German Top 100 - Girls

Josephine, with its large measure of class and character and a gently offbeat quality, has been on a gentle uphill climb in the US for over 30 years, now ranking in the Top 100. With an intriguing number of vivacious nicknames, from Jo to Josie to Fifi to Posy, Josephine is a Nameberry favorite.

Julia was an ancient Roman imperial name given to females in the house of a Julius, as in Caesar. Its origin is shrouded in history, but possible roots include Latin iuvenis, meaning "youthfu"; Greek ioulos, meaning "downy-bearded"; or Jovis, a form of Jupiter, which means "sky father".

Katharina is an attractive form of Katherine and a great way to update a classic. But English speakers may want to choose the Katerina or Katarina spelling to avoid pronunciation confusion.

This is an alternative to Laura or Lauren made romantic by Dr Zhivago, and badass by video-game heroine Lara Croft.

Laura is a hauntingly evocative perennial, never trendy, never dated, feminine without being fussy, with literary links stretching back to Dante. All this makes Laura a more solid choice than any of its more decorative counterparts and one of the most classic girl names starting with L.

While traditionally pronounced as a homonym for Lee, Glee actress Lea Michele pronounces her name like Leah, and it may also rhyme with Freya. Regardless of your preferred pronunciation, it's interesting to note that Lea has always charted in the US Top 1000, despite coming close to the bottom a few times, making it one of the girl names starting with L that both fits in and stands out.

Leila was popularized in the West by the poet Byron, who used it in his poem Don Juan for a ten-year-old Turkish girl. Leila also appears as a fairy in the Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera Iolanthe.

This pet form of Helena and other ena-ending names, long used as an independent name, is attracting notice again as an option both multicultural and simple. Lena was a Top 100 name from 1880 to 1920.

A foreign nickname name that has never been widely used here — possibly because of its similarity to the outdated male Lenny — it was chosen for her daughter by high-profile German supermodel Heidi Klum.

Leonie is a chic French and German form of a name that exists in a range of variations from Leona to Leonia to Leon to Leo to Lionel, all newly fashionable after a couple of generations in style limbo.

Short, sweet, and clear, Lia is used throughout Europe, across America, and in some areas of Asia and Africa, making it a truly international and versatile choice.

Lilly may contain one L too many for some people, though this secondary spelling of a name that's become wildly popular is still a popular choice. And the Lilly spelling does feel a bit less wispy, a bit more like a name as opposed to a mere flower, than the slender and delicate Lily. Lilly suggests the long-form Lillian, but it doesn't need to be an abbreviation for anything; Lilly can stand on its own.

This pretty, succinct Arabic name is also commonly used as a nickname for names like Carolina.

Linda will live forever in baby name history for toppling Mary from its four hundred year reign as Number 1. Queen of Names in 1947, Linda has fallen even further in favor than Mary today.

Elvis naming his daughter Lisa Marie and Nat King Cole's hit song "Mona Lisa" conspired to catapult one of Elizabeth's many offshoots to a high of #4 in 1970.

This nickname-name is very popular in Germany, though Lottie is still the preferred version in the US. The problem, of course, is that you'll have to put up with a lotta jokes. See?

A versatile classic, Lucy is both sweet and solid, a saint's name, and the heroine of several great novels. First fashionable in England and Wales, Lucy is now a popular choice in the US, The Netherlands, and New Zealand.

This streamlined Italian and Spanish spelling of Louisa is currently very popular in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Portugal, where it's usually spelt Luísa.

See LOUISE.