Family Tree Names

A 1970s beach boy surfing buddy of Scott, Brad, and Chad, Todd is given to relatively few babies these days.

Nickname name that retains an Old Country feel.

Creative name largely associated with choreographer Twyla Tharp, it also has a pleasant tie to the word twilight.

Ulrich has ancient roots — it was derived from the Old High German name Uodalrich (also spelled Odalric). Ulrich was a common given name in medieval Germany, when it was associated with St. Ulrich of Augsburg. St. Ulrich is the patron saint of pregnant women and easy births.

A perfectly respectable Old Testament name ruined forever through its association with the odious Uriah Heep in David Copperfield. Some people also find this name just too close to the word urine. These negative connotations may be wearing off, however. (Perhaps because people don't read as much Dickens as they used to.)

A saint's name with a noteworthy literary background, including uses by Shakespeare in Two Gentlemen of Verona and Much Ado About Nothing, by Ben Johnson, Walter Scott, Longfellow, D. H. Lawrence and Neil Gaiman. In real life, her two most well known representatives are writer Ursula Le Guin and actress Ursula Andress. In literature, there is also Ursula Iguaran, a key, long-lived character in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's major work, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

A name with religious resonance, as the Vedas are the most sacred texts of Hinduism. Outside of that religious context, Veda has the makings of a modern popular name, with its sharp V initial, two syllables, and feminine a ending. This is evidenced by it reentry into the US Top 1000 in 2015, after fifty-five years off the list. Similar names on the rise are Vera and Vada.

Verda was a fairly popular girls' name in the US from the 1880s through the 1920s, when it started to slip, finally dropping from sight after World War II.

Verena is pleasant but old-fashioned. Whether that's the outdated kind of old-fashioned or the so-out-it's-in-again kind is your call.

Once aristocratic British surname yet to be revived. Vince Vaughn recently gave his son the same double initials as his own when he named him Vernon Vaughn.

Victor is one of the earliest Christian names, borne (as Vittorio) by several saints and popes, symbolizing Christ's victory over death. It has been quietly in the Top 200 since 1880, but just recently has taken on a cool edge by fashionable parents in London and seems ripe for a similar reevaluation here too.

A winning, gold locket nickname name of the turn of the last century, though also a common nickname for Vincent.

Virginia is a lovely place name starting with the fashionable V and having deep historical roots, yet, unlike some other other girls' classics, has been sorely neglected in recent years.