Names That Are Variations

Has taken on a musical tone via the great violinist, Itzhak Perlman.

As Joaquin enters the American mainstream, his sister might just follow.

Greek variation of Candace used in the Bible.

Now that Jacob has been the top boys' name for several years, this may come to the fore, the way Michaela did after Michael's long reign at Number One. For now, it's one of the more unusual girl names starting with J.

Ethereal name with a moony halo.

Forever to be known as "Gavin-with-a-Y."

Derived from an ancient Roman name, this is best known in its male form Placido, thanks to the tenor.

French designer name Chanel spelt phonetically in English.

Allena may feel like a somewhat antiquated feminization, though Allen itself is a tad old-fashioned. In many ways, Allena -- pronounced ah-LEN-ah -- feels more appealing that Alana or ah-LAH-ah.

Elijah is in the US Top 10 and is popular across New Zealand, The Netherlands, and The UK. Spelling variation Alijah however only appears in the US charts, where it has ranked in the Top 1000 since 2001. Given to 700 boys in a recent year, for every one baby Alijah, there are 16 Elijahs.

Both Madisyn and Madison have lost ground in recent years.

The Finnish form of Jacob. A common nickname is Jaska.

Sisley may look like a modern coinage, building on the fashionable -ley ending, but it's actually a medieval English variant of Cicely or Cecily, which in turn is a variation of Cecilia. Also found as an English surname, from the same root.

The Basque form of Salvador starts with the intriguing letter X, which is pronounced like a "sh" sound in the Basque language. Xabat is a great Basque heritage choice, but we must note that it sounds almost identical to the word "Shabbat", the Jewish day of rest.

An additional H is often found in Puerto Rican names, such as Amahia, a variation of Amaia, and Nahiara, a form of the Basque place name Naiara.