Names That Mean Wild

Everett is a preppy but outdoorsy name, with wintery New England vibes. In the last decade, it’s had a leap in popularity, perhaps because of its similarity to trendy girls’ names like Ava and Scarlett, or perhaps because it offers a fresh alternative to 90’s style Evan and Brett.

Fia may be most notable at this moment as the Anglicized version of the Irish Fiadh, one of the fastest-rising names in the Republic of Ireland. The meaning of Fia or Fiadh is sometimes given as "deer" but that's in the sense of a wild deer, as the name relates to the ancient word for wild.

Sweet and stylish, with a sporty, energetic undertone, Everly is a name that ticks lots of boxes.

Fiadh is the fastest-rising girls' name in Ireland, derived from the ancient root word for "wild". The Anglicized form Fia is one we might see rising in the US as well – to take the place of its popular cousin Mia.

Kara and the soundalike (though not necessarily related) Cara are among the most multi-cultural names around. Cara has roots in Latin, Italian, Irish, Spanish, and Portuguese, and Kara can be viewed as simply as K-starting version of Cara.

Chosen by the late Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa for their youngest daughter, there is renewed interest in Italian isola name Capri.

Like Ashley before it, on-trend Everly has been followed by a range of spelling variants, and among them, Everleigh is the most popular.

Not quite as unusual as it might seem, it first entered the popularity list in 1995, as a possible alternative to the very popular Kayla. In the Bible, an alternate spelling is Jaala.

Evokes 1960s brotherly close harmony. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis named his son Everly Bear, and it is also an explosively popular choice for girls. We predict that all the "Ever" names will be one of the defining trends of the 2010s-20s.

Everlyn is one of the countless new spin on Evelyn and sisters, this generation's answer to Caitlin and Michaela. Evelyn, recently in the US Top 10, has been around as a name for a long time, once used for boys too. Ever and Everly are newer inventions, and Everlyn borrows something from them all. Nearly 70 baby girls were named Everlyn in the most recent year counted.

Nasrin has a strong sound and lovely floral meaning. International variants include the Turkish Nesrin and Egyptian Nesreen.

Sheridan is one surname-name that hasn't come into style for either gender, though it was lightly used for boys around the turn of the 20th century and girls 100 years later. The name does have an attractive sound and an appealing meaning.

An intriguingly wild alternative to Sven.

A French-ified smoosh of Vietnamese Thuy and Lan, borne by French model Thylane Blondeau.

Now that the midcentury sound-alike name Gail for girls is sailing out to sea, Gael is becoming an increasingly popular name for boys -- and could make the gender switch in the opposite direction again.

A biblical name -- he was the father of Abraham -- but the father's name is much less appealing than the son's, in both sound and meaning.

This geographical name, which belongs to an English Premier League football club, is popular in soccer-mad Brazil.

Wilda (or Wylda) has two widely divergent images. Pronounced vill-da, it feels like a cousin of Hilda: a sturdy and none-too-attractive prairie settler. But you can also think of her as wild-ah, as in the feminine of wild and wilder.

The German name for girls Wylda was introduced to the world by British filmmaker/artist, director of Fifty Shades of Gray Sam Taylor-Wood and her actor husband, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who named their daughter Wylda Rae. Is that Wylda, which rhymes with Hilda, and might be found inhabiting a sod hut on the Kansas prairie in 1901? Or Wylda, sister of Wilder, destined for a future as a hell-raising singer in a rock band?