Names That Are Variations

Lovely, authentic name -- but any Kirsten will be condemned to a lifetime of hearing "Did you say Kristen?" They're both genuine Scandinavian names but too interchangeable.

Oskar is to Oscar as Jakob is to Jacob: more distinctive and continental.

Nicola, an elegant Latinate feminization of Nicholas, has long been standard issue for English girls but for some reason has never voyaged across the Atlantic, which we consider a pity, especially as Nicole's standing has waned.

Andre is one of the international forms of Andrew that has been familiar in the English-speaking world for decades without any need to be overly Anglicized - though round the world, it is more likely to be written as André.

The girls' name Kyra sounds like the also popular Keira/Kiera, but has a different root. There are twice as many baby girls named Keira as Kyra, with Kiera in third place. Kyra now ranks at #590 and is most familiar via actress Kyra Sedgwick.

Justine is a French name that's never reached the popularity we think it deserves. Like its far-more-common brother Justin, Justine is sleek, and sophisticated, but still user-friendly.

A Top 100 name from the 1930s all the way through the 1950s, it's now firmly in Mom -- or Grandma -- land and supplanted for babies by Joanna.....or even great-grandmother Josephine. In its heyday, it had a host of variations, including JoAnn and Jo-Anne.

Lucan is a rarely heard Irish name, a Luke form with the trendy an ending.

Popular among parents with Arab roots. Also found as Maryam.

The Sydney spelling most popular for girls: it's in the Top 50 on the female side. Cool for a girl, still nerdy for a guy.

Aphra would make an interesting choice-- especially since it's the name of the first professional female writer in English, the seventeenth century's Aphra Behn. Born in 1640, she was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration, and a spy.

This streamlined variation of Eleanor is common in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, particularly Portugal itself, where it has ranked among the Top 3 baby girl names for over a decade.

Popular in its own right in Germany and definitely makes a more intriguing and grownup short form of the classic Timothy than Timmy or even Tim.

Long a popular upper-crust form in England, where it's pronounced George-ee-AH-na, Georgiana has been been neglected here. But with Georgia growing more popular and the general fashion for elaborate feminine names, Georgiana might have room to grow.

The short-lived magazine edited by former Vogue chief Grace Mirabella put this beautiful name off-limits for a while, but now it's perfectly fit to join the fashionable Bella pantheon. More distinctive than Isabella.

Contemporary Kairo fits in with the modern trend of substituting a C for a K initial, and in this case, it works to get you more easily to the cool nickname Kai. In fact, parents in the US and the UK see it as working so well that Kairo took over from Cairo as the preferred spelling of the name back in 2018. Given to nearly 1500 babies each year, Kairo is in the US and UK Top 300.

There are much chicer versions of this name today, such as Claudie, Claudia, or Claude itself. Claudine is a name wobbling on the edge of extinction.

Popular among Hispanic communities but also used internationally, Manuel is a name with a regal history.

Highly popular in Germany, Norway, Lithuania, and Austria, Lukas is a spelling variation of the also extremely popular Lucas. The "K" spelling gives it extra kick and a more international, globe-trotter feel.

One of the most popular Spanish names for boys in the US, Javier is embodied for many Americans in the magnetic persona of Spanish-born Oscar-nominated actor Javier Bardem.