Color baby names run a long way past Blue and Rose. This list gathers 100 of them: gemstone names such as Amethyst and Onyx, hair-color names such as Auburn and Rufus, and quiet borrowings such as Midori, Sigal and Xanthe that carry a shade only their own language hears.
Every entry below gives the origin, the meaning, a plain pronunciation respelling, and where the name actually stands in U.S. births. Nine of them sit inside the top 100 today, according to Social Security Administration data for 2025, while others go to fewer than ten babies a year.
Scan by shade, or skim the popularity notes to see which colors are climbing and which have quietly gone rare.
Popularity at a Glance
The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: Oliver, Violet, Hazel, Scarlett and Rowan.
Every popularity note below comes from U.S. Social Security Administration birth records, current through 2025, which list a name only when at least five babies receive it in a year, so the rarest names here carry no figure at all. The chart above compares the five color names on this page given to the most U.S. babies in 2025, each line scaled to its own peak so the shapes can be read side by side.
100 Cute Color Names for Babies
Head over the rainbow: 100 memorable color baby names, listed A to Z with meanings, pronunciations and current U.S. popularity.
Amber
Amber reached English in the mid-1300s meaning ambergris, from the Arabic anbar, and only settled into naming a yellow-orange color around 1735. The gemstone sense won out: fossilized tree resin, warm and half transparent, now and then with an insect caught inside it. Parents who met the name in the 1980s knew it as a top-15 pick, which is exactly why it reads vintage rather than trendy today. That gap is the opening if you want a strong girl name everyone can spell and nobody in the class shares. Amb and Ambi both work on a toddler.
- Origin: French, Arabic
- Meaning: Yellowish orange
- Pronunciation: AM-ber
- Variations: Ambar, Ambre
- Namesakes: Amber Scott, an Australian ballet dancer at The Australian Ballet. Amber Joseph, a Barbadian racing cyclist who rode at the 2020 UCI Road World Championships.
- Popularity: #520 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 576 newborns given the name, or about one girl in 2,793. Amber peaked at #13 in 1986 and is down roughly 56 percent on the previous decade.
Amethyst
Amethyst comes from the Greek amethystos, literally not intoxicated. A cup carved from the purple stone was believed to keep its drinker sober, which is how a gemstone ended up named after a hangover remedy. American use has nearly tripled in a decade from a small base. Amy and Thyst give it two short forms that sound nothing alike.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Purple
- Pronunciation: AM-uh-thist
- Variations: Amathyste, Amethyste, Amethist
- Popularity: #1,242 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 181 newborns, roughly one girl in 8,850. It is up about 179 percent on the previous decade and hit its best rank, #1,069, in 2022.
Ash
Ash is the Old English aesc, the ash tree, and it doubles as the soft gray left behind when wood burns. The Social Security Administration counts it separately from Asher and Ashley, so the 175 boys given it in 2025 were registered as Ash outright. The sound is blunt and modern, needs no decoration on a birth certificate, and it is climbing fast while staying uncommon, which is a hard combination to find.
- Origin: English, Hebrew
- Meaning: Ash tree, gray color
- Pronunciation: ASH
- Variations: Asher, Ashe
- Namesakes: Ash Atalla, an Egyptian-British TV producer of The Office and The IT Crowd. Ashley “Ash” Bowie, an American musician of the indie rock band Polvo.
- Popularity: #1,177 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 175 newborns, and #6,572 among girls with 17. Boys’ use is up about 227 percent on the previous decade.
Auburn
Auburn is an Old French color word that settled into meaning reddish brown hair. About a third of all recorded American Auburns have been boys, but 2025 ran 32 girls to five, so today it reads mostly female, and the double consonant keeps it from going soft. Its biggest year on record was 2015, at 52 girls, so it has never been anything other than rare.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Reddish brown
- Pronunciation: AW-burn
- Variations: Auburne
- Namesakes: Auburn Williams (known as Auburn), an American singer-songwriter who released the album Same Girl in 2007.
- Popularity: #4,369 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 32 newborns, plus a handful of boys. It has held roughly steady for a decade, about one baby in 50,000.
Aurelia
Aurelia is the feminine of the Roman family name Aurelius, built on aureus, golden. The color it carries is metal rather than paint, which gives it more weight than most shades here. This Roman name is at its highest count and best rank in U.S. records right now, so it is a revival caught mid-climb rather than at the top. Ellie, Reli and Auri all fall out of it without forcing.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Golden-haired
- Pronunciation: aw-REEL-ee-uh
- Variations: Auralea, Aurelea, Aurelija
- Namesakes: Aurelia Conde, a Cuban track and field athlete who competed in the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics. Aurelia de Perón, the first wife of former Argentine president Juan Perón.
- Popularity: #290 among U.S. girls in 2025 with 1,056 newborns, its best rank and its highest count on record. Aurelia is up about 197 percent on the previous decade.
Azure
Azure entered English in the early 1300s for the sky-blue pigment ground from lapis lazuli. It lost its first letter by accident: Medieval Latin lazur was misread as though the l were the French article l’, leaving azur (1). Behind that sits Persian lajward. Knowing the history, the name stops being a paint chip and starts being a trade route. More boys than girls get it in the U.S., which surprises most people. Az holds up as a short form.
- Origin: French, Arabic
- Meaning: Sky blue
- Pronunciation: AZH-ur
- Variations: Azore, Azuree, Azzure
- Namesakes: Azure Parsons, an American actress known for the films 2 Guns and Dark Places.
- Popularity: #6,360 among U.S. girls in 2025 with 18 newborns, and #3,042 among boys with 40. Its best showing was #1,005 back in 1975.
Beryl
Beryl is the mineral family behind emerald and aquamarine, from the Greek beryllos, and in its plain form it is pale green. It rode the Edwardian jewel-name wave and peaked in American births around 1920. Then it disappeared so completely that it now sounds like nobody’s grandmother rather than everybody’s. With eight girls given the name in 2025, a Beryl today is a deliberate revival, not a coincidence.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Light green gemstone
- Pronunciation: BEH-rul
- Variations: Beril, Berille, Beryle
- Namesakes: Beryl Bryden, an English jazz singer known as “Britain’s queen of the blues.” Beryl Noakes, a British swimmer who competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: #11,101 among U.S. girls in 2025, with eight newborns. Beryl ranked as high as #374 in 1920 and has been rare for decades.
Bianca
Bianca is an Italian version of Blanche, and both of them mean white. It manages to sound ornate without being fussy: three syllables that land softly and finish clean. American use peaked around 1990 and has eased off since, which puts it in the useful middle ground of familiar to adults and uncommon in a preschool room, with Bee and Bibi waiting as the obvious short forms.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: White
- Pronunciation: bee-AHN-kuh
- Variations: Beonca, Biannca, Bionca
- Namesakes: Bianca Jagger (born Blanca Macías), a Nicaraguan married to Mick Jagger from 1971 until 1978. Bianca Andreescu, a Canadian tennis player who won the U.S. Open in 2019.
- Popularity: #500 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 594 newborns, about one girl in 2,703. It peaked at #84 in 1990 and is down roughly 39 percent on the previous decade.
Blaine
Blaine is the English form of the Gaelic name Blaan, from bla, yellow, and it was first handed to fair-haired boys. A separate Hebrew line gives it the sense of slender. One syllable, no ambiguity, no nickname required, which is most of its appeal. Your Blaine can be dark-haired and still carry this handsome name perfectly well.
- Origin: Gaelic
- Meaning: Yellow
- Pronunciation: BLAYN
- Variations: Blayne, Blaene, Blain
- Namesakes: Blaine Higgs, the current Canadian premier of New Brunswick. Blaine Harrison, an English musician in the indie rock band Mystery Jets.
- Popularity: #992 among U.S. boys in 2025 with 230 newborns, plus 20 girls. It ranked as high as #374 in 1989 and is down about 34 percent on the previous decade.
Blue
Blue is the plainest color name on the list and, for a long stretch, one of the least used, running back through blaewen and the Norse blar. Just over a third of American Blues are girls, so it works in either direction without anyone adjusting. Celebrity use pushed it into view, but the numbers are still small enough that a Blue will be the only one in the room.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: The color blue
- Pronunciation: BLOO
- Variations: Bleu
- Namesakes: Blue Carter, the daughter of musicians Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Blue Balliett, an American author, best known for her children’s book Chasing Vermeer.
- Popularity: #2,648 among U.S. boys in 2025 with 49 newborns, and #4,676 among girls with 29. Use is up about 138 percent on the previous decade.
Borage
Borage takes its name from the Latin borrago and belongs to a blue star-shaped flower that grows across the Mediterranean, long nicknamed the herb of gladness. The petals are a startling cornflower blue, edible, and a standard garnish on a summer drink. As a first name it is genuinely unrecorded in American birth data. That makes it a name for parents who want a plant, a color and a mood in one word, and Bo shortens it neatly.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Borage flower, blue
- Pronunciation: BOR-ij
- Variations: Burrage
- Popularity: The Social Security Administration has never published a figure for Borage. No American year has reached the five-births floor its data requires.
Bowie
Bowie began as a Scottish and Irish surname from the Gaelic buidhe, meaning yellow or fair-haired. The color sense is real, though almost nobody chooses it for that reason now. What it carries instead is a fifty-year run of borrowed cool, and the birth numbers show it: use has multiplied several times over in a decade, and more than a third of American Bowies are girls.
- Origin: Gaelic
- Meaning: Yellow
- Pronunciation: BOH-ee
- Variations: Bowen
- Namesakes: Bowie Kuhn, the 5th American Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1969 to 1984. Bowie Fung, a Hong Kong actor and a matinée idol in the 1950s and 1960s.
- Popularity: #1,228 among U.S. boys in 2025 with 164 newborns, and #1,736 among girls with 117. Boys’ use is up about 512 percent on the previous decade.
Boyd
Boyd originated as a Scottish surname from the Celtic boidhe, fair, and joined the long line of color names given to blond boys. It is one syllable, ends hard, and sounds like a man who fixes his own truck. After a century out of fashion it has started climbing again from a very low base. Nothing about it needs explaining, which on a school register counts for a lot.
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Yellow
- Pronunciation: BOYD
- Variations: Boyt
- Namesakes: Boyd “Rainmaker” Melson, an American boxer and bronze medalist at the 2005 US Amateur Boxing Championships. Boyd Cordner, an Australian rugby league footballer, playing for the Sydney Roosters in the NRL.
- Popularity: #1,959 among U.S. boys in 2025 with 78 newborns. Boyd ranked #248 in 1922 and is up about 72 percent on the previous decade.
Brick
Brick was an English occupational surname for a mason before it became a given name attached to redheads and freckles. The color is that specific fired-clay orange-red, warmer than crimson and duller than scarlet. It is short, physical, and completely unbothered. Seven boys got it in 2025, so it is about as rare as a real name gets while still appearing in federal data at all.
- Origin: Gaelic
- Meaning: Red, freckled
- Pronunciation: BRIK
- Variations: Brik, Bric, Bricke
- Namesakes: Brick Haley, a football coach for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. Brick Smith, an American baseball player for the Seattle Mariners in 1987 and 1988.
- Popularity: #9,863 among U.S. boys in 2025, with seven newborns, roughly one boy in 250,000. It has held steady at that level for years.
Brindle
Brindle comes from brindled, earlier brinded, and it describes a brown or tawny coat streaked with a second color, the pattern you see on boxers and greyhounds. It is a color word that is really a texture word, which makes it more interesting than a flat shade. Nobody will guess the spelling, and nobody will forget it either.
- Origin: Scandinavian
- Meaning: Black-tan combination
- Pronunciation: BRIN-dul
- Variations: Brindill, Brindell, Brindel
- Popularity: Last recorded at #12,476 among U.S. girls in 2022, with seven newborns. Fewer than five babies a year have received it since, so it drops out of the published data.
Bruno
Bruno is built on the German brun, brown. It went to brown-haired boys across German and Italian speaking Europe for centuries, and it is equally at home in Portuguese, which is why it turns up on any list of Brazilian boy names. The sound is tough on the front end and soft on the back, so it works on both a toddler and a grown man. American use has been climbing quietly for a decade. This tough but sweet name is still nowhere near common.
- Origin: German
- Meaning: Brown
- Pronunciation: BROO-noh
- Variations: Bruino, Bruneo, Brunow
- Namesakes: Bruno Ganz, a Swiss actor known for films with the directors Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders. Bruno Tabacci, the Italian President of the Lombardy region from 1987 to 1989.
- Popularity: #740 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 351 newborns, about one boy in 4,878. Use is up about 41 percent on the previous decade.
Burgundy
Burgundy is a region in central France, Bourgogne, and the deep purple-red of the wine made there. As a name it is long, unapologetically maximalist, never once fashionable, and it has all but vanished from American birth records. If you want a color word that arrives with vineyards attached, this is it, and Birdie is the nickname hiding inside.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Dark red
- Pronunciation: BUR-gun-dee
- Variations: Burgandey, Burgandi, Burgandy
- Popularity: Last recorded at #14,914 among U.S. girls in 2014, with six newborns. Fewer than five a year since, so it no longer appears in the published data.
Carmine
Carmine is the Italian male version of Carmen, and the word itself names a vivid red. Italian-American families kept it alive in the States through most of the twentieth century, and its numbers have barely moved in ten years. That flatness is a feature: it is neither dated nor trendy. Few color names sound this masculine without trying.
- Origin: Italian, Latin
- Meaning: Red crimson
- Pronunciation: kar-MEEN
- Variations: Carmino
- Namesakes: Carmine DeSopo, an American politician who served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1996 to 1998. Carmine Persico Jr., the American mob boss of the Colombo crime family in New York City from 1973 to 2019.
- Popularity: #1,035 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 214 newborns, about one boy in 8,000. It has been flat for a decade after ranking #396 in 1922.
Cherry
Cherry is the fruit and the particular gloss red named after it, and it also works as a pet form of Charity or Cherise. It had a genuine mid-century American run, then fell out of use so thoroughly that it now reads as retro rather than plain. It is warm, short, and entirely unpretentious. Forty-two girls got it in 2025, which makes it far rarer than most people assume.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Cherry red
- Pronunciation: CHAIR-ee
- Variations: Cherri, Cherrie, Cherie, Cheri
- Namesakes: Cherry Hood, an Australian artist known for her oversized paintings of children’s faces. Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, an American executive producer of the TV series Family Guy.
- Popularity: #3,588 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 42 newborns. Cherry ranked #429 in 1948 and has been roughly flat for the past decade.
Claret
Claret is the English name for red Bordeaux, and by extension for that dark purplish red. The Latin root also carries the sense of bright and clear, so the word pulls in two directions at once. It has never registered in American birth data, which puts it firmly in the invent-your-own category. Clara and Clarence are its nearest familiar neighbors if you want a fallback the grandparents recognize.
- Origin: English, Latin
- Meaning: Dark red
- Pronunciation: KLAR-it
- Variations: Clarret, Clarot, Clarrot
- Popularity: No American figure exists for Claret. Federal records publish a name only when at least five babies receive it in a year, and Claret has never cleared that bar.
Clementine
Clementine is the French feminine of Clement, meaning merciful, and it shares its name with the small orange. The color association is second-hand, which is part of the charm. Saints and popes carried Clement long before the fruit did. It is at its highest point in American records right now. Clem, Clemmie and Tine all work, and the song does the rest.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Orange
- Pronunciation: KLEM-un-teen
- Variations: Clementyn, Clementyne
- Namesakes: Clementine Stoney, an Australian swimmer who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Clementine Paddleford, an American food writer who wrote for the New York Herald Tribune.
- Popularity: #456 among U.S. girls in 2025 with 676 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record. Clementine is up about 215 percent on the previous decade.
Clover
Clover comes from the Old English clafre for the green field plant, and it drags the four-leaf luck along with it whether you want that or not. It is a soft green rather than a sharp one. American use has nearly tripled in a decade and set its record in 2025, so this one is on its way up rather than settled. It sounds like a farm and a fairy tale at the same time.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Green herb with trifold leaves
- Pronunciation: KLOH-ver
- Variations: Claefer, Klover
- Namesakes: Clover Moore, the Australian Lord Mayor of Sydney since 2004.
- Popularity: #517 among U.S. girls in 2025 with 578 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record. Clover is up about 179 percent on the previous decade.
Cobalt
Cobalt takes its name from the German name Kobalt, from kobold, a goblin out of old mining culture. The blue that came out of it is the deep, saturated one that reads as blue before anything else does. As a first name it is barely used, which for some parents is the entire recommendation. It is unisex, and it sounds like metal in the best way.
- Origin: German
- Meaning: Blue
- Pronunciation: KOH-bawlt
- Popularity: Last recorded at #12,700 among U.S. boys in 2024, with five newborns. Fewer than five a year in most years, so it appears only intermittently in the data.
Cole
Cole is the English surname built on col, coal, and the black it names is the deepest here. A second, Greek line reads it as a short form of Nicholas. It sits just inside the American top 200 for boys, common enough that nobody blinks and uncommon enough that a class rarely holds two. The peak was 2002, so it has aged into the reliable middle.
- Origin: English, Greek
- Meaning: Coal-black, charcoal
- Pronunciation: KOHL
- Variations: Coal, Coale, Col
- Namesakes: Cole Kehler, a Canadian ice hockey player with the Utah Grizzlies in the ECHL. Cole Hauser, an American actor, nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for the film Tigerland.
- Popularity: #182 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 2,003 newborns, about one boy in 853. Cole peaked at #69 in 2002 and is down roughly 30 percent on the previous decade.
Copper
Copper is the metal, from Latin cuprum, named for Cyprus where Rome mined it. The color is that bright orange-brown a new penny has before it dulls. It is a newer American name than most here, first appearing in the data this century. It set its record in 2025. Roughly a quarter of Coppers are girls. Copper suits a child who was never going to blend in anyway.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Reddish-brown element
- Pronunciation: KOP-er
- Variations: Copar, Coper, Coppar
- Namesakes: Allan “Copper” Kent, an Australian rugby union player who claimed one international rugby cap for Australia.
- Popularity: #2,947 among U.S. boys in 2025 with 42 newborns, its best rank on record, plus 12 girls. Use is up about 125 percent on the previous decade.
Coral
Coral names the pinkish orange of the reef animal. The material was worn by ancient Egyptians and Romans as protective jewelry long before anyone thought of it as a paint color. It is a warmer shade than Rose and a softer one than Scarlett, which is exactly the gap it fills. Two syllables, no spelling argument. It has sat quietly under the radar for twenty years without ever going out of use. Cora is sitting inside it if a shorter version is ever wanted.
- Origin: English, Greek
- Meaning: Red-pink
- Pronunciation: KOR-ul
- Variations: Corall, Corral, Corelle
- Namesakes: Coral Atkins, an English actress who ran a home for disadvantaged children. Coral Smith, an American reality TV personality on MTV’s The Real World: Back to New York.
- Popularity: #1,931 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 100 newborns, about one girl in 16,129. Coral has drifted down gently from a 2004 high of 224 births.
Crimson
Crimson comes from the Arabic qirmizi, named for the kermes insect that lived on the kermes oak and gave ancient Europe its main red dye. The Sanskrit root behind it means, plainly, dye produced by a worm, which is a lot of history for one color word. The shade itself is a cool blue-leaning red, deeper than scarlet. Roughly three in ten American Crimsons are boys, so it works in either direction.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Bluish-red
- Pronunciation: KRIM-zun
- Variations: Crimsen, Crimsun, Crymson
- Popularity: #4,793 among U.S. girls in 2025 with 28 newborns, and #5,076 among boys with 19. It has held roughly steady for a decade.
Cyan
Cyan is the Greek kyanos, the dark blue of lapis, though the modern printing sense pushed it toward a bright greenish blue. It arrives with a technical definition attached, which some parents like and some find cold. The sound is clean and short, and American use runs slightly higher for boys than for girls, which almost nobody expects.
- Origin: English, Greek
- Meaning: Bluish-green
- Pronunciation: SY-an
- Variations: Cyandra
- Popularity: #5,761 among U.S. girls in 2025 with 21 newborns, and #4,155 among boys with 25. Girls’ use is down about 41 percent on the previous decade.
Dove
Dove is the bird and the warm pale gray named after it. In Hebrew it doubles as a form of the male name Dov, bear. The peace symbolism is unavoidable and, for once, not a stretch. American use has multiplied more than sixfold in ten years, and it set its record in 2025. It is soft without being fragile.
- Origin: English, Hebrew
- Meaning: Gray/White
- Pronunciation: DUV
- Variations: Dova, Dohv
- Namesakes: Dove-Myer Robinson, an Australian mayor of Auckland City. Dove Cameron (born Chloe Hosterman), an American actress who won a Daytime Emmy Award for the TV series Liv and Maddie.
- Popularity: #1,487 among U.S. girls in 2025 with 144 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record. Use is up about 567 percent on the previous decade.
Ebony
Ebony arrives through Latin ebenus and Greek ebenos, probably from Egyptian, and the figurative sense of intense blackness dates to the 1620s. It has been a regal, well-worn pick in African-American families in particular. The name had a real American run in the early 1980s, and its fall across the last decade is the steepest of any name here, which is exactly what makes it available again.
- Origin: English, Greek
- Meaning: Blackwood
- Pronunciation: EB-uh-nee
- Variations: Ebbony, Eboni, Ebonie
- Namesakes: Ebony Obsidian, an American actress known for the Amazon drama series Hunters. Ebony Hoffman, the current American assistant coach for the Seattle Storm.
- Popularity: #5,452 among U.S. girls in 2025 with 23 newborns. Ebony ranked as high as #132 in 1982 and is down about 71 percent on the previous decade.
Esmeralda
Esmeralda is Spanish for emerald, from a Latin root shared with the whole family of green stones. Victor Hugo gave it to the dancer in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Spanish-language television carried it the rest of the way. Four syllables is a commitment, and the name earns every one of them. Esme is the short form doing most of the work these days.
- Origin: Spanish, Latin
- Meaning: Emerald green
- Pronunciation: ez-muh-RAHL-duh
- Variations: Esmarelda, Esmerelda, Ezmeralda
- Namesakes: Esmeralda Pimentel, a Mexican actress appearing in the telenovela Verano de amor in 2009. Esmeralda Silami, a Brazilian jumper, and two-time Olympian.
- Popularity: #373 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 823 newborns, about one girl in 1,953. It peaked at #133 in 1998 and has eased off around 19 percent on the previous decade.
Fiona
Fiona is a Latinized form of the Gaelic fionn, fair or white. It pairs a Scottish root with a Latin ending, which is a strange pedigree for a name this settled. American births have been steady, down about 5 percent on the previous decade at #470. Fi and Fifi are the nicknames, for better or worse.
- Origin: Gaelic, Latin
- Meaning: White
- Pronunciation: fee-OH-nuh
- Variations: Fionna, Fyona, Fionah
- Namesakes: Fiona Shaw (born Fiona Wilson), an Irish actress known for the Harry Potter film series (2001 to 2010). Fiona Watt, a British children’s author known for her That’s Not My… series.
- Popularity: #470 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 654 newborns, about one girl in 2,457. It has held steady for a decade after a 2017 high of #180.
Flannery
Flannery anglicizes the Gaelic O Flannabhra, descendant of Flannabhra, which reads as red eyebrows. Several Irish names here point at red hair, but this is the only one that specifies the eyebrows. It carries a literary weight most color names never get near. Six girls received it in 2025, so it stays firmly in the almost-nobody-else category.
- Origin: Gaelic, French
- Meaning: Red, russet hair
- Pronunciation: FLAN-ur-ee
- Variations: Flan, Flainn, Flann, Flannan
- Namesakes: Flannery O’Connor, an American writer known for her sardonic Southern Gothic style.
- Popularity: #13,773 among U.S. girls in 2025, with six newborns, roughly one girl in 250,000. It is down about 35 percent on the previous decade.
Flynn
Flynn is the Irish surname O Floinn, descendant of Flann, and flann means a ruddy or reddish complexion. It is one syllable, ends on a consonant cluster that sounds like a wink, and needs no nickname. American use has nearly doubled in a decade without ever getting crowded, and roughly one in fifteen Flynns is a girl.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Ruddy red, son of the red one
- Pronunciation: FLIN
- Variations: Flin, Flyn, Flyne
- Namesakes: Flynn Appleby, an Australian rules footballer for Collingwood in the Australian Football League. Flynn Berry, an American writer, known for her book Under the Harrow.
- Popularity: #828 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 299 newborns, about one boy in 5,714. Use is up about 86 percent on the previous decade.
Forest
Forest comes through Old French from the Latin foresta. That traces back to foris, outside, the woods beyond the settlement. The color it lends its name to is the deep, cool green of paint charts and school blazers. This earthy boy’s name reads calm rather than rugged. That is not what most parents expect.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Deep green, woods
- Pronunciation: FOR-ist
- Variations: Forrest, Forrreste
- Namesakes: Forest Whitaker, an American actor and winner of an Academy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Forest W. Hopkins, a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
- Popularity: #750 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 344 newborns, about one boy in 4,975. Use is up about 270 percent on the previous decade.
Giada
Giada is the Italian word for jade, so it is Jade with a different passport and two extra syllables. The stone name itself comes, oddly, from the Spanish piedra de la ijada, stone of the flank. That came from a folk belief that the stone eased kidney pain. The soft opening consonant trips up American speakers exactly once. After that it is easy, and Gigi is waiting underneath.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: Jade green
- Pronunciation: JAH-duh
- Variations: Jade
- Namesakes: Giada De Laurentiis, an Italian-American chef and the host of Food Network’s Giada at Home. Giada Wiltshire, an Italian beauty pageant contestant who won Miss World Italy in 2007.
- Popularity: #1,438 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 150 newborns, about one girl in 10,753. It peaked at #754 in 2010 and is down roughly 42 percent on the previous decade.
Ginger
Ginger names the root, the spice and, in English, red hair. It also works as a pet form of Virginia, which is how many mid-century American Gingers came by it. The 1970s were its high point and it has been falling since, which leaves it sitting in the retro zone rather than the current one. This girls’ name has a vintage flair that suits a redhead and does not require one.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Red hair
- Pronunciation: JIN-jer
- Namesakes: Ginger Strand, an American author whose 2005 debut novel Flight, adapted from her short stories. Ginger Huber, an American diver and silver medalist at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships.
- Popularity: #3,308 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 47 newborns. Ginger ranked #187 in 1971 and is down about 54 percent on the previous decade.
Granite
Granite is the speckled gray stone, and as a name it sits beside Flint, Stone and Slate in the small category of geology-as-masculinity. The color is not really one color, which is the interesting part: quartz, feldspar and mica in one slab. Barely any American boys get it in a given year, so it is a name for parents who want something immovable and do not mind explaining it.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Rock, gray/white
- Pronunciation: GRAN-it
- Variations: Granet, Granit, Granyt
- Popularity: Last recorded at #10,160 among U.S. boys in 2022, with seven newborns. It appears only in scattered years, so no current figure exists.
Gray
Gray is the Old English graeg, and as a surname it usually marked hair or complexion before it marked anything else. It has been helped along by Grayson carrying the sound into the top ranks. On its own it is quiet, modern and slightly severe. Around one in nine Grays is a girl.
- Origin: Anglo-Gaelic
- Meaning: Gray
- Pronunciation: GRAY
- Variations: Grayson
- Namesakes: Gray Davis Jr., the American 37th governor of California from 1999 to 2003. Gray Gaulding Jr., an American stock car racing driver, competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
- Popularity: #1,418 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 128 newborns, plus 22 girls. Use is up about 63 percent on the previous decade.
Grun
Grun is the German grun, green, and it shows up far more often as a surname than as anyone’s first name. The German spelling carries an umlaut over the u, which English drops. It has never appeared in American birth data at all. It is one of the two blunt one-syllable greens here, alongside Zold: no flower, no stone, no herb. Whether that reads as bold or as unfinished is down to taste.
- Origin: German
- Meaning: Green
- Pronunciation: GROON
- Variations: Gruner, Gruener
- Popularity: The Social Security Administration does not publish a figure for Grun; it has never reached the five-births-a-year floor that federal data requires.
Hazel
Hazel is the Old English haesel, the hazel tree. It names the greenish light brown of both the nut and the eye color. It is the biggest comeback story on this list. A 1913 favorite, it fell to almost nothing by the early 1980s. It is now a top-25 American girls’ name again. That round trip took over a century. If you want proof that a color name can age out and come all the way back, this is the one to look at.
- Origin: Old English
- Meaning: Brownish-green, lime green
- Pronunciation: HAY-zul
- Variations: Haizel, Hayzel, Hazelle, Hazyl
- Namesakes: Hazel McCallion, the 5th Canadian mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, from 1978 until 2014. Hazel Wightman, an American tennis player and founder of the Wightman Cup competition for women.
- Popularity: #21 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 6,318 newborns, roughly one girl in 254 (2). Hazel peaked in 1913, bottomed out in 1983, and has since recovered to about 73 times that low.
Heather
Heather is the low pink and purple flowering shrub of Scottish moorland, and the color word covers that whole muted range, often flecked with gray. It was the third most popular American girls’ name in 1975 and has fallen almost out of sight since, shedding more than half of what was left again in the last decade. A parent who loved it in the eighties will find almost no toddler answering to it now.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Gray
- Pronunciation: HETH-er
- Variations: Hethar, Hether, Heathar
- Namesakes: Heather Langenkamp, an American actress best known for the Nightmare on Elm Street horror film series. Heather Headley, a Trinidadian-American actress who won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Actress for Aida.
- Popularity: #1,264 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 177 newborns. Heather ranked #3 in 1975 and is down about 59 percent on the previous decade.
Henna
Henna is the Arabic name for the shrub whose crushed leaves stain skin and hair a deep red-orange. In Finnish it is also a short form of Henrietta, a separate line that has nothing to do with the dye. It is a soft, symmetrical name that happens to carry the most literal color story here.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Reddish dye
- Pronunciation: HEN-uh
- Variations: Hena
- Namesakes: Henna Johansson, a Swedish wrestler who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Henna Virkkunen, a Finnish Member of the European Parliament since 2014.
- Popularity: #4,016 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 36 newborns. Henna peaked at #2,783 in 2001 and has eased down since.
Hunter
Hunter began as an occupational surname for men who hunted game and birds, and hunter green, the dark forest shade named for their coats, followed much later. It is one of fifteen names on this list still inside the American top 200. The peak was 2000, so it now reads as solidly established rather than new. Around one Hunter in twenty is a girl, which surprises people who assume it is a cool name for boys only.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Deep green
- Pronunciation: HUN-ter
- Variations: Huntar
- Namesakes: Hunter Thompson, an American writer who founded the gonzo journalism movement. Hunter Shinkaruk, a Canadian ice hockey player for Dinamo Riga in the Kontinental Hockey League.
- Popularity: #130 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 2,761 newborns, about one boy in 619, plus a smaller number of girls. It peaked at #35 in 2000 and is down about 37 percent on the previous decade.
Hyacinth
Hyacinth belongs to a Greek mythological figure, Hyakinthos, and to the dense spring flower that comes in blue, purple and white. The color word points at that blue-violet end. Only thirty-three American girls received it in 2025, though that is roughly double the rate of the decade before. Cinth and Hy both work if the whole thing is too much.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Blue/purple flower
- Pronunciation: HY-uh-sinth
- Variations: Hyacinthe
- Namesakes: Hyacinth Flemmings, a Jamaican cricketer who played in the 1973 Women’s Cricket World Cup. Hyacinth Wijeratne, a Sri Lankan actress known for the films Karumakkarayo and Ho Gaana Pokuna.
- Popularity: #4,294 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 33 newborns. Use is up about 96 percent on the previous decade after decades near zero.
Iris
Iris was the Greek messenger goddess and the personification of the rainbow, which puts the whole spectrum behind a two-syllable name. The flower and the colored ring of the eye both take their name from her. It is at its highest point in American records, inside the top 100 and still climbing. Short, vowel-heavy and impossible to shorten further, which suits some families exactly.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Rainbow
- Pronunciation: EYE-ris
- Variations: Iriss, Irys
- Namesakes: Iris González, a Chilean billionaire businesswoman and the wealthiest person in Chile. Iris Komar, a German swimmer and gold medalist at the 1970 European Aquatics Championships.
- Popularity: #61 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 3,729 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record. Use is up about 150 percent on the previous decade.
Ivory
Ivory is the creamy off-white of elephant tusk, from Old French and Latin eboreus. The material has an ugly history and the color word does not, which is a distinction worth knowing before you choose it. Across all recorded American births roughly a third of Ivorys are boys, though the 2025 split ran 810 girls to 30, so today it reads mostly as a girls’ name. It set its record in 2025 and shows no sign of slowing.
- Origin: English, Latin
- Meaning: Creamy white
- Pronunciation: EYE-vur-ee
- Variations: Ivoree, Ivori, Ivorie
- Namesakes: Ivory Nwokorie, a Nigerian powerlifter and gold medalist at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Ivory Kimball, an American judge, and advocate for the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery.
- Popularity: #378 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 810 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record. Across all recorded American births, about a third of Ivorys are boys; the 2025 split was 810 girls to 30 boys.
Jacinthe
Jacinthe is the French form of Hyacinth, and the jacinth of old jewelry texts is a stone of deep orange with gold in it. So the flower name and the color name have drifted apart: one is blue-violet, the other is amber. It is elegant, unused in the States, and the nasal ending will need one explanation per new teacher.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Orange
- Pronunciation: zha-SANT
- Variations: Jacinth, Jacynth
- Namesakes: Jacinthe Pineau, a Canadian swimmer who competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Jacinthe Laguë, a Canadian actress, known for the film The Five of Us.
- Popularity: Too rare for the U.S. Social Security Administration’s public data, which publishes a name only when it is given to at least five babies of a sex in a year.
Jade
Jade is the green stone, and the word travels a strange road. Spanish piedra de la ijada means stone of the flank, after the belief that it eased kidney trouble. It is one of nine names on this list still inside the American top 100. One syllable, hard consonants at both ends, and no diminutive. That is either a feature or a gap depending on your family. Around one Jade in twenty is a boy.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Bluish-green stone
- Pronunciation: JAYD
- Variations: Jayde, Jaid, Jaed
- Namesakes: Jade MacRae, an Australian soul singer known for her top 40 single So Hot Right Now in 2005. Jade Alleyne, a British actress, known for the CBBC sitcom 4 O’Clock Club.
- Popularity: #95 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 2,658 newborns, about one girl in 605, plus a smaller number of boys. It has been broadly flat for a decade after peaking in 2002.
Jasmine
Jasmine comes from the Persian yasamin, and the flower it names is the small white or cream star that scents a garden after dark. The color word is that same soft off-white, and the scent is the reason most people know the plant at all. The name had a huge American run in the early 1990s and has been sliding steadily since, which leaves it recognizable without being crowded. Jaz, Jazzy and Minnie all come free.
- Origin: Persian
- Meaning: White flower
- Pronunciation: JAZ-min
- Variations: Jasmin, Jasmyn, Jazmin
- Namesakes: Jasmine Guinness, the Irish heiress to the Guinness brewing fortune. Jasmine Sagginario, an American singer, known for winning Radio Disney’s 2009 Next Big Thing competition.
- Popularity: #206 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 1,481 newborns, about one girl in 1,086. Jasmine peaked at #23 in 1993 and is down roughly 53 percent on the previous decade.
Jett
Jett doubles as the aircraft and the mineral: jet black is the standard every other black gets measured against. It began as an English surname, and among American boys it now sits inside the top 200. The double t keeps it from being read as a vehicle.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Black
- Pronunciation: JET
- Variations: Jet, Jette
- Namesakes: Reginald Jett Pangan, a Filipino musician known for the Filipino rock band The Dawn. Jett Thomas, an American politician who participated in the early construction of the University of Georgia.
- Popularity: #169 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 2,167 newborns, about one boy in 788, plus a smaller number of girls. Use is up about 110 percent on the previous decade.
Lilac
Lilac reached English through French from the Arabic lilak, which likely goes back to the Persian nilak, bluish. The flower and the pale purple share a name, and the shade is softer than violet and cooler than mauve. It has nearly tripled in American use in a decade while staying genuinely rare, and Lily is the escape hatch if she ever wants one.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Lavender flower
- Pronunciation: LY-lak
- Variations: Lilach, Lilak, Lylac
- Namesakes: Lilac Emery Haynes, an English actress known for the TV series True Blood (2008).
- Popularity: #4,131 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 35 newborns. Use is up about 175 percent on the previous decade, with its best rank set in 2024.
Linnea
Linnea honors the botanist Carl Linnaeus, whose name the Linnaea flower carries, and it rests on the Swedish lind, the linden or lime tree. The color it carries is that pale spring lime rather than anything vivid. The name is Swedish through and through, and American parents still meet it as a discovery. The double n is the only thing anyone ever gets wrong.
- Origin: Swedish
- Meaning: Linden/Lime tree
- Pronunciation: lin-AY-uh
- Variations: Linnaea
- Namesakes: Linnea Quigley, an American actress known as a “scream queen” in 1980s horror films. Linnea Mellgren, a Swedish figure skater and the 2015 Golden Bear of Zagreb champion.
- Popularity: #1,449 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 149 newborns, about one girl in 10,753. It has been close to flat for a decade.
Marigold
Marigold is Mary’s gold, the flower named for the Virgin Mary. The color is that hot orange-yellow you cannot look away from in a border. Of every name here, this is the one moving fastest. American use has risen more than thirteenfold in a decade, and both its best rank and its highest count landed in 2025. Goldie and Mari are sitting right there.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Golden/yellow flowers
- Pronunciation: MARE-ih-gohld
- Variations: Maragold, Maregold, Marigolde
- Namesakes: Marigold Southey, the Australian Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria from 2001 to 2006. Marigold Churchill, daughter of British politician Winston Churchill.
- Popularity: #590 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 498 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record. Marigold is the fastest riser on this list, up about 1,298 percent over the last ten years of births against the ten before them, per the Social Security Administration.
Mauve
Mauve is named for the mallow plant, Latin malva, and it entered English in 1859 for the shade of the first commercial aniline dye. That dye changed clothing forever, because before it, purple was ruinously expensive. So the name marks a specific moment rather than an old tradition: one syllable, French, and used by almost nobody.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Violet
- Pronunciation: MOHV
- Variations: Mauv, Mawve
- Popularity: Last recorded at #14,651 among U.S. girls in 2024, with six newborns. Fewer than five a year otherwise, so it barely surfaces in the published data.
Mazarin
Mazarin, more often written Mazarine as a color word, is a deep, slightly violet blue named after Cardinal Mazarin. The Mazarine Blue is also the name of a butterfly in the same shade. Neither spelling appears in American birth data. It is a cardinal, a color and an insect in one word, which is more than most names manage.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Deep blue
- Pronunciation: MAZ-uh-rin
- Variations: Mazarine
- Popularity: Absent from U.S. birth data. Federal counts begin at five babies a year, and Mazarin has never got there.
Melanie
Melanie rests on the Greek melas, dark or black, the same root behind melanin and melancholy. It reached England with the Normans as the French name Melanie, though American use only took off in the twentieth century, peaking at #42 in 1972. Almost nobody hears the color in it, which is a real advantage if you want the meaning without the announcement, and Mel and Lanie split it two ways.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Black, dark
- Pronunciation: MEL-uh-nee
- Variations: Melane, Melenie, Melannie
- Namesakes: Melanie Brown (known as Mel B), an English member of the pop group The Spice Girls. Melanie Phillips, a British journalist for The Guardian and New Statesman.
- Popularity: #142 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 2,074 newborns, about one girl in 775. Melanie peaked at #42 in 1972 and is down roughly 23 percent on the previous decade.
Midori
Midori is simply the Japanese word for green. It is also a bright green melon liqueur, which is what most Americans hear first. In Japan it reads as an ordinary, slightly retro name. Three even syllables, no consonant clusters, and nothing in it for an English speaker to trip over.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Green
- Pronunciation: mee-DOR-ee
- Variations: Midoree, Midorie, Midory
- Namesakes: Midori Goto, a Japanese-American violinist with the New York Philharmonic. Midori Furusawa, a Japanese cross-country skier who competed at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics.
- Popularity: Last recorded at #8,282 among U.S. girls in 2024, with 13 newborns. It has drifted down about 36 percent on the previous decade.
Mirado
Mirado sits close to the Spanish morado, deep violet, and it also runs as a name with African origins carrying the sense of carefulness. Two unrelated sources, one word. American birth records have never listed it. If you want a purple name and Violet is not going to work, this is the shortest way there.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Deep violet
- Pronunciation: mee-RAH-doh
- Popularity: No U.S. ranking exists. Fewer than five American babies a year carry Mirado, which is the point below which the Social Security Administration publishes nothing.
Moss
Moss is the soft, damp green that grows on the north side of everything. It has served for generations as a short form of the Hebrew name Moses, itself read as drawn out of the water. So it arrives with both a plant and a prophet behind it. It is quiet, one syllable, and almost unused. Of all the greens here, it is the least showy.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Green
- Pronunciation: MAWSS
- Variations: Moses
- Namesakes: Moses “Moss” Cass, the Australian Minister for Environment and Conservation between 1972 and 1975. Moss Dickinson, the Canadian mayor of Ottawa from 1864 to 1866.
- Popularity: #5,334 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 18 newborns. Use is up about 80 percent on the previous decade from a very small base.
Nila
Nila is the Sanskrit nila, dark blue, and the same root gave English the word indigo by way of Greek. It carries a second sense, the moon, which pairs the night sky with its color in one short word. That doubling makes it a mysterious girl’s name without any effort. Two syllables, phonetic in English, and rising slowly in American use.
- Origin: Indian
- Meaning: Blue
- Pronunciation: NEE-luh
- Variations: Nilah, Nilla
- Namesakes: Nila Moeloek, an Indonesian politician and Minister of Health from 2014 to 2019. Nila Håkedal, a Norwegian beach volleyball player who competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: #1,754 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 116 newborns, about one girl in 13,889. Use is up about 48 percent on the previous decade.
Obsidian
Obsidian is volcanic glass, black with a green edge where it thins, and as a name it is four syllables of pure intent. It is unisex, though the boys’ column is where it actually turns up. American use has nearly tripled in ten years from a small base, and Sid is the practical short form, which is a very funny place to land.
- Origin: English, Latin
- Meaning: Black, blackish green
- Pronunciation: ob-SID-ee-un
- Popularity: #5,778 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 16 newborns. Use is up about 174 percent on the previous decade.
Oliver
Oliver rests on the Latin olivarius, olive-tree bearer, so its color is the gray-green of the leaf rather than anything bright. Most parents choosing it are not thinking about color at all. That is precisely why it works: the meaning is there for whoever wants it. It is the third most popular boys’ name in the country, so expect company. No other name on this page comes close to it on the charts. Ollie is unavoidable and no bad thing.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Green olive tree
- Pronunciation: OL-ih-ver
- Variations: Olivor, Olliver, Olyver
- Namesakes: Oliver Gavin, a British racing driver who won five American Le Mans Series class championships. Oliver Dragojević, a Croatian recording artist, awarded the Order of Danica Hrvatska in 1995.
- Popularity: #3 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 14,939 newborns, roughly one boy in 114. It is by far the highest-ranked name on this list and is up about 172 percent on the previous decade.
Onyx
Onyx is the Greek word for fingernail, which is what the banded pink-and-white variety of the stone reminded someone of. The all-black version is the one people picture. American use has multiplied roughly tenfold in a decade, and about one in five Onyxes is a girl. The x ending does a lot of the work.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Black stone
- Pronunciation: ON-iks
- Variations: Oniks, Onyks, Onyxx
- Namesakes: Kyle McNeely (known as Onyx), an American wrestler known for appearing in NWA Total Nonstop Action from 2003 to 2004.
- Popularity: #365 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 881 newborns, plus a fifth as many girls. Use is up about 926 percent on the previous decade.
Orrin
Orrin comes from the Irish odhran, which carries both dun brown and a pale green sense depending on the source. It went to dark-haired boys. The doubled r gives it a plainer, more American look than Oran or Odhran, which is how it survived here at all. It sounds like a name from a century ago because it is one, and it has been quietly flat ever since.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Dark-haired, green
- Pronunciation: OR-in
- Variations: Oren, Orin, Orren, Oryn
- Namesakes: Orrin Hatch, an American U.S. senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Orrin Evans, an American jazz pianist, awarded a Pew Fellowships in the Arts in 2010.
- Popularity: #2,278 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 62 newborns, about one boy in 27,778. It has held steady for a decade after ranking #575 in 1915.
Phoenix
Phoenix is the mythical bird that burns and comes back, and the Greek word also named a purple-red dye and the Phoenicians who traded it. The color and the resurrection story sit in the same six letters. Close to four in ten American Phoenixes are girls, so it is unisex in practice and not just on paper. Nix and Nixie are the short forms doing the rounds.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Dark red
- Pronunciation: FEE-niks
- Variations: Phenix, Pheonix, Phoenyx
- Namesakes: David Farrell (known as Phoenix), an American musician and member of the rock band Linkin Park. Phoenix Melville, a British-French director whose films mix fantasy and realism.
- Popularity: #329 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 1,027 newborns, and close to four in ten Phoenixes are girls. Use is up about 81 percent on the previous decade.
Plum
Plum is the Old English plume for the tree, and the color is that dusty red-purple of the skin rather than the yellow flesh. By the late 1800s it also meant anything you wanted badly, as in a plum job. It is the rarest entry here by American birth numbers, given to six girls in 2025. One syllable, faintly comic, and completely unforgettable.
- Origin: English, French
- Meaning: Red-purple
- Pronunciation: PLUM
- Variations: Plumm
- Namesakes: Plum Johnson, a Canadian writer who won the RBC Taylor Prize in 2015 for her memoir They Left Us Everything. Mariko Umeda (known as Plum Mariko), a Japanese wrestler for Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling from 1986 to 1992.
- Popularity: #14,511 among U.S. girls in 2025, with six newborns, about one girl in 250,000. That makes Plum the rarest name on this list in the Social Security Administration’s data.
Poppy
Poppy is the bright red field flower, from the Old English popaeg. In Britain and the Commonwealth it carries remembrance for the war dead. That weight sits oddly under such a bouncy sound, and most American parents choose it for the bounce. It is a flower name that has multiplied nearly sixfold in a decade here. It now sits just inside the American top 300 for girls.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Red flower
- Pronunciation: POP-ee
- Variations: Popi, Popie, Poppie
- Namesakes: Poppy Adams, a British TV documentary director/producer who made films for the BBC and The Discovery Channel. Poppy Gilbert, a British actress known for the Netflix series Stay Close (2021).
- Popularity: #292 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 1,054 newborns, about one girl in 1,524. Use is up about 478 percent on the previous decade.
Primrose
Primrose is the Latin prima rosa, first rose, for the flower that opens before almost anything else in spring. Primroses come in yellow, pink, white and red, so the color it names is more a season than a shade. It is long, floral and unmistakably English. Rosie and Prim are both waiting. The second one has a lot of associations for readers of a certain age.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: First (colorful) rose
- Pronunciation: PRIM-rohz
- Variations: Prymrose
- Namesakes: Primrose Potter, an Australian philanthropist associated with The Australian Ballet. Primrose Cumming, a British children’s book writer known for the book Silver Snaffles.
- Popularity: #2,561 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 69 newborns. Use is up about 133 percent on the previous decade.
Rainbow
Rainbow is the Old English renboga, rain plus anything bent or arched, and it names every color at once rather than settling on one. It has been through a hippie phase and out the other side. American use has roughly doubled in a decade while staying genuinely rare. For a family who reached this baby after a storm, the meaning does not need explaining.
- Origin: Old English
- Meaning: Multicolored arc of light
- Pronunciation: RAYN-boh
- Variations: Rainbeaux, Rainbowe, Reinbow
- Namesakes: Rainbow Rowell, an American author known for the young adult novel Fangirl (2013). Rainbow Francks, a Canadian actor, known for the TV series Stargate Atlantis.
- Popularity: #6,767 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 17 newborns. Use is up about 103 percent on the previous decade from a small base.
Rangeen
Rangeen is an Urdu and Hindi word meaning colorful, and it carries a sense of being lively and full of life rather than simply multicolored. Like Rainbow, it declines to name a single shade. It does not appear in American birth data at all. The stress lands on the second syllable, which is the only thing an English speaker needs to be told.
- Origin: Indian
- Meaning: Colorful
- Pronunciation: run-GEEN
- Popularity: Not in the published U.S. data at all. American use, if there is any, has stayed under the five-a-year threshold the Social Security Administration reports from.
Raven
Raven is the Old English hraefn and the Old Norse hrafn. Raven-haired has meant glossy blue-black hair for centuries. The bird itself is one of the smartest animals alive. That gives the name more edge than a simple color word. American use peaked in the early 1990s, dipped, and is climbing again. Around one Raven in fourteen is a boy, so it holds up as a unisex name.
- Origin: Old English
- Meaning: Jet-black
- Pronunciation: RAY-vun
- Variations: Ravenn, Ravenne, Ravyn
- Namesakes: Raven-Symoné, an American actress on VH1’s list of “100 Greatest Child Stars of All Time.” Raven Mimura, an American artist, known for illustrations for Dungeons & Dragons books.
- Popularity: #404 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 771 newborns, about one girl in 2,083, plus a smaller number of boys. It peaked at #139 in 1993 and is up about 45 percent on the previous decade.
Reed
Reed is the Old English read, red, and it began as a nickname for someone ruddy or red-haired before it settled as a surname. A second line reads it as the marsh plant, which is why so many people picture green. It is short, professional, and has barely moved in ten years, up about 6 percent on the previous decade at #419.
- Origin: Old English
- Meaning: Red
- Pronunciation: REED
- Variations: Raede, Reyde, Rheed
- Namesakes: Reed Low, a Canadian ice hockey player in the National Hockey League. Reed Diamond, an American actor known for the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street.
- Popularity: #419 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 770 newborns, about one boy in 2,217, plus a smaller number of girls. It has been broadly flat for a decade.
Rory
Rory anglicizes the Irish Ruaidhri, from ruadh, red, and ri, king, so it is literally the red king. It reads as unisex by the numbers rather than by intention, with girls taking better than a quarter of the American total. American use is at an all-time high in both count and rank. Two syllables, a rolled r if you can manage one, and no formal version lurking behind it.
- Origin: Gaelic
- Meaning: Red king
- Pronunciation: ROR-ee
- Variations: Rori, Rorrie, Rorry
- Namesakes: Rory Lamont, a rugby union player for Glasgow Warriors and Scotland. Rory Kennedy, an American documentary filmmaker and the youngest child of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
- Popularity: #199 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 1,768 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record, and more than a quarter of Rorys are girls. Use is up about 181 percent on the previous decade.
Rosa
Rosa is the Latin for rose, related to the Greek rhodon, and it is the flower and the pink in one word. It is a Mexican and Spanish staple as much as an Italian one, and it has been in continuous American use for over a century without ever spiking, from #101 in 1913 to #653 now. If Rose feels too spare, this is the version with a little more music in it.
- Origin: Italian, Spanish
- Meaning: Rose (color/flower)
- Pronunciation: ROH-zuh
- Variations: Rose, Rosae, Rosah
- Namesakes: Rosa González, a Spanish politician in the Congress of Deputies from 2008 to 2016. Rosa Ponzillo, an American operatic soprano with the New York Metropolitan Opera.
- Popularity: #653 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 441 newborns, about one girl in 3,650. It ranked #101 in 1913 and has eased down about 12 percent on the previous decade.
Rowan
Rowan started as the Irish surname O Ruadhain, from the same red root as Rory. It is also the small tree that carries bright scarlet berries into winter. A separate Arabic female name spelled the same way refers to a river in Paradise. It is inside the American top 60 for boys, at its highest point on record. Roughly three Rowans in ten are girls. Two origins, two genders, one spelling.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Red-haired
- Pronunciation: ROH-un
- Variations: Rowin, Rowyn, Rowen
- Namesakes: Rowan Williams, the 104th Welsh Archbishop of Canterbury. Rowan Crothers, an Australian swimmer and gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
- Popularity: #59 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 5,212 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record, and roughly three Rowans in ten are girls. Use is up about 257 percent on the previous decade.
Roy
Roy has two roots that landed on the same spelling. One is the Norman French roy, king; the other is the Scottish Gaelic ruadh, meaning red, as in Rob Roy, Red Rob. So it is either royalty or a redhead, and both readings have been in use for centuries. It was a top-40 American name in the 1920s and has settled into steady, unfashionable reliability. Three letters, no ambiguity, no nickname.
- Origin: Scottish, Gaelic
- Meaning: Red, king
- Pronunciation: ROY
- Variations: Rey, Roi, Roye
- Namesakes: Roy Scheider, an American actor known for the films Jaws and Jaws 2. Roy Andersson, a Swedish film director, known for A Swedish Love Story (1970).
- Popularity: #525 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 570 newborns, about one boy in 2,994. Roy ranked #31 in 1924 and has been broadly flat for the past decade.
Ruby
Ruby is the red corundum gemstone, from the Latin rubinus, and it is July’s birthstone. It was a genuine hit in the 1910s, disappeared for two generations, and came back inside the top 100 without anyone quite noticing when. That makes it one of the safer choices here: proven, warm, and still climbing rather than fading. Rue works if she wants something shorter.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Deep red stone
- Pronunciation: ROO-bee
- Variations: Rubi, Rubie, Rubye
- Namesakes: Ruby Dee, an American actress known for the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun (1961). Ruby Dhalla, a Canadian member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 2004 to 2011.
- Popularity: #64 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 3,554 newborns, about one girl in 452. Ruby ranked #23 back in 1913 and is up about 29 percent on the previous decade.
Rufus
Rufus is the Latin word for red, used in Rome as a byname for red-haired men. It is the bluntest red name on this list: no flower, no stone, no metaphor, just the color. It sounds friendly and slightly rumpled. That reads as a dog name to some ears and as an excellent boy’s name to others. Roo shortens it.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Red
- Pronunciation: ROO-fus
- Variations: Rufes, Ruffis, Ruffus
- Namesakes: Rufus Brome, the 12th Bishop of Barbados. Rufus Skillern, a Canadian football player for the San Jose State Spartans.
- Popularity: #4,019 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 27 newborns. Rufus ranked #169 in 1913 and has been close to flat for the past decade.
Russell
Russell is a surname derived from the French rousel, little red one, given to men with red hair or a fox-colored beard. It is a hundred-year-old American name that never fell far enough to feel dated. It has gained ground over the past decade rather than losing it. Russ and Rusty are both there, and the second one puts the color right back on the surface.
- Origin: French, Old Norse
- Meaning: Red-haired
- Pronunciation: RUSS-ul
- Variations: Roussell, Rusell, Russel
- Namesakes: Russell Crowe, a New Zealand-Australian actor known for the film Gladiator (2000), for which he won an Academy Award. Russell Miller, a British author of fifteen books, including biographies of Hugh Hefner and L. Ron Hubbard.
- Popularity: #345 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 944 newborns, about one boy in 1,808. Russell ranked #49 in 1914 and is up about 32 percent on the previous decade.
Russet
Russet was a coarse reddish brown wool worn by country people in medieval England, and the color word came from the cloth rather than the other way round. It also names a rough-skinned potato and the flush on an autumn apple. Nothing about it is decorative, which is the appeal, and it has never appeared in American birth records.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Reddish brown
- Pronunciation: RUSS-it
- Variations: Ruset, Russett
- Popularity: The Social Security Administration lists no Russet. Its counts start at five births a year and the name has never reached that.
Saffron
Saffron entered English around 1200 from the Arabic az-za’faran, the dried stigmas of the autumn crocus, and became a color word for deep yellow-orange by the late 1300s. In the States it stays genuinely rare, at 17 newborn girls in 2025. Saffy is a cute way to shorten it without losing the spice.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Orange-yellow
- Pronunciation: SAF-run
- Variations: Saffrone, Safron, Saphron
- Namesakes: Saffron Burrows, an English actress known for the film Circle of Friends. Saffron Aldridge, an English fashion model who worked for Ralph Lauren in the 1990s.
- Popularity: #6,783 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 17 newborns. It has held roughly steady for a decade at that level.
Sage
Sage is the gray-green kitchen herb and, separately, the Latin-rooted word for a wise person, and the two meanings reinforce each other pleasantly. The color is muted enough to have become a paint-chart favorite. It is genuinely unisex in American births rather than unisex in theory. One syllable, calm, and impossible to mispronounce.
- Origin: English, French
- Meaning: Earthy green herb
- Pronunciation: SAYJ
- Variations: Saege, Saige
- Namesakes: Sage Steele, an American TV anchor and co-host of SportsCenter on ESPN. Sage Watson, a Canadian athlete and the reigning Pan American champion in the 400 meters hurdle.
- Popularity: #160 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 1,853 newborns, about one girl in 867, and about a third of Sages are boys. Use is up about 129 percent on the previous decade.
Sakura
Sakura is the Japanese name for cherry blossom. The pale pink of the petals is one of the most closely watched colors in the country. It is an ordinary given name in Japan and an unusual one here. Three clean syllables, stress even across them. American use has eased off slightly over the last decade rather than grown. Little girls named after the blossoms of spring get a good story with the name.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Cherry blossom
- Pronunciation: sah-KOO-rah
- Variations: Sakurah, Sakurra
- Namesakes: Sakura Tange, a Japanese voice actress known for the anime series Cardcaptor Sakura. Sakura Ishimoto, a Japanese professional shogi player.
- Popularity: #2,925 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 58 newborns. Use is down about 18 percent on the previous decade.
Scarlett
Scarlet started out as a rich cloth rather than a color in the mid-1200s, and only settled into meaning brilliant red in the late 1300s. Margaret Mitchell borrowed it as a surname turned first name and fixed it in the American imagination for good. The double-t spelling is the one that won. It sits inside the top 40, having roughly doubled in a decade, though it has eased back from its 2022 high of #14.
- Origin: French, Latin
- Meaning: Deep red
- Pronunciation: SKAR-lit
- Variations: Scarlet,Scarlette
- Namesakes: Scarlett Johansson, an American actress and the world’s highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019. Scarlett Westbrook, a British climate justice activist and spokesperson with the UK Student Climate Network.
- Popularity: #32 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 5,644 newborns, about one girl in 285. Scarlett peaked at #14 in 2022 and is up about 111 percent on the previous decade.
Sienna
Sienna comes from terra di Sienna, earth of Siena, the yellow-brown clay pigment dug near that Tuscan city. Roast it and you get burnt sienna, the warm red-brown in every child’s crayon box. It slipped into the American top 100 in 2025 for the first time. The double n is the spelling that won. The city itself takes one. Sisi and Enna are the short forms nobody expects.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: Burnt orange
- Pronunciation: see-EN-uh
- Variations: Siena, Siennya
- Namesakes: Sienna Guillory, an English actress known for the Resident Evil film series. Sienna Miller, an American-British actress who appeared in Italian Vogue and the 2003 Pirelli calendar.
- Popularity: #94 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 2,659 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record. Use is up about 30 percent on the previous decade.
Sigal
Sigal is the Hebrew word for the violet flower, and it carries a second sense of treasure. It is a modern Hebrew name rather than a biblical one. Two syllables with the stress on the second, which trips up English speakers exactly once. It is the quietest purple name here and the one nobody will have heard before.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Purple, violet
- Pronunciation: see-GAHL
- Namesakes: Sigal Bujman, an Israeli filmmaker who co-created the travel series Fantastic Festivals of the World (2003-2010). Sigal Gottlieb, an American applied mathematician, and professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
- Popularity: Last recorded at #18,856 among U.S. girls in 2014, with five newborns. It has not surfaced in the published data since.
Skye
Skye is the Isle of Skye, the largest island of the Inner Hebrides, and the spelling with the e is what separates the place from the weather. The Norse root behind the island name means cloud, which is a nice accident for a name people choose for the color blue. It peaked at #368 in 2014 and has drifted into the 500s since, and around one Skye in ten is a boy.
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Sky blue
- Pronunciation: SKY
- Variations: Sky, Skai
- Namesakes: Skye Gyngell, an Australian chef and a food editor for Vogue. Skye Alexandra Sweetnam, a Canadian singer, known for voice work in the film The Barbie Diaries.
- Popularity: #532 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 569 newborns, plus a smaller number of boys. It has been broadly flat for a decade after a 2014 high.
Steele
Steele is an Anglo-Norman occupational surname for a steelworker, and the color it lends its name to is that cool blue-gray of a fresh blade. The e on the end is what makes it a name rather than a material. It doubled in American use over the past decade and set its record in 2025. It is about as hard-edged as a boys’ name gets without tipping into parody.
- Origin: English, Scandinavian
- Meaning: Hard as steel, silver-gray
- Pronunciation: STEEL
- Variations: Steale, Steel
- Namesakes: Steele Johnson, an American diver and silver medalist at the 2016 Rio Games. Steele Hall, the 36th Australian Premier of South Australia from 1968 to 1970.
- Popularity: #1,185 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 174 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record. Use is up about 103 percent on the previous decade.
Sterling
Sterling comes from the English staerling, the starling bird, on the long-standing explanation that early silver pennies carried a small bird stamp. The word came to mean both a grade of silver and the British pound, and the color is that bright polished silver-white. It has climbed steadily to its best-ever American ranking. Ster and Ling are both awkward, so most families just use the whole thing.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Silver
- Pronunciation: STUR-ling
- Variations: Styrling, Stirling
- Namesakes: Sterling Morrison, an American guitarist and one of the founding members of the Velvet Underground rock group. Sterling Hyltin, an American principal dancer at the New York City Ballet.
- Popularity: #346 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 944 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record, plus a smaller number of girls. Use is up about 146 percent on the previous decade.
Sunny
Sunny is the yellow warmth of the sun turned into a name. It also serves as a nickname for Indian names such as Sunil and Sunita. It describes a mood as much as a shade, which is rare here. American use has tripled in a decade. There is no formal version hiding behind it. That is either freeing or alarming.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Sunshine yellow
- Pronunciation: SUN-ee
- Variations: Sunni, Sunney, Sunnie
- Namesakes: Sunny Anderson, an American Food Network personality who hosted How’d That Get On My Plate? in July 2008. Sunny Omoregie, a Nigerian footballer for Lincoln Red Imps.
- Popularity: #390 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 798 newborns, and about a quarter of Sunnys are boys. Use is up about 218 percent on the previous decade.
Tanner
Tanner is the occupational surname for a leather worker, and the color it carries is the light brown of tanned hide. It was a genuine 1990s American hit and has halved since, which is the natural life cycle of a surname name. That fall now puts it in interesting territory: familiar to every parent, worn by almost no toddler. It sounds friendly rather than tough.
- Origin: Old English
- Meaning: Beige color
- Pronunciation: TAN-er
- Variations: Taner, Tannor, Tannyr
- Namesakes: Tanner Houck, an American baseball player for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. Tanner Sparks, an American record producer who’s recorded award-winning artist Switchfoot.
- Popularity: #475 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 641 newborns, about one boy in 2,667. Tanner peaked at #82 in 1997 and is down roughly 52 percent on the previous decade.
Teal
Teal is a small dabbling duck with a bright blue-green flash on its wing, and the color was named after the bird rather than the other way around. It is one syllable, cool, and instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever painted a bathroom. Very few American babies get it, which keeps it feeling like a discovery, and roughly one Teal in six is a boy.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Cyan green
- Pronunciation: TEEL
- Variations: Teale, Teel, Teele
- Namesakes: Teal Marchande, an American actress known for the Nickelodeon sitcom Kenan & Kel. Teal Bunbury, an American soccer player for the U.S. national team.
- Popularity: #8,308 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 13 newborns, and #6,760 among boys with 13. Use is up about 47 percent on the previous decade from a small base.
Titian
Titian is a hair color named after a painter. The Italian Renaissance painter Titian painted so many women with reddish-gold hair that the shade took his name. It is one of very few color words in English derived from an artist. As a first name it has never registered in American data. This Latin name comes with a museum attached, and Ty is the short form if the full version feels heavy.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Reddish-gold
- Pronunciation: TISH-un
- Namesakes: Tiziano Vecelli (known as Titian), an Italian Renaissance painter and the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. Titian Peale, an American scientific illustrator, known for his wildlife paintings.
- Popularity: No American figure. Federal data begins at five babies a year, and Titian has never appeared in it.
Violet
Violet named the flower in English around 1300, from the Latin viola. The color sense came later, in the late 1300s, first written as violet-blu. It was a Victorian era favorite. Most of the twentieth century passed with it out of fashion. Today it is a top-15 American girls’ name at its highest point on record. The whole round trip happened without a single change of spelling. Vi and Lettie are both usable.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Purple
- Pronunciation: VY-uh-lit
- Variations: Violete, Violette, Vyolette
- Namesakes: Violet Attlee, the wife of British Prime Minister Clement Attlee. Violet Warren, the first female Canadian bush pilot in the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during WWII.
- Popularity: #13 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 7,546 newborns, its best rank and highest count on record. Use is up about 120 percent on the previous decade.
Viridian
Viridian is a blue-green pigment name from the Latin viridis, green. It reached American birth records only recently and in tiny numbers, setting its best rank in 2025. Four syllables is a lot of name, but the stress pattern carries it. Viri and Vi both cut it down if a classroom needs something shorter.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Blue-green
- Pronunciation: vuh-RID-ee-un
- Variations: Veridian
- Popularity: #8,329 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 13 newborns, its best rank on record. It first appeared in the data in 2019.
Walken
Walken comes down as a Norman and German surname, and separately it is recorded as an Aboriginal Australian word for rainbow. Those two lines have nothing to do with each other, and American birth records have never listed it. Most people will hear the actor first, which is either the reason to use it or the reason not to.
- Origin: Aboriginal
- Meaning: Rainbow
- Pronunciation: WAWL-kun
- Popularity: Never listed in U.S. birth records, which publish a name only when at least five babies receive it in a year.
Ward
Ward is the Old English weard, guard or watchman, and in Arabic the same spelling means roses or blossoms. Its place on a color list comes from the Arabic flowers and from the dark-haired sense the English surname sometimes carried. It sounds like a mid-century American father and has been climbing again from a low base: one syllable, no fuss, and two languages behind it.
- Origin: English, Arabic
- Meaning: Black, lion, flowers
- Pronunciation: WAWRD
- Variations: Warde
- Namesakes: Ward Cornell, a Canadian broadcaster who hosted Hockey Night in Canada between 1959 and 1972. Ward Brackett, an American artist, known for his work with Reader’s Digest and Cosmopolitan.
- Popularity: #2,877 among U.S. boys in 2025, with 44 newborns. Ward ranked #320 in 1922 and is up about 126 percent on the previous decade.
Xanthe
Xanthe is the Greek xanthos, golden yellow, and in myth Xanthe was one of the ocean nymphs. The x is the whole problem and the whole appeal: it looks impossible and is said plainly, ZAN-thee. Fifteen American girls received it in 2025, so expect to spell it out and expect nobody to forget it.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Golden, yellow
- Pronunciation: ZAN-thee
- Variations: Xanthia
- Namesakes: Xanthe Huynh, an American voice actress known for the anime series K-On!. Xanthé Mallett, a Scottish forensic anthropologist at the University of Newcastle in Australia.
- Popularity: #7,468 among U.S. girls in 2025, with 15 newborns. It has held roughly steady for a decade at that level.
Zold
Zold is the Hungarian word for green, written zold with an umlaut over the o. It has never registered in American birth data. Four letters, one syllable, and the only Z name on this list. If you want an exotic name that nobody can trace, this is about as far off the map as it gets.
- Origin: Hungarian
- Meaning: Green
- Pronunciation: ZULD
- Popularity: Too rare for U.S. federal data, which starts counting at five babies a year.
