Love Names

A seriously classic name meaning love, Adelpha is also the name for a genus of butterflies.

Aiko is a very common Japanese name with a lovely meaning that is rarely heard outside the Asian community.

Amy was a 1970s favorite, and French spelling Aimee peaked in the same decade.

Amadeo and Amedeo are both valid Italian forms of the Roman Amadeus, most famous as the middle name of the composer Mozart as well as the title of a movie about him. Mozart's name was actually the Greek Theophilus, but he transformed it to the Latin version. Amadeo is also used in Spain, where it was the name of a 19th century king who was born in Italy.

Amanda may no longer be the most popular girls' name in her class, but she is still among the prettiest and has a lovely meaning. Amanda was one of the romantic-sounding girls’ names that rocketed to stardom in the eighties, along with Samantha, Vanessa, et al.

Is Amora a real name? It made a strong entrance to the US Top 1000 in 2017 so it's one of the Spanish names for girls that is obviously catching on, perhaps thanks to its similarity to Amara, a multicultural name that's achieving widespread popularity here and abroad. Amora sounds like the Latinate amore and is one of the romantic names that mean love, familiar via the classic Dean Martin song That's Amore ("When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...). Amora also borrows something from Amanda, something from Maura, and makes an attractive choice no matter what its pedigree.

Variant of Annemarie

One of the oldest and most widely used compound names, now a bit dated but not as much so as its opposite Mary-Ann. The hyphen is optional.

Invented by 16th-century English poet Sir Philip Sidney for the hero of his sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella, this name is derived from the Greek elements aster "star" and philos "lover". Sidney’s heroine, and Astrophel’s love-interest, is Stella — whose name means "star".

A variant spelling of Charis or Carys, relatively popular in the Netherlands.

Derived from Welsh caru meaning "to love".

Familiar in Wales and England, this name was introduced to America when Welsh-born Catherine Zeta-Jones and husband Michael Douglas chose it for their daughter in 2003. Light, pretty, and distinctive in appearance, it didn't catch on in the US, where it was only given to 22 girls in 2023.

Ceri is traditionally a Welsh masculine name which historically has been Anglicised to "Kerry", but we love the Welsh original. Famous Ceris include British painter Ceri Richards and New Zealand soccer player Ceri Evans. Be aware that Ceri is sometimes used as a female name, both as a standalone name and as a shortening of the Welsh female name Ceridwen.

Connor, the appealing name of an early semi-legendary king of Ulster in Irish mythology, sits firmly in the Top 100 and taken together with its alternate spellings would rank even higher. In its native Ireland the Conor version is one of the highest charting boys’ name.

Beach boy name of the 1960s, Darrell is still a presence on the charts and may graduate into a stately surname name.

David is an enduring worldwide classic, used from ancient times to the present day.

The nickname Davie is very hot right now -- for girls. Most Davies these days are female, but this is still a natural short form of the classic David.

Dylan has become a go-to name for boys in the last generation, thanks to poet Dylan Thomas, musician Bob Dylan, and fictional characters like Dylan McKay of Beverly Hills, 90210. Spelling variations include Dillon and Dilan. Alternately, Dilan is a feminine Turkish name meaning "love." Due to the ultra-popularity of Dylan, Dilan will likely be misspelled frequently.

Dua is one of those names that has been popularized in English speaking countries by a single celebrity: British-Albanian model-singer Dua Lipa. It's simple, modern, appealing, and may find a wider audience thanks to its attractive namesake.

This name looks like a sister to the names Elsa and the Czech name for girls Eliška, a popular diminutive of Elizabeth — and sometimes it is (in German, for example). But it is also a word in Old Norse and some modern Nordic languages, meaning "love" or "to love".