgarian name Zaharina, a feminine form of the Hebrew Zechariah. Today, Zara is heavily associated with the Spanish fast-fashion empire of the same name.