Dreamy Water Maiden

After decades of disuse, soft and feminine Evelyn has returned to the baby name stage in a huge way. It reached the Top 10 for the first time in 2017. Evelyn has now surpassed its former heights, joining a legion of contemporary little Evas, Avas, Eves, Evies, and Evelines.

Though this feels like a new invention, people have used day names such as Morning and Afternoon for centuries -- and so why not Evening too? It's a lovely word with an evocative meaning and makes a perfect addition to this newly stylish group.

This name coined for a character in the movie 10,000 BC, feels right on trend right now, given the popularity of Evie, Eva, Evelyn etc. In the movie, the name’s meaning is given as "the promise of life", but some creative parents have used the alternative spelling Evoleht — "the love" spelt backwards. Other spelling variants that have appeared on the SSA list include Evolette, Evalette, Evalet and Evoleth.

Fable, like Story, is a word name with real potential, combining enchanted tale-telling with a moral edge. And soundwise, it would fit right in with the likes of Abel and Mabel.

Now that Faye is back on the Top 1000 after a decades-long absence, its spelling variations are being revived as well. Fae was given to nearly as many baby girls last year as Fay and may be especially attractive as a middle name option.

Soft and simple, but no less magical, Faye is enjoying a quiet spell of popularity in the US. It broke the Top 1000 in 2014, and by 2023, was one of the fastest rising names on the charts. Faye is a perfect example of a name that fits in and stands out, recognizable and yet unexpected. It also makes a beautiful middle name option, if Mae and Rae are feeling too overdone.

Felicity is as accessible a virtue name as Hope and Faith, but much more feminine -- and dare we say, happier. The hit TV show did a lot to soften and modernize the once buttoned-up image of Felicity, and it got further notice as the red-haired Colonial doll, Felicity Merriman, in the American Girl series. A current bearer is actress Felicity Huffman.

The vintage Fenna, an old lady name making a comeback in the Netherlands, originates in Friesland in the northern part of the country, where the Fries language is spoken. Rhyming with Jenna, it's both rare and familiar and could conceivably enjoy wider usage in the English-speaking world as well. Fenna is a Top 50 girls' name in the Netherlands.

Ferelith is an unusual yet deeply-rooted Scottish girl's name, also found in ancient Ireland and drawn from the Gaelic Forbhlaith or Forbflaith. While it went through a period of dormancy after the Middle Ages, there are some modern women named Ferelith, including actress Ferelith Young and Princess of Denmark Anne Ferelith Fenella Bowes-Lyon.

Of all the botanicals, Fern has been one of the slowest to move back from the front parlor into the nursery, despite the appealing girl character in the children's classic Charlotte's Web. Fern was most popular from the turn of the last century through the 1940s, reaching a high of #152 in 1916. We can certainly see her rejoining the long list of popular greenery names.

This unusual (to non-Welsh speakers) is near the top of the charts in Wales, carried by the recent taste for native Welsh names. Those in Wales say it's already on the way down, but for outsiders wanting to honor their Welsh heritage, it still makes an intriguing choice.

Fionn is the Irish form of the name modernized as Finn, but popular in this form in Ireland, where it's in the boys' Top 20. A couple dozen baby boys in the US were named Fionn last year and no baby girls, though there were girls named Finn, Fionna, and Fionnuala, so Fionn may be thought of as a variation or short form of those names.

This lovely Gaelic name, very popular in the Emerald Isle, has inspired a whole host of diminutives (including Nuala and Nola) and variant spellings, from Finola to Finula to the Scottish and English Fenella. In Irish legend Fionnuala was one of the four children of Lir who were transformed into swans for 900 years.