Guilty Pleasures

An imaginative choice with an uptempo Cory/Rory/Tori sound, perfect for the child of a writer — or anyone with a good story to tell. Story has been finding some appreciation among celebs like Minnie Driver and others as a middle name. This is just one of the literary word names that have recently entered the realm of possibility, such as Fable, Sonnet and Poem.

Unexplored Moroccan place name, conjuring up images of camels and palm trees and domed minarets.

Honor and bravery are certainly virtues any parent would want to encourage, and this word itself is obscure enough that it manages to sound like a real name.

Wren, a lilting songbird name, could be the next Robin. Wren entered the Top 1000 for the first time in 2012 and is among the new wave of popular English names for girls.

As a nickname for one of the longer Z-starting choices, maybe, but not as a name unto itself.

Zora is a meaningful literary heroine name honoring Zora Neale Hurston, an important black writer and leader of the Harlem Renaissance.