Sugary Sweet Names

Name of the licorice plant, this spice comes in the shape of a star, giving this name an extra level of sweetness.

With the recent arrival of fruit names like Apple and Plum, this more traditional example, symbolic of fertility, might rise in popularity. Photographer Berry Berenson was born Berinthia.

Too sugary sweet and inconsequential for a modern girl.

Lovers of the languid South Carolina city might be attracted to this rich-sounding name. Could make an interesting update on Charles -- and can certainly work for a girl too. Actor Joey Lawrence used it for his daughter.

With other fruity names like Clementine, Olive and Plum ripe for the picking, sweet Cherry remains remarkably underused: just 27 baby girls received the name in 2017, down from 343 at its peak in 1948. The unsavory slang meaning no doubt goes a long way towards explaining its fall from grace.

Only if you're madly nostalgic for sixties TV.

Do everyone a favor and spell it Coco, an up-and-coming choice.

Cookie is most often used as a dog name, and it should stay that way.

Old-fangled nickname could make dot.com era short form or middle name.

Frostine, best known in the U.S. as the name of the Candyland queen, is newly fashionable in France and is certainly a choice that any little girl the world over would love. Fanciful, if over-the-top, but a perfect name for a winter baby girl.

Originally a unisex nickname for a redhead -- red hair is called "ginger" in Britain -- or for the name Virginia, Ginger perennially wears pink gingham and spike heels.

Rugged and outdoorsy, Heath was an obscure choice until the 1960s when it was used in the television series, The Big Valley for character Heath Barkley. It peaked in the 70s when it reached the Top 200, but has since been in decline, dropping out of the Top 1000 in 2023.

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.

Ike, once the quirky one-person nickname of President Dwight Eisenhower, has morphed into a cool kid nickname of the early 21st century.

We're hearing Kat more and more being used by Katherines who are tired of Kathy, Kate and Katie. Katti or Kattie is another possibility.

Kit is a crisp, old-time nickname with plenty of spirit and style. In the UK it's a rising star for boys, while in the US, it is trending upwards for girls too. Originally used as a diminutive of Katherine and Christopher, Kit could make a cool alternative to Katie, or an unexpected honor name for the aforementioned classics.

Mars is a name with interesting potential, ticking the boxes as a mythological name, a space name, and a single syllable choice ending in -s. For parents wanting something unexpected, Mars could work as an alternative to popular Brooks, Max, Atlas, or Miles - and given to around 150 boys - and 35 girls - in a recent year, it is unusual but recognisable.

Unlike Jake or Sam, few parents put Mike on the birth certificate.

Minty isn't a fresh word name — it's an old-fashioned nickname for Araminta, the romantic smoosh name coined by playwright William Congreve in 1693.