mostly obscure eclectic w european flair

Given that Rome is arguably the most important city in European history, it has been used as a first name remarkably little. However, with Roman in the Top 100 and one-syllable choices in vogue, it was only a matter of time before parents started looking toward the city's name as a potential baby name.

This pretty name found in Spanish-speaking countries shares the diminutive of Romy—also spelled Romi—with Rosemary. It joined the US Top 1000 for the first time in 2015.

Roux is the name of the dashing Johnny Depp character in Chocolat. Roux is French from a Latin word meaning russet or brownish red; it's also a cooking term for a mixture of flour and butter that forms the foundation of many gravies or sauces. Most of today's children with this name, pronounced roo, will actually spell it Rue, for the female character in The Hunger Games.

This slightly more compact version of Sabina has ties to France and Germany. Unlike its sister name, Sabine has never charted in the United States Top 1000. Today, both names are given to roughly the same number of baby girls in the US, about 70 each year.

Sasha in all its forms -- which include Sacha and Sascha -- is rising in popularity for both boys and girls. Its most prominent current bearer is Sacha Baron Cohen.

Apt name for a little drama queen with a long future ahead of her. Saga is a Top 30 girls' name in Sweden.

This long-popular name in France sounds fresh, elegant and unusual here. Severine is the name of the most recent gorgeous James Bond Girl in the film Skyfall. Students of film history will associate the name with the complex character Catherine Deneuve played in the 1967 Bunuel classic, Belle de Jour..

Sidonie is an appealing and chic French favorite that is starting to attract some American fans as a fresher alternative to Sydney. Also spelled Sidony, Sidonie was the birth name of the French novelist Colette.

This gentle Scandinavian name, soft and sensitive, is being discovered in a major way by parents in the US. It's most closely identified with the nineteenth century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, but there have been modern fictional Sorens as well, in The Matrix Reloaded and the book series Guardians of Ga'Hoole, Charlie and Lola, and Underworld.

Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon chose this unusual diminutive for their daughter.

As a Japanese name, Suki has the sweet meaning "loved one". It's also an English diminutive of Susanna, making it a creative and modern way to honor a Susan in your life.

Doesn't everything sound better with a French accent? Sylvain, the French variation of the Roman wood god's name, sounds somehow cooler and more sophisticated than Sylvan.

Once extremely popular in France, Sylvere has, so far, been little heard in the States, though it did pop up in the Amazon series I Love Dick, as the name of the lead character's husband.