Unusually Different

Yesterday's sensation that rose with the popularity of Whitney Houston. Whitney may have lost some of its style value, but it still sounds like one of the quintessential English names for girls. Today, you might want to shorten it to cool nickname Whit.

Wren, a lilting songbird name, could be the next Robin. Wren entered the Top 1000 for the first time in 2012 and is among the new wave of popular English names for girls.

Zara has multiple origins, but most notably is a variation of Zahrah, a name derived from the Arabic zahrah, meaning "blooming flower." Zara can also be a diminutive of the Bulgarian name Zaharina, a feminine form of the Hebrew Zechariah. Today, Zara is heavily associated with the Spanish fast-fashion empire of the same name.

Zinnia is an unusual floral choice with a bit more edge and energy than most and beginning to find its way onto namers' wish lists of botanical possibilities. Named after an eighteenth German botanist called Johann Gottfried Zinn, it appears in Roald Dahl's Matilda as the young protagonist's mother.

Zora is a meaningful literary heroine name honoring Zora Neale Hurston, an important black writer and leader of the Harlem Renaissance.