SSA Top 1000: Girl Names Ranked #1000

Lively and joyful. Jovie could be a cute short form.

Justina was the pre-Justine feminization of Justin, now a possible alternative to Christina. Oddly, while Justine feels like a name unto itself, Justina feels like a pinned-together feminization in the mold of Richarda or Benjamina. Still, it may appeal as one of the unusual-yet-familiar girl names starting with J.

This appealing multi-cultural name, pronounced KYE, is beginning to be used for girls as well as boys. Among its many derivations and meanings: "sea" in Hawaiian, "forgiveness" in Japanese, "willow tree" in Navajo, "food" in Maori, and "earth" in Scandinavian. For girls, it debuted on the US Top 1000 in 2010.

Kya, a variation of the popular Kaia, the feminine form of the also-popular gender-neutral name Kai, was one of the fastest-rising girls' names of 2023.

Lyrical, lively and bold, Leilani is a name that feels fresh, floral, and summery. Sharing sounds with the popular Lillian, Layla and Luna, Leilani is a fairly recent addition to the US Top 100.

Its mellifluous sound makes Leonora--which has a rich history and a tie to the popular Leo names-- a keen possibility for revival. Though it's been hiding below the Top 1000 since the 1940s, Leonora is being rediscovered by stylish parents in the US and Europe.

You can think of Lilyanna as a variation of Liliana, the Spanish and Italian form of Lilian, or as a combination of the names Lily and Anna. All types of Lily-related names have been fashionable for many years now, with Lillian and Lily the most common and many other variations in use. What that means is that any little girl with any of the Lily variations is likely to find plenty of company—maybe too much, depending on your viewpoint. This version of the name has been in the US Top 1000 since 2009, though it may not be there much longer.

Louise has for several decades now been seen as competent, studious, and efficient—desirable if not dramatic qualities. But now along with a raft of other L names, as well as cousin Eloise, Louise is up for reappreciation—sleek and chic, stylish in Paris, and starting to become so in the US as well. Louisa is perhaps more in tune with the times, but Louise has more edge. Louise has been on the rise lately, and reentered the US Top 1000 for the first time in a quarter century in 2016.

This name of the French town where a young peasant girl had a vision of the Virgin Mary in 1858 vaulted into the spotlight when Madonna chose it for her daughter, but few other families except for devout Roman Catholics have followed her lead (any more than they've used Rocco for their sons).

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

The lilting Lorelei has given birth to many variations, including this one, now extinct.

Linda begat Lynn which gave way to Lynette, which peaked in the late 1960s. Lynette has been off the Top 1000 for a couple decades now, and the Lynn variations finding the most favor are those that put the "lyn" part at the end: Evelyn, Madelyn, Brooklyn.

Singer Macy Gray has popularized this cute and upbeat choice—once solely associated with the department store—a modern replacement for Stacy and Tracy.

An invention of the eighteenth-century romantic poet James Macpherson, in his epic cycle about Ossian, a legendary Celtic hero. In Poland, where it was popular at the start of the 20th century, the spelling is Malwina, and it's also had some use in other Eastern European countries.