Black Night And Shadowy Names

The th sound both softens and complicates this Melanie relative.

Adventurous parents are starting to look back to names of ancient gods like Mercury, Zeus, and Apollo. This one is also a planet and a metallic element, and has a friendly nickname, Merc. The Roman god Mercury, which derives from the Latin words for trade or wages, is the patron of tradesmen and travelers and the fastest-moving planet in the solar system. Mercury is the planet associated with the sign of Virgo, so this is one of the prime names for Virgo babies.

It's a car brand, a planet, and the messenger of the gods -- but it's questionable whether it works as a little girl's name.

An attractive Japanese name with appealing meanings.

Most common in Japan in the mid-20th century, but to Western ears it doesn't sound dated.

The unusual-to-the-English-ear Moritz is a Top 25 name in Austria and a form of Maurice or Morris, which are modern variations of the ancient Roman Maurus. There were several early saints named Maurus and a famous 3rd century Saint Maurice, who was a Roman infantryman who was martyred when he refused to worship Roman gods. The Moritz form also references the posh Swiss ski resort St. Moritz and Justine Moritz is a character from Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein.

Morris is as quiet and comfortable as a Morris chair, and has the same vintage feel. Once a Top 100 name in the early 1900s, Morris fell completely off the roster in 1995, probably due to lingering fallout from his identification with Morris the cat's ("the world's most finicky cat") 9 Lives cat food commercials.

A French nickname and surname deriving from Maurice, or possibly from the French word for mulberry tree, mûrier.

One of several similar feminine names often found in the Muslim world but also a Native American name. And in Greenlandic, Naja means "a boy's younger sister", which could be a sweet connection to a big brother. It's a relatively popular name in Denmark.

Nigal is an occasionally-used alternate spelling of this proper-sounding name well-used throughout the United Kingdom.

A name that Yanks might see as overly British, but combined with the right surname, it does have a measure of Sherlock Holmesian dash via Nigel Bruce, who played the original Dr. Watson to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes.

A name that sounded unthinkably priggish until it became attached to Domestic Goddess British TV chef Nigella Lawson (named for her father), who gave it a big dollop of glamour.

Charming nature name made even more appealing by the connection to iconic nurse and statistician Florence Nightingale.

A sweet, simple Sanskrit name which would work in many languages and has an sparkling, colorful meaning.

Nimbus is a word from nature for a type of cloud that has occasionally -- very occasionally -- been used for a human. But it's evocative and upbeat and certainly makes an intriguing and stylish nature name.

Nimbus is a new nature name that works for either gender and manages to be both familiar and unique. An evocative and daring nature name for the future.

A multicultural choice with an appealing sound. In Arabic, it means "women" and is the name of the fourth chapter of the Quran (surah an-Nisa).

Pretty name that hit the popularity charts in England in the late 1990s.

A bright, optimistic Indian boy name that is occasionally used in the US.