Names ending in a

Basha bears a family resemblance to other newly popular Slavic names Sasha and Mischa, all of them hearty, warm and welcoming.

Kamilla is the usual spelling of Camilla throughout Scandinavia and in Finland, Hungary, Iceland, and Greenland. Kamma is an appealing short form.

A classic reimagined. Noemia is a very feminine elaboration of Naomi, also spelled Noémia in Portugal and Noêmia in Brazil.

With Clementine on the rise and Clemence and Clemency considered chic in Europe, this unusual Latinate option could be a fresh alternative. Clementia is another, more common, spelling.

The name of the capital city of the Philippines is just conceivable as a baby name, giving off the faint scent of vanilla.

Journalist Hiawatha Bray is a singular contemporary bearer of this name of a Native-American leader immortalized in a Longfellow poem.

Soft and appealing, with a whiff of vanilla.

Mexican place-name famously used by Joan Didion for her daughter, Quintana Roo.

Tanya with a G.

That er sound -- as in Myrna, Myrtle, and Bernice -- sounds terminally dated.

In the 21st century, Exa is best known as the given name of Grimes and Elon Musk's daughter Y, a sibling for X Æ A-XII. The celebrity parents were inspired by the supercomputer terms exaFLOPS, which is the "ability for a supercomputer to perform 1 quintillion floating-point operations per second."

An accessible Russian nickname...but could "cost ya".

For such a short, simple name, Pela has many possible derivations and meanings. It's most commonly cited as a short form of Penelope, but can also be a nickname for Pelagia, a name related to the sea.

While Kayla has been a mainstay in the US Top 1000 list since the 1960s, alternate version Keyla is relatively new, first entering the charts in 2002. While this spelling also has the possibility of being pronounced KEE-lah, it's most likely to cause confusing and frustration in the shadow of the much more popular spelling.

Hedra is the Cornish word for the month of October. With no resemblance between the words, Hedra makes a subtle, intriguing choice for an October-born daughter.

Saintly, and a Mother Superior to boot.

Two popular contemporary choices merged into one, this compound name with its hint of Italian flair was given to nearly 70 girls in the US and 3 in the UK. With Mia's entry into the US Top 10, perhaps it will be used more often in coming years.