Modern, Sweet, Cool, and Slick Names

Adalyn is one of a large group of Ad-beginning names for girls, which include Adeline and Adalynn and Adelaide and Addison — essentially, anything leading to the popular nickname Addie is in. Adalyn is a beautiful name, but be prepared to have to spell it out for people often. Adalyn entered the charts in 2007 and rose quickly, but has been fairly steady in the mid 100s for nearly 10 years now.

Andrea — a feminine form of Andrew (and a male name in several European cultures) — comes with a good selection of pronunciations — ANN-dree-a, AHN-dree-a, or ahn-DRAY-a — each with a slightly different image: girl next door/slightly affected/downright mysterious

A compound name with an old-fashioned ring. It only first appeared on the US Top 1000 in 2012. Annalie is a somewhat different name that is nevertheless pronounced the same.

Though it relates to the Irish original, Ashlyn and its next most popular form, Ashlynn, owe more of their popularity as baby names in the US to the megastar Ashley, though all three have been dropping on the charts lately.

Brianna's popularity in the US came later than father name Brian's, peaking in the 1990s, two decades after Brian's Top 10 reign of the 1970s.

Ciara is very popular in Ireland, more familiar here as the Anglicized Kiera or Keira. The uninitiated will tend to pronounce Ciara as the Italian Chiara, a form of Claire—kee-AHR-a or even see-AHR-a, like the American singer-songwriter Ciara. In the US, Ciara peaked in 2005, when it was the Number 150 name; it's since fallen down to Number 882.

This Corey variation is getting a fresh shot of style juice thanks to young It Girl Cory Kennedy (not to be confused with RFK daughter, filmmaker Rory Kennedy).

The superpopularity of Emily and Emma has recently boosted the unisex Emery, especially since it became a celebrity baby name when it was chosen by Angie Harmon and Jason Sehorn.

Emma has now been among the top girl names in the United States for several years, claiming the Number 1 crown in 2008 and again from 2015 to 2018 before dropping back to second place.

Variation of Emma with the popular suffix -lyn.

A child will find this name is neat, easy to pronounce, and able to fit in with the crowd.

After decades of disuse, soft and feminine Evelyn has returned to the baby name stage in a huge way. It reached the Top 10 for the first time in 2017. Evelyn has now surpassed its former heights, joining a legion of contemporary little Evas, Avas, Eves, Evies, and Evelines.

Gemma is a jewel of a name, an Italian classic that was very popular in 1980s England, but has only recently been started to be used here; it entered the list in 2008.

Haven is a recently invented safe-harbor name that appeals to an increasing number of parents who don't want to voyage quite as far as Heaven.

Jenna was first noted on the 1980s TV series Dallas, later associated with one of the First Twin Daughters. Jenna is still being used, but no longer feels much fresher than Jennifer. You can also spell it Jena, but then many people will pronounce it jeen-a, as in Gina.

When Jennifer finally gave up her Number 1 place on the girls' popularity list, her crown was passed to Jessica, who reigned for not one but two decades. Jessica was the Number 1 name in both the mid-1980s and 1990s, never sounding quite as trendy as its predecessor, maybe because of its classic Shakespearean pedigree.

Kiana (or more appropriately, Quiana) is the original polyester name, now falling fast out of favor.

Though such cognates of Kira as Keira, Kyra, and Ciara are increasingly popular throughout Europe and in the U.S., this Cyrus relative has a different root. As with all the many variations of this appealing name, there is often confusion around spelling and pronunciation -- does the first syllable rhyme with ear or eye?