names i wouldnt use if i used another

A wonderful Yiddish diminutive of Sarah, most familiar to Americans as the name of Tevye’s eldest daughter in Joseph Stein’s Fiddler on the Roof.

If you love Puritan virtue names and want to move beyond Hope and Faith and Grace, this is a wonderful choice, both for its meaning and its sound. A rare find here, though occasionally heard in England. It was used in Winston Graham's Poldark novels, was Madonna's name as James Bond's fencing instructor in Die Another Day, and made a brief appearance in Harry Potter. Not to mention being a fixture on British and Australian soaps. Verity also appears in one of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries.

Wilhelmina might once have been condemned as a clunky relic best left in the past, but a steadily increasing number of parents are dusting it off for their 21st century babies. A reasonably popular choice in the 19th century, but out of favor by the 1950s, in the last decade, the number of babies called Wilhelmina has doubled, with 140 girls receiving the name in 2023.

Anglicized as Judah, this name of a biblical patriarch is given symbolically to boys born on Chanukah; a form of it was spotlighted by violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin.