10 Popular Baby Girl names

One thing I have had interest in for a while now is the meaning of names, whether it be for characters for whatever story I was working on, or for naming my own kids when the time came. There are just so many options out there, and so many websites and books to sift through, and it can get very overwhelming very quickly. So upon some research, I came across an article through the Good Housekeeping website that compiled several different lists. So I pulled together the meanings of some of the names I liked (and there were so many!) and wanted to share them with others as a good starting place for others.

1. Luna. In Latin, the name Luna means "the moon”. She was also known as the Roman goddess of the moon, who was known to drive a white chariot through the sky. It’s popularity is in part due to the uses in popular culture in various books and movies, as well as it’s usage in Roman mythology. It’s becoming more popular as a first name, but is also common as a last name as well.

2. Maeve Maeve is an Anglicized version of the Gaelic name Medb, which means "intoxicating". According to Irish legend, the name of a warrior queen of Connacht. The story of her epic fight against Ulster and Cúchulainn is told in The Cattle Raid of Cooley. It’s also beginning to be used sporadically in popular shows, like Netflix’s “Sex Education”. It’s also been used as an occasional side character, like in Criminal Minds and Derry Girls.

3. Aurora In Latin, Aurora means "dawn". She appears in Roman Mythology as the goddess of the morning. It has had come up occasionally throughout times since the Renaissance and is the name of Sleeping Beauty according to some translations of the story.

4. Olivia The name Olivia means olive. While Olivia was a common name, this spelling of the name was virtually unheard uf until Shakespeare use it as a character name in his comedy Twelfth Night. The spelling of Olivia that was introduced has been used since then, but didn’t become popular until the late 20th century. It reached the top rank in England and Wales in 2008 and ranked second in the United States in 2014.

5. Isla Isla is Spanish for Island, but is also commonly used in the Scottish and English cultures. It has made appearances as actresses names and in books (think Isla and the Happily Ever After)

6. Ava This name is a variant of Eve. It became famous with famous actresses (namely Ava Gardner who lived from 1922-1990). This name became very popular in the early 21st century in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

7. Ophelia This name is derived from Greek ὠφέλεια (opheleia) which translates to "help, advantage". This was a rare ancient Greek name, which resurfaced in the poem Arcadia by the 15th-century poet Jacopo Sannazaro. It was also used in Shakespeare’s Hamlet as the main character’s lover.

8. Eleanor This is a popular name from the Old French form of the Occitan name Alienòr. Among Popular occurrencesof France, and later Henry II, the king of England. She was named after her mother, a of this name include Eleanor of Aquitaine (12th century), who was the queen of Louis VII, the king nd was called "the other Aenor" as a way to tell her and her mother apart in conversation. There was also Eleanor of Provence (The wife of Henry III) and Eleanor of Castile (wife of Edward I). The most famous with the name in current times is that of American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

9. Eloise This name could be from Old French Héloïse meaning “hale, healthy,” the German name Helewidis meaning “hale, healthy, or wide,” or the Greek ἥλιος (helios) meaning "sun." The current name Eloise seems to come from the medieval version Helewis, thus leading it to transform from Héloïse to Helewidis to ἥλιος to Helewis to Eloise.

10. Aurelia Aurelia is the feminine form of Aurelius. Aurelius is a Roman name that was Latin (aureus) meaning "golden, gilded". It was the last name of Marcus Aurelius who was a 2nd-century Roman emperor and philosophical writer and the name of several saints.