Capricorn Names

This Irish saint's name makes an attractive alternative for Dylan or Donald.

Themba is a common male name in southern African countries such as Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Eswatini.

Olympic skier Picabo Street was allowed to choose her name at the age of three, and picked it possibly (a) after a nearby Idaho town or (b) because she loved to play peekaboo. No longer a single-person name, it is now worn by a number of satisfied bearers.

Although it's more commonly seen as a surname, Haviland is occasionally used as a first name, particularly for girls.

This one may well be an undiscovered choice for many parents - it has a fabulous meaning, a sturdy surname-name appeal that is very on trend right now and several great namesakes including the Bartlett pear and the tome of quotations. Despite that third T, it could also be a favorite of The West Wing fans wanting to evoke fictional president Jed Bartlet.

This lovely Indian name could spruce up Sarah. It has at least two distinguished bearers — Sarojini Naidu (freedom fighter and poet) and Sarojini Sahoo, a modern Indian feminist writer and journalist.

In Akamba culture, children were historically given names with animal meanings if their mother's first pregnancy was a stillbirth. It was thought that these names promoted survival and kept the bad omens away from the child. Additionally, this saved the "good" names — typically those of grandparents — for later-born children, who were considered more likely to survive.

Ilesha is an unusual choice that will undoubtedly be confused with similar and far more common names such as Alicia and Elissa.

Cheever has a nice, cheery sound, literary ties to novelist and short writer John Cheever and also, sideways, to the Edward Arlington Robinson narrative poem "Miniver Cheevy," as well as a subliminal association with the desirable word achiever: all strong pluses.

Intriguing, if a bit vowel-heavy.