Three Syllable Girl Names

Updates Allison—which everyone will misunderstand it as. But it's definitely a fresh spin on the Ellie names, and a rising surname name choice for girls. It made its first appearance on the US Top 1000 in 2013.

Cecile is a fairly common French saint's name, scattered throughout classic French literature--in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, in Balzac's Cousin Pons, and Zola's Germinal.

Enola was a precursor of Nevaeh: It's "alone" spelled backwards. But the name Enola is newly in the spotlight thanks to a Netflix film.

Tennis-related name popular throughout Europe that's never caught fire here.

Hildegard is an ancient name that sounds it, but it does have sweet short forms Hildie and Hilda to recommend it, as well as several illustrious historical bearers.

Neil Gaiman invented this name for a character in his comic book Sandman. It can now be seen on the TV show Lucifer.

The menu of usable month names seems to expand every, well, month, with such choices as November, October, and January joining more established names like April, May, June and August. Logical November nicknames include Nova, Novi, or Ember, making this a natural (if adventurous) choice for a baby girl. November is also, obviously, one of the perfect names for November babies.

A royal name in ancient Egypt that's never quite made it to the modern world, though nickname Cleo is widely used. Other now-extinct Cleopatra diminutives, including Cleora and Cleola, achieved some popularity in the early 20th century when there was a crazy for all things Egypt-related as the ancient tombs were opened and artifacts displayed. In the US, Cleopatra became a popular silent film in 1917 starring Theda Bara.

Marilla is a names that's familiar via its resemblance to Mary and variations, but also distinctive: It hasn't been on the Top 1000 since the 1800s and was given to only 27 baby girls last year.

Pre-Thomasina female form of Thomas, now seen as more literary and upscale British. In Thomas Hardy's novel The Return of the Native, a leading character is Thomasin Yeobright.

Bell-like and original.

Fernanda is very popular in the Latino community, with a lot more charm than its male counterpart. The standard nickname is Nanda, and variations include Ferdinanda and Fernandina.

Ainara is among the Top 100 girls' names in Spain and is just starting to take off in the US.

This could make a hauntingly evocative name for an American child, striking the perfect balance of the unusual and the familiar. Imara's meaning adds further appeal placing it among the special class of girl names that mean strong, brave, or powerful.

An English innovation based on Latin solaris "of the sun", or on its English cognate "solar". Toyota used it for one of its cars, and Mila Kunis played a character by the name in the 2010 post-apocalyptic action film The Book of Eli.

Variant of Evelyn or Aveline

Intriguing Old Welsh name being revived there, but would have major pronunciation problems here.

Though this is a popular name for men in the Bible, today it's used with this spelling for nearly equal numbers of girls and boys. The Azaria variation is much more often given to girls.

Like the masculine form Galileo, Galilea is a variant of Galilee, a region in Northern Israel of great Biblical significance. Given the current popularity of soft Italian girls’ names, this name’s long historical roots, its beautiful sound and the potential for cute nicknames (Leia, Lil, Ally, etc) it’s no surprise that this name has been on the rise in recent years.

Also an Arabic boy name, Inayat feels fashionable for a girl because of the similarity to rising girl name Inaya.