Names meaning snow have a quiet advantage over most nature names: the meaning is doing real work. Snow shows up in Welsh, Finnish, Basque, Japanese and Greenlandic, and every one of those languages lands on the same picture.
Below are 100 snow baby names for boys, girls and either. Every entry carries its origin, its literal meaning, a plain pronunciation guide and, where U.S. birth records have one, how the name is actually being used today rather than how it was doing a decade ago.
Some are as familiar as Ivy and Natalie. Others, like Aputsiaq and Kawisenhawe, have almost certainly never been said out loud in your zip code.
Popularity at a Glance
The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: Ivy, Lucia, Natalie, Juniper and Nicholas.
100 Cute Names That Mean Snow for Boys and Girls
Every name below is listed alphabetically with its origin, meaning, pronunciation and, where U.S. birth records carry one, its latest ranking.
Alaska
Alaska borrows the weather of the state it points to, where winter turns up early and settles in. The name has drifted on and off the U.S. charts since 1915, but nearly all of its real use has come in the past ten years, and 2020 was its strongest year on record for births. It suits a family with an actual tie to the place, or parents who simply collect map names. Alas and Lask both work as everyday short forms.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Object to which the action of the sea is directed
- Pronunciation: uh-LAS-kuh
- Popularity: Alaska ranked 2,896th for U.S. girls in 2025, when 58 babies were given the name, and it is up around 169 percent on the previous decade.
Alba
Alba is Latin for white or bright, a sense that later grew into the pale, early light that arrives before the sun does. It sat inside the U.S. top 1,000 in the early 1900s, slipped away for most of a century, and has quietly come back within the past ten years. This elegant name reads as vintage to American ears. If you are having boy-girl twins, it pairs neatly with its masculine counterpart Albus.
- Origin: Roman
- Meaning: White, bright
- Pronunciation: AHL-buh
- Namesakes: Alba Cabello, a Spanish synchronized swimmer who won a silver and a bronze medal at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: Alba ranked 1,261st for U.S. girls in 2025 with 177 births. More babies received the name in 2024 than in any other year on record, and it is up about 64 percent on the previous decade.
Albus
Albus is a magical choice among our snow baby names, thanks to the white-bearded wizard most readers meet first. Long before that, it was a Roman surname built on the same word for white that gives us Alba, later stretched into Albinus. It only entered U.S. birth records in 2016, so a boy named Albus will almost certainly be the only one in his year group. That is either the appeal or the problem, depending on how you feel about a name arriving pre-loaded with somebody else’s character. Al and Bo both work if you would rather not announce the reference every time.
- Origin: Roman
- Meaning: White, bright
- Pronunciation: AL-bus
- Popularity: Albus first appeared in U.S. records in 2016 and remains rare, ranking 8,943rd for boys in 2025 with 8 births.
Alpin
Alpin is the anglicized spelling of the Scottish Gaelic Ailpean, built on a Pictish word for white. The near-collision with alpine does the name a favor, since most people will hear snow-covered peaks whether or not that was the intention. It is short, it travels well, and nobody will ask you to spell it twice. Pictish is one of the least understood languages of early Britain, which gives the name an unusually deep and unusually vague history. It is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record. For parents who want something Scottish that is not Callum or Duncan, this is about as far off the beaten track as it gets.
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: White
- Pronunciation: AL-pin
- Variations: Ailpean
- Popularity: Alpin is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record, so no American ranking exists for it.
Andri
Andri most likely comes from the Old Norse andri, a snow-shoe, which is about as literal as a winter name gets. A second reading traces it to the Icelandic Andridur, meaning rival or enemy, so it carries a little edge alongside the snow. It has never caught on in the United States despite being easy to say and impossible to misspell.
- Origin: Icelandic, Indonesian
- Meaning: Snow-shoe, rival
- Pronunciation: AN-tri
- Popularity: Andri has appeared in U.S. records since 1956 but stays rare, ranking 9,778th for boys in 2025 with 7 births.
Aputsiaq
Aputsiaq means snowflake outright, and it is one of the few names on this list where the meaning is the whole point rather than a poetic stretch. It is a genuine everyday name in Greenland and almost unheard of anywhere else. The spelling looks harder than the pronunciation actually is, though you will be repeating it at every appointment for the first few years. For parents who want something nobody else in the room will have, that trade is usually worth making.
- Origin: Greenlandic
- Meaning: Snowflake
- Pronunciation: ah-POOTS-yahk
- Popularity: Aputsiaq was a top 10 name for boys in Greenland from 2012 to 2020. It is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Aspen
Aspen is a tree that thrives where the winters are long, and it is also a Colorado ski town, so the name arrives with snow already attached. It is one of the more widely used names gathered here, and it works on a toddler and an adult equally well. Roughly one in ten American Aspens is a boy, which makes it a genuinely usable unisex pick rather than a nominal one. The double association is worth thinking about: some people will hear the tree and some will hear the resort. Neither reading does the name any harm, which is more than can be said for most place names.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Aspen tree
- Pronunciation: AS-pen
- Namesakes: Aspen Vincent, an American Broadway actress and singer who starred in the 2011 staging of Sleeping Beauty Wakes.
- Popularity: Aspen ranked 266th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 1,179 births, and it is up roughly 131 percent on the previous decade. It is also given to boys, who make up about a tenth of its use.
Asqar
Asqar takes its snow meaning from the white mountains of southern Kazakhstan, which is why it also gets read as the highest or summit. That double sense gives it more room than most one-note winter names. The Askar spelling is the one you will meet more often in print, so decide early which you want on the birth certificate.
- Origin: Kazakh
- Meaning: Snow
- Pronunciation: as-KAR
- Variations: Askar
- Namesakes: Asqar Mamin, the former Prime Minister of Kazakhstan.
- Popularity: Asqar is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record under either spelling.
Ayaz
Ayaz is the Turkish and Azerbaijani word for the clear, biting cold of a winter night, which makes it a natural fit for a baby born in the frost. Turkish folklore gives it a second layer in Ayaz Ata, or Frost Father, the cheerful winter figure who brings children gifts. Two syllables, no silent letters, and a hard Z ending that most languages handle without complaint. Its American use is small but up about 261 percent on the previous decade.
- Origin: Turkish, Azerbaijani
- Meaning: Frost
- Pronunciation: ah-YAHZ
- Namesakes: Ayaz Mutallibov, a former president of Azerbaijan.
- Popularity: Ayaz ranked 2,607th for U.S. boys in 2025 with 50 births, its best American showing on record, and it is up about 261 percent on the previous decade.
Bianca
Bianca has been the polished, aristocratic way to say white since medieval Italy, and Shakespeare borrowed it for The Taming of the Shrew in 1593. It reached its high point in American use in the early 1990s and has been easing back since. That puts it in the comfortable middle ground: familiar to everyone, currently chosen by almost nobody. The snow connection is quiet rather than obvious, which is exactly why it survives outside December. Bea and Bianchi both work at home, and the full name looks well on paper.
- Origin: Italian, Romanian
- Meaning: White, fair
- Pronunciation: BYAN-ka
- Namesakes: Bianca Jagger, a Nicaraguan social and human rights advocate and former actress.
- Popularity: Bianca ranked 500th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 594 births. It peaked in 1990 at 84th and is down about 39 percent on the previous decade.
Blanche
Blanche started as a French medieval nickname for someone fair-haired, from the Germanic word blanc. It was a genuine top 100 name in the United States before the First World War, then vanished so thoroughly that it now reads as a character rather than a name. Most Americans meet it first through the Golden Girls, which is not the worst association a vintage name can have. Its numbers have crept up again in the past decade, which is usually the first sign of a revival. If you like a French name with a hard edge to it, this one has waited a hundred years for you.
- Origin: French, English
- Meaning: White, fair
- Pronunciation: BLANCH
- Variations: Blanch
- Namesakes: Blanche of Castile, a Queen of France by marriage to Louis VIII.
- Popularity: Blanche peaked in 1913, when it ranked 76th for U.S. girls, and fell away for most of the century. It ranked 6,892nd in 2025 with 16 births, up about 52 percent on the previous decade.
Bora
Bora comes from the Albanian bore, meaning snow, and separately from Korean, where it reads as purple. The obvious mental hurdle is Bora Bora, a place about as far from a snowdrift as the planet allows, so the name asks the listener to hold two very different pictures at once. It is short, it is soft, and it works in several languages without adjustment.
- Origin: Albanian, Korean
- Meaning: Snow, purple
- Pronunciation: BOR-ah
- Namesakes: Jin Bora, a South Korean jazz pianist, composer and music arranger.
- Popularity: Bora is recorded for both sexes in the U.S. and stays rare, ranking 5,891st for boys in 2025 with 15 births.
Boreas
Boreas was the Greek god of the north wind and the one who brought winter with him, described with a beard of spiked ice. It is a heavy piece of mythology for a small person, but the sound is gentler than the story, landing somewhere near Boris and Theo. Parents drawn to Greek mythology names that nobody else has found yet will want this on the shortlist. His daughter Khione, the snow nymph, appears further down this list, so the pair can be used together. Bo carries the whole thing on an ordinary Tuesday.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: North wind
- Pronunciation: BAWR-ee-us
- Popularity: Boreas is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Boris
Boris comes from Bulgar, an extinct Oghur Turkic language, and carries the excellent meaning of snow leopard. It is widespread across Russia and eastern Europe, with bearers ranging from the 16th-century emperor Boris Godunov to the writer Boris Pasternak. In American use it has never been common and has never quite disappeared either, sitting at a few dozen births a year for decades. That steadiness is the appeal: it is recognizable without being borrowed by anyone else in the class.
- Origin: Bulgar, Turkic
- Meaning: Snow leopard
- Pronunciation: BOR-iss
- Namesakes: Boris Yeltsin, a former President of Russia.
- Popularity: Boris ranked 3,189th for U.S. boys in 2025 with 37 births. Its best American showing was 874th in 1962, and its use has held roughly steady over the past decade.
Bylur
Bylur is the Icelandic word for a snowstorm, and it was only approved for use as a given name in Iceland in June 2018. That makes it one of the genuinely new names on this list rather than a revival. It sits close enough to Baylor that Americans will hear something familiar, while the meaning stays entirely its own.
- Origin: Icelandic
- Meaning: Snowstorm
- Pronunciation: BIH-lur
- Popularity: Bylur is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Caldwell
Caldwell began as a place name, from the Old English ceald for cold joined to wille, a spring or stream. Put together it describes a frozen brook, which is a quieter kind of winter image than a blizzard. Surnames used as first names have been climbing for years, and this one already has Cal waiting inside it for everyday use.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Cold stream
- Pronunciation: KAWLD-wel
- Popularity: Caldwell ranked 5,897th for U.S. boys in 2025 with 15 births, and it is up around 59 percent on the previous decade.
Canelo
Canelo is the Spanish name for the winter’s bark tree, an evergreen with aromatic bark and white flowers that hold through the cold months. Because that bark is cinnamon-colored, canelo doubles as an affectionate nickname for redheads across Spanish-speaking countries. Most American parents will know it from the boxer rather than the tree, which has pushed its use up sharply in the past few years. That association is strong enough that it will follow the name for at least another generation. If you want the sound without the sport, Canel and Nelo both work.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Winter’s bark tree
- Pronunciation: kah-NEH-lo
- Namesakes: Canelo Alvarez, a Mexican professional boxer who won world championships in four weight classes.
- Popularity: Canelo ranked 4,271st for U.S. boys in 2025 with 24 births, and it is up roughly 161 percent on the previous decade.
Carol
Carol spent the 1940s as one of the four or five most popular girls’ names in the country, which is difficult to picture now. Its winter link runs through Christmas carols, the songs rather than the season, and it also works as a short form of Caroline. Names that big usually take eighty years to come back around, and Carol is roughly on schedule. Its use is still falling, down about two fifths on the previous decade, so the turn has not happened yet. That makes it a genuinely early pick rather than a safe one. If you like it now, you will be several years ahead of everybody else.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Song, free man
- Pronunciation: KAIR-uhl
- Variations: Carrol
- Namesakes: Carol Burnett, an American actress whose sketch comedy show was the first of its kind hosted by a woman.
- Popularity: Carol ranked 4th for U.S. girls in 1941 and peaked in 1945 with more than 30,000 births. It ranked 2,242nd in 2025 with 82 births, down about 43 percent on the previous decade.
Christmas
Christmas is a real, if very rare, given name, turning up in American birth records in single figures across a handful of years. Chris does all the ordinary work, which means the full version only has to appear on documents.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Christ festival, mass on Christ’s day
- Pronunciation: KRIS-mus
- Namesakes: Travis Christmas Humphreys, a British barrister who founded the London Buddhist Society.
- Popularity: Christmas has appeared in U.S. records only occasionally since 1964 and was last recorded in 2018.
Colden
Colden is a place name out of West Yorkshire, from the Old English cald for cold and denu for valley. It sits a letter or two from Holden and Colton, both far more popular, so it gives you a familiar sound without the classroom collisions. The snow meaning is real rather than stretched, which is not something every name in the Col- family can claim. Its American use has held steady for a decade at a couple of dozen boys a year, with Cole available as a short form.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Cold valley
- Pronunciation: KOHL-den
- Popularity: Colden ranked 4,277th for U.S. boys in 2025 with 24 births, holding roughly steady over the past decade.
Crystal
Crystal comes straight from the Greek krystallos, meaning ice, by way of the clear glass named after it. It was a genuine top ten name in the early 1980s, which is why it now reads firmly as a name for someone’s mother. Of all the names gathered here it is the one moving down fastest. That is not a reason to rule it out, since names this far into their decline are usually the next ones to feel fresh again.
- Origin: English, Greek
- Meaning: Ice
- Pronunciation: KRIS-tuhl
- Variations: Krystal
- Namesakes: Crystal Gayle, an American country music singer known for her 1977 hit Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.
- Popularity: Crystal ranked 9th for U.S. girls in 1982 and has fallen furthest of any name on this list, down about 67 percent on the previous decade. It ranked 1,145th in 2025 with 202 births.
Cypress
Cypress is a conifer that holds its color through hard winters, which is where its place on a snow list comes from. It has never reached the U.S. top 1,000 for either sex, yet its numbers have more than tripled in ten years. Girls take close to half of that use, so it will not read as belonging to one sex or the other. Nature names are having a long moment, and this one has more room left in it than most.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Cypress tree
- Pronunciation: SIE-pris
- Popularity: Cypress ranked 1,554th for U.S. boys in 2025 with 110 births and is up roughly 300 percent on the previous decade. Girls account for close to half of its U.S. use.
December
December means ten, a leftover from the Roman calendar that started counting in March. It now sits at the front of winter in the northern hemisphere, which is the association any modern parent is actually reaching for. Month names have quietly become a small category of their own, and this is the one that comes with frost attached. Dee and Ember both live inside it, which solves the everyday problem before it arrives.
- Origin: English, Latin
- Meaning: Ten
- Pronunciation: dih-SEM-ber
- Popularity: December ranked 5,768th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 21 births, holding roughly steady over the past decade.
Donner
Donner is the German word for thunder, and every child in America knows it as one of the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh. It has essentially no history as an American given name, so you would be starting from nothing.
- Origin: German
- Meaning: Thunder
- Pronunciation: DON-er
- Popularity: Donner appears once in U.S. birth records, in 1924, and has not been recorded since.
Douglas
Douglas has been in steady use as a male name since the 16th century, and its winter connection runs through the Douglas fir, one of the most common Christmas trees in America. The name itself means dark river, so the snow arrives by way of the tree rather than the etymology. It was a top 25 name during the Second World War and has been sliding gently ever since, which puts it right at the age where a name starts sounding like a choice again rather than an inheritance. Doug is waiting, and Dougie survives childhood better than you would expect.
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Dark river
- Pronunciation: DUG-luss
- Namesakes: Douglas MacArthur, an American military leader who played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II.
- Popularity: Douglas ranked 23rd for U.S. boys in 1942 and 807th in 2025 with 308 births, down about 32 percent on the previous decade.
Drifa
Drifa names the bank of snow the wind piles against a wall overnight, which is a more specific image than most winter names manage. It is used in Iceland and almost nowhere else. The sound, though, is completely portable: two syllables, no unfamiliar consonants, and a soft ending that sits comfortably beside Freya and Mira. Nothing about it needs adapting for English, which is unusual among the Icelandic entries here. Dree makes an easy nickname if the full name feels formal.
- Origin: Icelandic
- Meaning: Fall of snow, snowdrift
- Pronunciation: DREE-fah
- Namesakes: Drifa Hardardottir, an Icelandic badminton player.
- Popularity: Drifa is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Edurne
Edurne is the Basque answer to Nieves, built on elur, the Basque word for snow, and used as the local form of the Marian title Our Lady of the Snows. It is a familiar name across the Basque Country and northern Spain, and essentially unknown in the United States. The pronunciation looks harder on the page than it sounds out loud, and it settles quickly into Edu or Nena.
- Origin: Basque
- Meaning: Snow
- Pronunciation: eh-DHOOR-neh
- Namesakes: Edurne Garcia Almagro, a Spanish singer, actress and TV presenter who rose to fame in 2005 on the show Operacion Triunfo.
- Popularity: Edurne fell out of Spain’s top 500 in 2010. It is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Eira
Eira is simply the Welsh word for snow, given as a name, which gives it the meaning without any added decoration. It carries a second Norse thread as a modern form of Eir, the goddess of healing, so the protection sense is real rather than invented. American use is small but climbing quickly, and 2025 was its strongest year yet. It sits comfortably beside Nora, Ivy and Freya without sounding borrowed from any of them.
- Origin: Welsh, Norse
- Meaning: Snow, protection
- Pronunciation: AY-ra
- Namesakes: Eira Lydiard, a Finnish gymnast who competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
- Popularity: Eira reached its best U.S. rank in 2025 at 1,749th, with 116 births, and is up roughly 369 percent on the previous decade.
Eirlys
Eirlys is the Welsh name for the snowdrop, the small white flower that pushes up through frozen ground before anything else will. That image, something delicate arriving in the worst conditions, is a lot to hand a daughter and a lovely thing to mean. It only entered American birth records in 2024, so it is about as new here as a name can be.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: Snowdrop
- Pronunciation: AYR-lis
- Popularity: Eirlys first appeared in U.S. records in 2024 and remains extremely rare, ranking 15,554th for girls in 2025 with 5 births.
Eirwyn
Eirwyn is the masculine partner to Eirwen, joining the Welsh eira for snow to gwen, meaning white or blessed. It was coined in the early twentieth century, so despite sounding ancient it is a modern invention. For American ears it lands close to Erwin and Irwin, which gives it a familiar shape carrying a much better meaning.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: White snow
- Pronunciation: AYR-win
- Variations: Eurwyn
- Namesakes: Eirwyn George, a Welsh poet who won the National Eisteddfod of Wales poetry competition in 1982 and 1993.
- Popularity: Eirwyn is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Ember
Ember is the one name here that belongs to the fire rather than the snow, which is exactly why it earns its place: it is the warm thing you want on the other side of a cold day. Its American use has roughly quadrupled on the previous decade, and it now sits just outside the top 150. That is fast, and it means Ember is no longer the rare find it was five years ago. It pairs unusually well with the colder names on this list, so it makes a strong middle name beside Winter or Snow. Em covers the everyday work and needs no explanation at all.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Spark
- Pronunciation: EM-ber
- Namesakes: Adrienne Reese, an American professional wrestler who performed under the name Ember Moon.
- Popularity: Ember ranked 154th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 1,952 births, and it is up about 305 percent on the previous decade. Its highest yearly birth count came in 2024.
Everest
Everest is snow-covered all year because of its height, and it takes its own name from Sir George Everest, a British surveyor. So this is a place name twice removed, which somehow does not weaken it at all. It sits one sound away from Everett and Emmett, both of which are far more common, so it gives you a familiar shape with a much bigger picture behind it. Nearly a quarter of American Everests are girls, so treat it as genuinely open.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Dweller on the Eure River
- Pronunciation: EV-uh-rest
- Popularity: Everest reached its best U.S. rank in 2025 at 796th, with 315 births, and it is up roughly 451 percent on the previous decade. Girls account for close to a quarter of its use.
Fannar
Fannar is one of the standard Icelandic boys’ names built on snow, and unlike most of the entries here it is genuinely common at home rather than a curiosity. Outside Iceland almost nobody uses it. For American parents the useful comparison is Tanner and Connor, which it matches for rhythm while meaning something far better than either. The double N gives it a solidity that the single-N spellings lack. Nothing in it is hard to say, and nothing in it is hard to spell once heard. That combination is what makes a foreign name usable rather than merely admired.
- Origin: Icelandic
- Meaning: Snowdrift
- Pronunciation: FAHN-nar
- Popularity: Fannar was the 48th most popular name in Iceland in 2018. It is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Finn
Finn earns its way onto a snow list through meaning rather than imagery: it comes from the Irish for white or fair-haired. In Irish myth, Finn McCool led the Fianna and was named for his light coloring. It has been one of the steadiest climbers in American naming for twenty years, short enough to shout across a park and old enough to carry weight on a resume. The Fionn spelling is the traditional Irish one and will need explaining outside Ireland. Either way it never shortens, which for some parents is the entire argument.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: White
- Pronunciation: FIN
- Variations: Fionn
- Namesakes: Finn Kydland, a Norwegian economist known for his contributions to business cycle theory.
- Popularity: Finn ranked 206th for U.S. boys in 2025 with 1,702 births, and its use has roughly doubled over the previous decade.
Finola
Finola is the anglicized spelling of the Old Irish Fionnuala, from finn for white and guala for shoulders. Taken literally it describes snow settling on someone’s shoulders on a cold walk home, which is a more human image than most winter names offer. Nola comes free with it and is currently the more fashionable of the two.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: White shoulders
- Pronunciation: fi-NOH-lah
- Variations: Fionnuala
- Namesakes: Finola Hughes, an English actress and TV host known for her role as Anna Devane in General Hospital.
- Popularity: Finola has appeared in U.S. records only occasionally since 1966 and was last recorded in 2022.
Fjolla
Fjolla comes from the Albanian fjolle, meaning fine snow, and it is also read as snowflake. It is used mainly in Kosovo and among the Albanian diaspora, which is why an American teacher will almost certainly meet it for the first time on your child. The Fj- opening is the only real obstacle, and Ola solves that on day one.
- Origin: Albanian
- Meaning: Fine snow
- Pronunciation: fee-OLLA
- Namesakes: Fjolla Shala, a soccer player who last played as a defender for the Icelandic club Fylkir.
- Popularity: Fjolla appears once in U.S. birth records, in 2000, and has not been recorded since.
Flykra
Flykra comes from the Faroe Islands, sitting in the North Atlantic between Iceland and Scotland, and it means snowflake outright. If your requirement is that nobody has heard of it, this clears the bar and then some.
- Origin: Faroese
- Meaning: Snowflake
- Pronunciation: FLEE-kra
- Popularity: Flykra is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Fraser
The Fraser fir is widely used as a Christmas tree, prized for its long needles, dark color and pleasant scent, and that tree is where this name earns its winter credentials. The origin of the surname itself is genuinely uncertain, so anyone offering you a tidy etymology is guessing. It is a settled everyday name in Scotland and an unusual one everywhere else. In American records it has never been common, though its use has climbed by about half over the past decade. Fraz and Fray are the natural short forms, and neither has been used by anyone else.
- Origin: Scottish, English
- Meaning: Uncertain
- Pronunciation: FRAY-zer
- Popularity: Fraser has ranked in Scotland’s top 100 boys’ names since 1974. In the U.S. it stays rare, ranking 5,686th in 2025 with 16 births, up about 55 percent on the previous decade.
Frost
Frost is a badass name hiding inside a weather report, and most people will hear Jack Frost before they hear anything else. It works as a first name and slightly better as a middle one, where it can do its job without carrying the whole introduction.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Frost
- Pronunciation: FRAWST
- Popularity: Frost ranked 6,580th for U.S. boys in 2025 with 13 births, its highest yearly count on record.
Frostine
Frostine belongs to the ice queen in Candyland, which is where nearly every American who knows the name met it. As a name it behaves like Christine or Augustine, so the shape is familiar even though the word is not. It is a lot of name for a small child and grows into itself quickly.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Freezing
- Pronunciation: fross-TEEN
- Popularity: Frostine is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Fuyoko
Fuyoko joins the Japanese fuyu, winter, to ko, child, so it says winter child and stops there. It is a straightforward choice for a baby born in the cold months and needs no explaining to anyone who speaks the language. Yoko does the everyday work if the full name feels formal.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Winter child
- Pronunciation: FOO-yoo-ko
- Namesakes: Fuyuko Matsui, a contemporary Japanese artist who specialized in traditional Nihonga painting.
- Popularity: Fuyoko is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Fuyu
Fuyu is the Japanese word for winter, and depending on the kanji chosen it can also read as winter lapis, evening wealth or lotus superiority. Two open syllables make it one of the gentlest sounds on this list. It works equally well for a boy or a girl, and it fits neatly as a middle name when the first name is doing heavier lifting.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Winter
- Pronunciation: FOO-yoo
- Popularity: Fuyu is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Guinevere
Guinevere was King Arthur’s queen, and her name comes from the Old Celtic windos, meaning fair or white, joined to sebara, a ghost or phantom. White phantom is an unusually good meaning for a snow list, closer to a drift moving across a road at night than to anything gentle. American use is still small, but 2025 was its best year on record. Gwen, Vera and Winnie are all sitting inside it, which takes the pressure off a very grand full name.
- Origin: French, Welsh
- Meaning: White phantom
- Pronunciation: GWIN-uh-veer
- Namesakes: Guinevere Turner, an American actress and screenwriter who wrote the films American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page.
- Popularity: Guinevere reached its best U.S. rank in 2025 at 899th, with 295 births, and it is up roughly 160 percent on the previous decade.
Gwyneira
Gwyneira joins the Welsh gwyn, white or blessed, to eira, snow, and was created in the twentieth century rather than inherited from anywhere older. It is the most elaborate of the Welsh snow names collected here, and the one most likely to need spelling out. Gwyn and Neira both work as short forms, and Eira is right there if the full version proves too much.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: White snow, blessed snow
- Pronunciation: gwi-NAY-ra
- Popularity: Gwyneira is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Hail
Hail is not snow, but it falls from the same winter sky, and the Scottish sense of the word carries a second meaning of healthy or whole. If it reads as too abrupt, Hailey or Hailen gives you the same nickname with more name behind it.
- Origin: English, Scottish
- Meaning: Hailstones, healthy
- Pronunciation: HAYL
- Popularity: Hail appears once in U.S. birth records, in 2022, and has not been recorded since.
Haukea
Hawaii does get snow, but only on the highest peaks of the Big Island, which is presumably where Haukea comes from: hau for snow and kea for white. A tropical name with a genuine winter meaning is a rare thing, and it makes Haukea unusually versatile. This is a Hawaiian girls’ name with real cultural weight, so use it thoughtfully.
- Origin: Hawaiian
- Meaning: White snow
- Pronunciation: how-KEH-ah
- Popularity: Haukea has appeared in U.S. records only in a handful of years since 2018 and was last recorded in 2020.
Haunani
Haunani means beautiful snow, and it belongs to one of the most significant figures in modern Hawaiian politics, the sovereignty activist and scholar Haunani-Kay Trask. It was genuinely popular in Hawaii in the middle of the last century and has faded since. Hawaii does get snow, but only on the highest peaks, which is what makes a name like this possible there at all. The four syllables flow rather than stack, so it is easier to say than its length suggests. Nani works as a short form and is a lovely name by itself. The name carries history that is not ours, which is worth understanding before you use it.
- Origin: Hawaiian
- Meaning: Beautiful snow
- Pronunciation: how-NA-nee
- Namesakes: Haunani-Kay Trask, a Hawaiian activist and educator who was a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
- Popularity: Haunani was a top 10 name in Hawaii in the 1950s and 1960s. Nationally it has always been rare and was last recorded in U.S. data in 2016.
Havaska
Havaska is a modern Hungarian name, most likely built on havas, meaning snowy or snow-covered, though it may instead descend from the older Hungarian name Havadi, which relates to the moon. A third reading ties it to the snowdrop flower. All three routes end up somewhere wintry, so the meaning holds whichever one is correct.
- Origin: Hungarian
- Meaning: Snowy, snowdrop
- Pronunciation: HAH-vahsh-kah
- Popularity: Havaska is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Hima
Hima is the Sanskrit root behind a whole family of snow names, and it is used as a name in its own right across India, particularly among Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu and Nepali speakers. It has never reached the U.S. top 1,000. Four letters, two syllables and no pronunciation trap makes it one of the easiest transplants on this list.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: Frost, snow, winter
- Pronunciation: HEE-ma
- Variations: Heema
- Namesakes: Hima Das, an Indian sprinter who holds the Indian national record in the 400-meter sprint.
- Popularity: Hima has appeared in U.S. records only occasionally since 1997 and was last recorded in 2009.
Himanshu
Himanshu joins the Sanskrit hima, meaning cold or frost, to amshu, a ray or beam, giving something close to winter moonlight. It is a common, unremarkable name in India and an unusual one in the United States. Himan and Shu both work if three syllables prove awkward at school.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: Cold beam, winter ray
- Pronunciation: hi-MAHN-shoo
- Variations: Himanshoo, Hemanshu
- Namesakes: Himanshu Rai, one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, associated with the films Goddess, The Light of Asia, Shiraz and Karma.
- Popularity: Himanshu has appeared in U.S. records only occasionally since 1999 and was last recorded in 2005.
Himesh
Himesh combines the Sanskrit hima for snow with isa, meaning lord or master, so the whole name reads as ruler of the snow. That is a considerable thing to hand a newborn and it wears surprisingly lightly. The sound is close enough to Amish and Ramesh that most English speakers get it right first time.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: Lord of snow
- Pronunciation: hi-MESH
- Namesakes: Himesh Reshammiya, an Indian playback singer, music director and actor in Hindi cinema.
- Popularity: Himesh is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Icelyn
Nobody can say for certain where Icelyn came from. It may be ice plus the -lyn ending that has attached itself to half the girls’ names of the past twenty years, or a reshaping of the Irish Aislinn or the Norwegian Iselin. What is clear is that American parents have taken to it: its use has more than quadrupled in ten years, entirely on the strength of how it sounds. That makes it a modern invention rather than a rediscovery, which is worth knowing if heritage matters to you. Icy is unavoidable as a nickname, so decide now whether you can live with it.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Uncertain
- Pronunciation: ICE-lin
- Variations: Icelynn
- Popularity: Icelyn ranked 3,045th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 54 births, and it is up roughly 351 percent on the previous decade.
Isa
Isa pulls in two directions at once. In the United States it usually turns up as a short form of Isabella or Isabel, while elsewhere it is a boys’ name from the ancient Germanic is, meaning ice or iron. The American numbers now split almost down the middle between the sexes, which is unusual and makes it a genuinely neutral choice. Three letters, one clear sound, and it will not be mangled in any language you are likely to meet.
- Origin: Frisian, Germanic, English, Arabic
- Meaning: Snow, Yahweh is salvation
- Pronunciation: EE-sah
- Namesakes: Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the first emir of Bahrain from 1961 to 1999.
- Popularity: Isa reached its best U.S. rank in 2025 at 933rd for boys, with 253 births, and it is up about 106 percent on the previous decade. American use is split almost evenly between boys and girls.
Isbert
Isbert joins the Old High German is, ice, to beraht, bright, giving something like glittering frost. It has the same architecture as Albert, Herbert and Robert, so it will not sound invented even to people who have never heard it. Bert is the obvious nickname, and the full name is rare enough that federal birth data does not track it at all.
- Origin: Germanic
- Meaning: Bright ice
- Pronunciation: IS-bert
- Popularity: Isbert is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Isolde
Isolde belongs to one of the great doomed love stories of medieval Europe, set down by Gottfried von Strassburg in the thirteenth century, in which the knight Tristan drinks a love potion meant for someone else. Ice battle is a startling meaning for a romantic heroine, and it gives the name a spine that the story alone would not. American use is small and unchanged for years, which suits a name this literary. Izzy handles the playground.
- Origin: German
- Meaning: Ice battle
- Pronunciation: ee-ZOWL-day
- Variations: Iseult
- Namesakes: Isolde Kostner, an Italian former Alpine skier who won two bronze medals at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
- Popularity: Isolde ranked 5,997th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 20 births, holding roughly steady over the past decade.
Isolfr
Isolfr comes from the Old Norse iss, ice, and ulfr, wolf. Ice wolf is a vivid, literal meaning, but the spelling is a real obstacle, with an -lfr ending that English simply does not do. You will spell it out for the rest of your life. Whether that is a fair price is the only real question here.
- Origin: Icelandic
- Meaning: Ice wolf
- Pronunciation: EES-ol-vur
- Popularity: Isolfr is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Ivy
Ivy is the evergreen that keeps its color when everything around it has gone brown, which is why it belongs beside the holly in every carol ever written. Of all the names gathered here it is by far the most used, sitting comfortably inside the American top 50. That popularity is the trade-off: your daughter will love the name and share it with another girl in her year. Two letters of actual sound and nothing to explain, which is exactly why it got this big.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Ivy
- Pronunciation: EYE-vee
- Namesakes: Ivy Shao, a Taiwanese actress and model best known for her leading role in the 2016 drama Back to 1989.
- Popularity: Ivy is the highest ranked name on this list, at 39th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 5,117 births. Its use has roughly tripled on the previous decade.
Izotz
Izotz is the Basque word for ice, used as a name in the region straddling northern Spain and southwestern France. The double Z ending is the whole obstacle, and it is a real one outside Basque-speaking areas. Expect to say it before you spell it, every single time. For parents who want something with no English equivalent whatsoever, that is rather the point.
- Origin: Basque
- Meaning: Ice
- Pronunciation: ee-SOTS
- Popularity: Izotz is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
January
January is the coldest month across most of the United States, so a girl named for it may well have snow in her earliest memories. It is a month name rather than a word name, which puts it in the same small category as June and April without sounding anything like either. It had a modest run in the late 1970s and has never repeated it. Jan and Junie are both waiting inside.
- Origin: English, Latin
- Meaning: January
- Pronunciation: JAN-yoo-air-ee
- Namesakes: January Jones, an American actress best known for her role as Betty Draper in Mad Men.
- Popularity: January ranked 10,448th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 9 births. Its best showing came in 1978 at 638th, and its use has held roughly steady over the past decade.
Jokull
Jokull is the Icelandic word for a glacier, and it began as a diminutive of Jaki, an Old Norse name for a piece of broken ice. It is a normal, unremarkable name in Iceland and an extraordinary one anywhere else. The J is pronounced as a Y, which is the only thing anyone will get wrong, and they will get it wrong once. The proper Icelandic spelling carries an umlaut that American forms will quietly drop. A glacier is snow that has been compressed for centuries, which gives the name a slow, geological sense of time. Joke is an unfortunate near-miss in English, so weigh the nickname before you commit.
- Origin: Icelandic
- Meaning: Glacier, drift ice
- Pronunciation: YO-kull
- Variations: Jökull
- Namesakes: Jokull Juliusson, an Icelandic singer-songwriter best known as the lead singer of Kaleo.
- Popularity: Jokull was in Iceland’s top 50 boys’ names from 2010 to 2016. It is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Juniper
The juniper is an evergreen in the cypress family that survives climates most plants will not, holding its blue berries right through the freeze. That toughness is the reason it reads as a winter name rather than a spring one. June and Juno both come free as short forms. It has just broken into the American top 100 for the first time, which is a remarkable climb for a name that was nowhere fifteen years ago.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Juniper plant
- Pronunciation: JOO-nuh-per
- Namesakes: Juniper Shuey, a Seattle-based visual artist known for his sculptures and video installations.
- Popularity: Juniper reached the U.S. top 100 for the first time in 2025, ranking exactly 100th with 2,618 births, and it is up roughly 555 percent on the previous decade.
Kanrou
Kanrou joins the kanji kan, cold, to rou, son, and it is a fair choice for a boy arriving in the depths of winter. The sound is firmer than most of the Japanese names here, closer to Kenzo than to Yuki.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Cold son
- Pronunciation: KAHN-roh
- Popularity: Kanrou is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Kawisenhawe
Kawisenhawe is built from the Mohawk ka, she, owise, ice, and hawe, to hold. She who holds ice is a vivid, image-based meaning, and it is a hard name to carry outside the community it belongs to. This is a Haudenosaunee name with living cultural weight, not a decoration, and that should shape whether it is yours to use.
- Origin: Mohawk
- Meaning: She who holds ice
- Pronunciation: gah-wee-zoo-HAH-way
- Popularity: Kawisenhawe is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Khione
In Greek mythology Khione was the snow nymph, and a daughter of Boreas, the god of the north wind, who also appears on this list. She reads as the snow itself rather than a name that happens to mean it. She is brand new to American birth records, first appearing in 2020, so this is a genuinely unique name rather than a rare one. Chione is the alternative transliteration and looks less invented on paper, with only 6 U.S. births recorded under Khione in 2025.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Snow
- Pronunciation: kee-OWN-ee
- Variations: Chione
- Popularity: Khione first appeared in U.S. records in 2020 and remains rare, ranking 14,095th for girls in 2025 with 6 births.
Kirsi
Kirsi is the Finnish word for frost, and it doubles as the Finnish short form of Christina, so it can be a full name or a nickname depending on how you use it. It has the same easy shape as Kirsten and Kristy without either sounding dated. Warm-sounding names with cold meanings are rare, and this is the friendliest one here. American records have picked it up only occasionally since the 1990s, so it remains almost unused outside Finland. The spelling is phonetic in English, which removes the usual obstacle with Finnish names.
- Origin: Finnish
- Meaning: Frost, cherry
- Pronunciation: KEER-see
- Variations: Kirsti
- Namesakes: Kirsi Ojansuu, a Finnish politician and member of parliament for the Green League.
- Popularity: Kirsi has appeared in U.S. records only occasionally since 1994 and was last recorded in 2023.
Koyuki
Koyuki means light or small snow, the first dusting rather than the storm, from ko for small and yuki for snow. It is the softest of the Japanese entries here and the easiest for English speakers to say correctly. Yuki does the everyday work and is a lovely name on its own, which gives you two for the price of one.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Small snow
- Pronunciation: koy-OO-kee
- Namesakes: Koyuki Kato, a Japanese model and actress known for her roles in Kimi wa Petto and The Last Samurai.
- Popularity: Koyuki is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Led
Led is the Russian word for ice, and it also belongs to a river running through the Plesetsky and Shenkursky districts. Three letters and unmistakably blunt, it will read as either strikingly modern or slightly unfinished depending on your taste.
- Origin: Russian
- Meaning: Ice
- Pronunciation: LYED
- Popularity: Led is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Lixue
Lixue means pretty snow, and it belongs to a family of Chinese names built around xue, the word for snow. It is well used at home and almost never chosen elsewhere, largely because the -xue ending defeats most English speakers on the first attempt. This elegant Chinese name makes the most sense for a family who will be saying it correctly at home.
- Origin: Chinese
- Meaning: Pretty snow
- Pronunciation: lee-SHWEH
- Variations: Li Xue
- Popularity: Lixue is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Lucia
Saint Lucia’s winter feast opens the Christmas season across Scandinavia, with candles carried against the darkest part of the year, and that is how a name meaning light ends up on a snow list. It has just posted its best American ranking on record, now sitting inside the top 100. Both pronunciations are correct and in wide use, so decide which one you want before the first day of school. The Italian and Spanish versions differ enough that relatives will politely use whichever they grew up with. Lucy and Lu are both there when you want something shorter.
- Origin: Roman
- Meaning: Light
- Pronunciation: loo-SEE-ah, LOO-chah
- Namesakes: Lucia Mendez, a Mexican telenovela and film actress.
- Popularity: Lucia reached its best U.S. rank in 2025 at 83rd, with 3,012 births, and it is up about 84 percent on the previous decade.
Lumi
Lumi is the Finnish word for snow and, of everything gathered here, it is moving fastest in the United States. Its use is up nearly sevenfold on the previous decade, which is the sort of curve that usually ends in the top 500. It has the same easy two-syllable shape as Luna and Lucy without being either. If you want a snow name that will feel current in ten years rather than dated, this is the one the numbers point at.
- Origin: Finnish
- Meaning: Snow
- Pronunciation: LOO-mee
- Namesakes: Lumi Cavazos, a Mexican actress known for playing Tita in Like Water for Chocolate.
- Popularity: Lumi is the fastest rising name on this list, up 687 percent when the last ten years of U.S. births are set against the ten before them. It reached its best rank in 2025 at 1,953rd, with 99 births.
Merry
Merry sits comfortably beside Mary and Meredith and arrives with a Christmas greeting already attached. It had a genuine run in the 1940s and has been a handful of babies a year ever since.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Happy, lighthearted
- Pronunciation: MEH-ree
- Namesakes: Merry Clayton, an American soul and gospel singer who sang backing vocals for many major performers in the 1960s.
- Popularity: Merry ranked 456th for U.S. girls in 1948 and 10,634th in 2025 with 9 births, holding roughly steady over the past decade.
Morozko
Morozko is the frost spirit of Russian fairy tale, who finds a girl abandoned in a frozen field by her stepmother and, rewarding her courtesy, sends her home with a chest of fine things. He is not a gentle figure exactly, but he is a fair one, which is a rarer quality in folklore. As a name it is theatrical and heavy, and it would carry a middle-name slot far more comfortably than a first.
- Origin: Russian
- Meaning: Father frost
- Pronunciation: mo-ROZ-ko
- Popularity: Morozko is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Natalie
Natalie comes from the Late Latin Natalia and was traditionally given to girls born on Christmas Day. It has been one of the most reliably used American girls’ names for fifty years, peaking in the late 2000s and easing back since. It is still inside the top 100, so it is familiar without being everywhere. Nat, Nattie and Talie all work, and none of them sound like a compromise.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Christmas day
- Pronunciation: NAT-ah-lee
- Variations: Natalee, Natalia, Nathalie
- Namesakes: Natalie Portman, an American actress known for V for Vendetta, The Other Boleyn Girl and Black Swan.
- Popularity: Natalie ranked 89th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 2,736 births. It reached 13th in 2008 and is down about 46 percent on the previous decade.
Nevada
Nevada is Spanish for snow-capped, borrowed from the Sierra Nevada rather than invented for the state. That makes it one of the few place names here whose meaning actually is the snow. It was a Victorian-era choice for American girls, dropped away almost entirely by the 1950s, and has been climbing back for decades. Nev and Neva both work, and it reads equally well on a boy.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Snow-capped
- Pronunciation: nuh-VAD-uh
- Popularity: Nevada peaked for U.S. girls around 1919, faded through the middle of the century, and has recovered somewhat since. It ranked 3,819th in 2025 with 39 births, and about a fifth of its use is for boys.
Nicholas
Nicholas comes from the Greek nike, victory, joined to laos, the people. The winter link is Saint Nicholas himself, the fourth-century bishop with a habit of leaving gifts in secret, who became the model for Santa Claus. It was a top five American name at the turn of the millennium and has halved since, which is what happens to every name that big. It is still inside the top 150, and Nick has never needed defending.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Victory of the people
- Pronunciation: NIK-uh-lus
- Variations: Nickolas, Nikolas
- Namesakes: Saint Nicholas of Myra, an early Christian bishop and patron of sailors, merchants, archers, children and students.
- Popularity: Nicholas ranked 5th for U.S. boys in 1999 and 112th in 2025 with 3,115 births, down about 54 percent on the previous decade.
Nieva
Nieva takes its snow meaning from Spanish and also names a town in Spain. It is used far more often as a surname than a first name, which is precisely what leaves it available. If you like place names but have grown tired of Sydney and Dakota, this is the same idea with a colder climate.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Snow
- Pronunciation: NEE-eh-vah
- Popularity: Nieva has appeared in U.S. records only occasionally since 2010 and was last recorded in 2020.
Nieves
Nieves comes from Nuestra Senora de las Nieves, Our Lady of the Snows, a Marian title, which makes it the most explicitly religious name on this list. The plural is not a mistake: it is snows, not snow. For a Catholic family looking for something with real devotional weight rather than seasonal decoration, this is the one. The singular Nieve is also used and reads softer to English ears. Neither has ever caught on in the United States, where the S ending tends to be heard as a surname. Nieve or Nena will carry the everyday load if the full name feels formal.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Snows
- Pronunciation: nee-EH-ves
- Variations: Nieve
- Namesakes: Nieves Navarro Garcia, a Spanish-born Italian actress and model who worked in Italian cinema in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Popularity: Nieves fell out of Spain’s top 500 girls’ names in 2010. In the U.S. it has been recorded only occasionally and was last seen in 2017.
Nilak
Nilak names freshwater ice specifically, the kind you can melt and drink, as opposed to sea ice. That distinction matters enormously in Greenland and is the sort of precision most English words simply do not carry. It is a winter-inspired name used mainly in western Greenland, short and clean and almost impossible to mispronounce.
- Origin: Greenlandic
- Meaning: Freshwater ice
- Pronunciation: NEE-lahk
- Popularity: Nilak is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Noel
Noel is the French word for Christmas, and it has been in U.S. birth records since 1880. It works for a boy or a girl, with about a fifth of American Noels being girls, and it makes an unusually good middle name for a December baby. One syllable or two are both acceptable, so pick one early and hold the line. Noelle is the feminine spelling if you want the sex settled on paper. A name this short with this much history behind it is a rare thing.
- Origin: English, French
- Meaning: Christmas
- Pronunciation: noh-EL, NOHL
- Variations: Noël, Noelle
- Namesakes: Noel Gallagher, an English singer, songwriter and musician from the rock band Oasis.
- Popularity: Noel ranked 478th for U.S. boys in 2025 with 635 births, up about 23 percent on the previous decade. Girls account for roughly a fifth of its use.
Olwen
Olwen joins the Welsh ol, a footprint or track, to gwen, white or fair, which gives you a line of small prints across fresh snow. In the tale of Culhwch and Olwen she is the daughter of the giant Yspaddaden, who sets her suitor a string of impossible tasks rather than lose her. It is one of the oldest names here and one of the easiest to say, which is a combination that does not come along often. American records have picked it up only in scattered years since 1913. Wen and Winnie both work, and Winnie is currently fashionable on its own.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: White footprint
- Pronunciation: OL-wehn
- Variations: Olwyn, Olwin
- Namesakes: Olwen Fouere, an Irish actress listed as the 22nd greatest film actor on The Irish Times list.
- Popularity: Olwen has appeared in U.S. records only occasionally since 1913 and was last recorded in 2018.
Pyry
Pyry is the Finnish word for a driving snowstorm, and it is an ordinary boys’ name in Finland. Outside Finland the double Y is a genuine problem, since the Finnish vowel has no English equivalent and every approximation sounds wrong. That is the whole calculation with this one: a strong, short name that most people around you will never say correctly.
- Origin: Finnish
- Meaning: Snowstorm, blizzard
- Pronunciation: PUY-ruy
- Namesakes: Pyry Soiri, a Finnish soccer player for the professional team HJK.
- Popularity: Pyry is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Rudolph
This old-fashioned boys’ name was a solid top 150 choice in the 1920s, long before a reindeer with a red nose took it over completely. Famous wolf is a much better meaning than the song suggests. It has been fading for ninety years, which puts it at exactly the age where vintage names start coming back. Rudy is already fashionable again on its own, which is usually the first step. Whether the song is a charm or a life sentence is the only real question here.
- Origin: English, Germanic
- Meaning: Famous wolf
- Pronunciation: ROO-dolf
- Variations: Rudolf, Rodolph
- Popularity: Rudolph reached its best U.S. rank of 110th in 1927 and ranked 4,231st in 2025 with 25 births, down about 17 percent on the previous decade.
Siku
Siku is the Inuit word for ice, and ice is not scenery in the Arctic, it is infrastructure: the road between land and sea, the platform you fish from, the thing that decides where a family can travel and when. Naming a child for it is closer to naming one Bridge than to naming one Snowflake. In Swahili the same spelling means day, which gives the name a second life in a completely different climate. Two syllables, four letters and no ambiguity in either language. It is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record. Names that carry this much cultural weight deserve to be used knowingly rather than decoratively.
- Origin: Inuit, Swahili
- Meaning: Ice, day
- Pronunciation: SEE-koo
- Popularity: Siku is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Skadi
Skadi was the Norse giantess of mountains, winter and skiing, who lived on the high peaks where the snow never went. Damage is a blunt meaning for a goddess and it fits the harshness of the country she ruled. The name only entered American records in 2017 and is climbing quietly, still fewer than two dozen babies a year. It sits close to Sadie and Cady, so it will not sound alien in a classroom. The Skadi and Skade spellings both circulate, and the first is the one you will meet in translation. For a daughter you expect to be stubborn, there are worse patron figures.
- Origin: Norse
- Meaning: Damage
- Pronunciation: SKAH-dee
- Popularity: Skadi first appeared in U.S. records in 2017 and remains rare, ranking 6,291st for girls in 2025 with 19 births.
Snow
Snow started as a baptismal name for babies born in snowy weather, originally for boys, and it now leans female without belonging to either. It is the most direct option on this entire list, with nothing to translate and nothing to explain. Word names live or die on how they age, and this one has the advantage of being a noun everybody already loves. Use is small but rising steadily.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Snow
- Pronunciation: SNOH
- Popularity: Snow ranked 4,056th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 36 births, up about 72 percent on the previous decade. It is also given to boys.
Tushar
Tushar is one of the standard Sanskrit words for frost, and it is a common everyday name across India, particularly in Jain and Hindu families. It has almost no history in the United States. Two clean syllables and a familiar shape make it far easier for English speakers than most of the entries around it.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: Cold, frost, snow
- Pronunciation: TOO-shar
- Namesakes: Tushar Deshpande, an Indian cricketer and first-class player for Mumbai.
- Popularity: Tushar has appeared in U.S. records only occasionally since 1970 and was last recorded in 2014.
Tuyet
Tuyet is the Vietnamese word for snow, given mostly to girls, and its pronunciation shifts noticeably between northern and southern dialects. It is rarely used alone: Vietnamese names usually pair it, as in Minh Tuyet for morning snow or Bao Tuyet for snow leopard. That makes it an unusually good middle name, where it can sit beside something else and mean more than it does by itself. This is a classic Vietnamese name with a long history behind it.
- Origin: Vietnamese
- Meaning: Snow
- Pronunciation: TWEET
- Namesakes: Minh Tuyet, a Vietnamese-American singer.
- Popularity: Tuyet has appeared in U.S. records only occasionally since 1976 and was last recorded in 2009.
Urmas
Urmas comes from the Estonian urm, which covers both frost and catkins, the small hanging flowers that appear on bare winter branches. It is one of the more ordinary Estonian boys’ names and completely unknown in the United States. The sound is close to Thomas with the front swapped out, so it is easier to carry than it looks.
- Origin: Estonian
- Meaning: Catkins
- Pronunciation: OOR-mahs
- Namesakes: Urmas Sutrop, an Estonian linguist.
- Popularity: Urmas is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Vail
Vail is a ski town in Colorado before it is anything else, which is the whole reason it belongs here. As a word it just means a wide valley, so the snow is entirely borrowed from the resort. It sounds identical to Vale and Vayle, so expect to spell it. Use has more than doubled in ten years, and about a fifth of American Vails are boys.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Wide river valley
- Pronunciation: VAYL
- Popularity: Vail ranked 6,307th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 19 births, up about 134 percent on the previous decade. Around a fifth of its use is for boys.
Vetle
Vetle descends from the Old Norse Vetriloi, which is read as winter traveler and also as bear cub. Both readings suit a baby. It is a settled everyday name in Norway and essentially unheard of in America. The -tle ending is the only awkward part, and it resolves the moment somebody says it out loud.
- Origin: Norwegian
- Meaning: Winter traveler
- Pronunciation: VET-leh
- Namesakes: Vetle Sjastad Christiansen, a Norwegian biathlete.
- Popularity: Vetle entered Norway’s charts in 1992 and has become one of the country’s more common boys’ names. It is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Vindkaldr
Vindkaldr is the alias Svipdagr takes in Norse legend when he sets out to reach his bride, Mengloo, who waits in a hall guarded by a monster. Wind frozen is a blunt, physical meaning, and the name is built to match it. As a first name it is a considerable ask, with three syllables and a consonant cluster English never uses; as a middle name it is a small piece of family mythology nobody else will have.
- Origin: Norse
- Meaning: Wind frozen
- Pronunciation: VIND-kald-ur
- Popularity: Vindkaldr is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Vinter
Vinter is simply the modern Scandinavian spelling of winter. That single letter does a surprising amount of work: it softens the name, gives it a European tilt, and stops it announcing the season quite so loudly as Winter does. Vin makes a good short form, and it works for a boy as easily as for a girl.
- Origin: Swedish
- Meaning: Winter
- Pronunciation: VIN-tehr
- Variations: Vinther, Winther
- Popularity: Vinter is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Warrin
Warrin looks like a spelling variant of Warren and is nothing of the kind. It is a Pitjantjatjara word for the cold months, from an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert, where winter nights drop far below what most visitors expect. Its unusual origin is also a reason for care: this is a living language, not a sound to borrow casually.
- Origin: Pitjantjatjara
- Meaning: The cold months
- Pronunciation: WOR-rin
- Popularity: Warrin is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
Winter
Winter is the season name that made it, sitting comfortably inside the top 500. It nearly tripled its use over the past decade, so it is no longer the unusual choice it was when today’s teenagers were born. Wynter is the spelling most likely to be assumed, so expect to correct it. If you want the season without the popularity, the Swedish Vinter is quieter by a wide margin.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Winter
- Pronunciation: WIN-ter
- Variations: Wynter
- Popularity: Winter ranked 426th for U.S. girls in 2025 with 732 births, and it is up about 186 percent on the previous decade. Boys account for roughly six percent of its use.
Whittaker
Whittaker is a surname out of Lancashire meaning white field, which is a fair description of a pasture under snow. Using last names as first names has been popular in American boys’ naming for years, and this one has waited its turn. Whit is sharp, Whitty is warm, and 2025 was its strongest year yet. The single-T Whitaker spelling also circulates and will be assumed unless you correct it. Three syllables give it more weight than the shorter surname names, which suits a child who will grow into it.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: White field
- Pronunciation: WIT-uh-ker
- Variations: Whitaker
- Popularity: Whittaker reached its best U.S. rank in 2025 at 3,445th, with 34 births, and it is up around 150 percent on the previous decade.
Wren
The wren is a tiny songbird that stays put through the cold instead of migrating, foraging for insects and nesting in fallen logs while everything else leaves. That stubbornness is a better thing to name a daughter for than most bird names manage. It has risen more than fivefold in ten years and is now inside the top 250, so it is popular rather than obscure. Boys take roughly one in seven of them.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Songbird
- Pronunciation: REN
- Popularity: Wren ranked 231st for U.S. girls in 2025 with 1,331 births, and it is up roughly 422 percent on the previous decade. Around one in seven American Wrens is a boy.
Xue
Xue is the Chinese word for snow, and depending on the character it can also mean to study or to learn. It is common in China and rare everywhere else, mostly because the initial X defeats English speakers on the first three attempts. For a family who will be saying it correctly at home, none of that matters.
- Origin: Chinese
- Meaning: Snow
- Pronunciation: SHWEH
- Namesakes: Xue Ming, a Chinese volleyball player who was part of the gold medal-winning team at the 2005 Asian Championship.
- Popularity: Xue has appeared in U.S. records only occasionally since 1981 and was last recorded in 2000.
Yukina
Yukina joins yuki, snow, to na, greens or vegetables, and depending on the characters chosen it can also read as snow endure, snow name or fortune endure. The sound gives it real potential outside Japan, since it needs no explaining and shortens to Yuki, which most people already know. It is the least-used name here that American records still pick up at all, with just 5 U.S. births in 2025.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Snow greens
- Pronunciation: yoo-KEE-nah
- Popularity: Yukina is the rarest name on this list that U.S. data still records, at roughly one in 333,333 births in 2025, when 5 babies received it.
Yule
Yule comes from the Middle English word for Christmastide, and it began as a byname for someone born on Christmas Day or otherwise tied to midwinter. It is one syllable, it is warm, and it carries an old northern European festival behind it rather than a modern holiday. Yul is the shorter spelling if the E feels like too much.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Christmastide
- Pronunciation: YOOL
- Variations: Yul
- Namesakes: Yule Kilcher, a Swiss-born American homesteader who served in the Alaska state senate from 1963 to 1966.
- Popularity: Yule appears once in U.S. birth records, in 2021, split between boys and girls.
Zima
Zima is the word for winter across most Slavic languages, and it began life as a Slavic nickname for someone with a chilly manner. The Z opening is doing a lot of work: there is almost nothing else in American naming that starts this coolly. It is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record, so it arrives with no baggage of any kind. Two syllables and a familiar shape make it far more wearable than its rarity suggests. Zim and Zee both work if you want something shorter on an ordinary day. It closes out this list the way winter closes out the year.
- Origin: Slavic
- Meaning: Winter
- Pronunciation: ZEE-mah
- Popularity: Zima is too rare for U.S. federal birth data to record.
