Names That Are Variations

Mottel, also spelled Motl or Motel, was once a common Yiddish name in Ashkenazi Jewish communities. It's never been recorded on the US charts, but the feminine variation, Mattel, is beginning to rise in religious families.

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

Spelling it with a double I -- GEORGII -- makes it ultradistinctive, and less a generic Georgie.

This extra-trendy -ee suffix helped Hadlee ride the wave of Hadley's popularity into the US Top 1000 in 2013.

Attempts to modernize traditional Isaiah has led to this overly creative spelling.

With Grace getting so popular, you may want to explore its international variations such as Grazia, or go all the way to Graziana or Graziella.

This, the simplest French female version of Paul, was brought into the U. S. mix by novelist Paule Marshall, whose roots are in the West Indies.

Although Tamerlaine, especially with the addition of an i, feels more feminine than masculine these days and is occasionally used for girls, the original Tamerlane was a fierce Mongol warrior.

We are seeing the trendy -ee suffix everywhere, including names like Hailey that were perfectly fine before it.

Variant form of Khalil common in Turkey.

Tammuz is the Semitic variation of Dumuzid, a name from Sumerian mythology. Tammuz is the name of fourth month on the Hebrew calendar, corresponding with June and July on the Gregorian calendar.

When British beauty Laura Hollin morphed into supermodel Agyness Deyn, she created a name few others would want to adopt.

A particularly distinctive and dainty example of the life-affirming family of names.

If there's an ancestral Earl you want to honor, consider Early instead.

A top name in Iceland, while its parent name Alvar, ranks highly in Sweden and Finland.

A pan-European variant of Bertha and nickname for -berta ending names, such as Alberta and Roberta. It's certainly much more appealing than its predecessor, but unlikely to become a hit in the US anytime soon.

To some, Eloise will forever be the imperious little girl making mischief at the Plaza Hotel, while the original version Heloise recalls the beautiful and learned wife of the French philosopher Peter Abelard, admired for her fidelity and piety.

Carson is finally beginning to fall slightly after a nearly 2-decade reign of popularity, and we suspect its many spelling variations will follow suit.