Names from Operas

Invented for Bellini's opera, Norma had some star quality in the silent-screen and Marilyn Monroe days, but at this point it's a graying grandma in baby name limbo.

The handsome Italian form of Orestes, a fun way to get to the cute nickname Ori.

See ORPHEUS.

Orlando, the ornate Italianate twist on the dated Roland, with a literary heritage stretching back to Shakespeare and before, has appealing book-ended o's, and is open to combination with almost any last name, a la British actor, Orlando Bloom.

Its most famous bearer was Prince Osman the First, founder of the Ottoman Empire.