A fast-rising variation of Abigail that was shooting up the popularity charts a few years ago, but whose star is now falling now that Abigail is not quite as hot as she once was.


Abbigail

As soon as a name becomes mega-popular, parents start to look for spelling variations to set their child apart.  This is one of the less graceful ones.

Adecyn

Aftynn

When British beauty Laura Hollin morphed into supermodel Agyness Deyn, she created a name few others would want to adopt.

Agyness

Alawna

About 60 girls were named Alise in the US last year, making it an uncommon but not truly rare name. While it's pretty and intriguing as a spin on the very popular Alice, it's pronounced more like Elise or -- in Latvian -- Elisa, and so may prove more confusing than it's worth. If you want to name your daughter Alice, name her Alice, and if you want to name her Elise, name her Elise. Choosing Alise in many ways gives you the worst of all worlds.

Alise

Anastasie

Bayleigh

A confusing looking name—is it BRY-anna or BREE-anna? There are other feminine variants of Bryan/Brian which look less made up, such as Brianna and Breanna. We recommend looking into those choices to avoid pronunciation issues.

Bryanna

Carly and company have had a good run, fueled by Nickelodeon's popular series iCarly, as well as Canadian pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen.
 Now most spellings of the name, including Carlie, Karlee, and Carlee, are waning.

Carlee

Charlie and its many forms are on the rise -- including Charley, which relates more directly to the male formal name Charles. Surprisingly, though, while the number of girls and boys named Charlie are nearly even, there are six times as many girls named Charley than boys. 
 
The Charley spelling still ranks in the Top 1000 for girls, though it's fourth in popularity behind Charlie, Charlee, and Charli.

Charley

Courtene

Kind of a Kristen/Christine compromise name that makes less of either choice.

Cristen

Cydney

Daven

Daymen

Doon

Eliut

As the French Esme becomes more popular, it will inevitably spawn spelling variations. This one, like Zoey or Layla, clarifies pronunciation, so while we prefer the original, that's not a bad thing.

Esmay

Evlin

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.

Fenix

Flynt

An interesting vowel combination lightens up Graham. 

Graeme

This simplified version is not nearly as popular as the original (it also destroys a perfectly good palindrome), and has been on the decline in recent years. 

Hanna

Hayli

The chic Euro spelling of Henry is rising along with the original form.

Henri

Hilarie

Islay is the name of a Hebridian island famous for its whisky. Don't be fooled by the "y" at the end - this name is pronounced exactly like the more well-known Isla.

Islay

Jacque

Jeaneva

Jeronimo

With Journey becoming increasingly popular, it's no surprise that this alternative spelling is not far behind. However, you may be surprised to learn that in recent years, the Journee spelling has actually passed the original spelling in popularity — Journee is currently in the Top 200.

This word name may be appealing to parents attracted to the idea of a spiritual -- or even an actual -- voyage.

Journee

Karren

We'd prefer to stick with the more-familiar Cadence and avoid the overly trendy Kay- prefix.

Kaydence

German, Slavic and Scandinavian form of Clara, which is a Top 100 girl name in multiple European countries, including Austria, Croatia, Iceland and Poland.

Klara

Korey

Linsey

Londyn is now a more popular name than the original London for girls.  Some parents feel that varying the spelling nudges the name away from over-identification with the British capitol. Substituting a y for another vowel is also seen by some as more feminine. For boys, London is five times as popular as Londyn -- though both variations are far more popular for girls.

Londyn

This variation of Madelyn has the trendier -nn suffix and ranks lower than the single -n ending. Regardless of what spelling you use, however, when you combine all the variations together, names from the Madeline family are given to nearly 10,000 babies every year in the US. Whatever spin you put on it then, there will still be plenty of other Maddys running round the playgrounds in the next few years, making it feel more like a Top 10 option than it really is. Not necessarily a bad thing - it is a great name after all with plenty of elegance, sweetness and spirit. It's just worth remembering that tweaking the spelling won't make it stand out when its called.

Madilynn

Malloree

Marjory

Melodie

Neena

Niele

Though it has never charted in the United States, this frilly name has the elements some brave, modern namers might find attractive—namely, the initial O and the -ia suffix.
 St. Odile of Alsace, also known as Odilia, is a Roman Catholic saint from the seventh and eighth centuries.

Odilia

Peighton

Perceval

Phinehas

Melodramatic wordplay name coined by actor Ving Rhames for his daughter. 

Reignbeau

This spelling makes a dated name slighly more modern.

Renae

Riese

This substitute spelling of Riley has been popular with parents for a decade. Rylee entered the charts in 1994, and is solidly within the Top 200 for the last 2 decades. Ryleigh is another spelling that has gained significant popularity.

The "-Lee" ending is particularly trendy, and many parents are picking spellings such as Rylee (or Aubree, Everlee, and Marlee) over the originals.

Rylee

Shayne

Shon

Shy Anne?  The original place-name spelling Cheyenne is preferable to this phonetic and slyly jokey spelling in every way.

Shyanne

Sunya

Teel

Tigan

Veira

This spelling variation hasn't followed cousins Zoe and Zoey up the charts. Even though there are a number of feasible spellings, Zoie along with Zooey might cause some unwanted confusion.

Zoie

sickwithsin's list "Alternate Spellings" of 62 great name ideas: Abbigail - Zoie!

Alternate Spellings

When traditional spellings just aren't cool enough.