Almost every language has settled on its own word for beautiful, and almost every one of those words has ended up on a birth certificate somewhere. That is how a list like this reaches 100 names and still leaves plenty out.
What follows covers boys, girls and unisex picks, from Greek goddesses and Norse compounds to one-word compliments in Swahili and Spanish. Each entry gives the meaning, origin and pronunciation, plus where the name actually stands in current U.S. birth records rather than a vague guess at how common it is; most entries also give spelling variations and notable bearers where they genuinely exist.
Those federal figures cover American births only, and roughly a fifth of these names are too rare to appear in them at all, which is useful information in itself. Start with the chart below if you want to see how the best-known picks compare.
Popularity at a Glance
The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: Lydia, Bella, Alana, Arabella and Kevin.
100 Baby Names Meaning Beautiful
Become enchanted by these memorable names that mean beautiful up ahead.
Adonis
Adonis belongs to the beautiful young man of Greek myth, the one Aphrodite could not look away from. The name is older than the story, though, tracing back to the Phoenician adon, meaning lord. That double heritage is what gives it range: a title first, a heartthrob second. Parents who want the sound without the full flourish tend to shorten it to Don. The climb behind it has been steady rather than sudden, which usually means a name is staying. It does hand a newborn a certain amount to live up to.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Manly beauty
- Pronunciation: Ah-DAA-Nahs
- Variations: Adohnes, Adones
- Namesakes: Adonis Del Rosario, a Dominican baseball player for the New York Mets. Adonis Stevenson, a Haitian-Canadian boxer and winner of the lineal light heavyweight title in 2013.
- Popularity: Adonis is a real climber in the U.S. It reached its best rank, 175th, in 2023 and still logged 1,462 boys in 2025 at 241st, with births running about 416 percent ahead of the previous decade, per the Social Security Administration.
Aglaja
Aglaja is the German and Slavic spelling of the ancient Greek Aglaia, one of the Charities, the goddesses of charm and beauty. She was a daughter of Zeus, and her name carried the sense of splendor rather than mere prettiness, the kind of beauty that comes with order. The spelling with a J looks daunting on paper and softens the moment you hear it said. If the full form feels like a lot for a small child, Aggie and Ajah both work. It is a name that rewards a family willing to explain it a few times.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Splendor, beautiful
- Pronunciation: Ah-GLAH-Jhaa
- Variations: Aglaïa, Aglaya, Aglaiah
- Namesakes: Aglaja Brix, a German actress known for the TV detective series Die Pfefferkörner. Aglaja Orgeni (born Anna St. Jörgen), a Hungarian opera singer with the Berlin State Opera.
- Popularity: Aglaja has never appeared in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data, which lists only names given to at least five babies in a year. That makes it about as uncharted as a name can be here.
Alana
Alana is a name with several passports. Hawaiian gives it beauty and fair, Latin adds precious and awakening, and the Irish pet name leanbh, meaning child, sits underneath it all. Aramaic pushes it further still, toward elevated or exalted, so the whole name reads as a beloved child held up high. It is soft without being fussy, and it has aged far better than most three-syllable girl names of its generation. It also pairs easily with a long surname, which not every soft name does.
- Origin: Hawaiian, Latin
- Meaning: Beauty, Fair
- Pronunciation: Ah-LAEN-ah
- Variations: Alanah, Alannah, Allanah, Alanna
- Namesakes: Alana Paon, a Canadian politician in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly since 2017. Alana Patience is an Australian ballroom dancer and two-time Dancing with the Stars winner.
- Popularity: Alana is having its best U.S. year on record. It ranked 140th in 2025 with 2,085 girls, its highest rank and highest count in more than 90 years of Social Security Administration data, and roughly one girl in 771 now carries it.
Alika
Alika carries a meaning as bold as they come, most beautiful. Swahili gives it a second sense, truthful, and in Hawaii it doubles as a local form of Alex. Three unrelated traditions arriving at the same short, bright sound is unusual, and it is part of why the name feels borrowed from everywhere and owned by no one. The stress falls on the middle syllable, which keeps it from being mistaken for Alicia.
- Origin: African
- Meaning: Most beautiful
- Pronunciation: Ah-LIY-kaa
- Variations: Aleeka, Aleka, Alicka, Alikah
- Namesakes: Alika Smekhova, a Soviet Russian actress and Honored Artist of Russia (2008). Alika Del Sol, an American actress, known for Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013).
- Popularity: Alika is genuinely rare in the U.S. It last cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2024, ranking 15,404th, and its strongest showing was back in 1984.
Allen
Allen looks plain and is not. Behind it sit the Scottish Gaelic alainn, meaning handsome, and the Irish ail, meaning rock, which is a strange and rather good pairing for a boy’s name. It once simply meant a person from the Alans, so the beauty reading is the one that stuck rather than the one it started with. Two syllables, no spelling arguments, no nickname required. If you want a name that will never draw a comment at roll call, this is it.
- Origin: Gaelic
- Meaning: Handsome, beautiful
- Pronunciation: AEL-ahn
- Variations: Alan, Alon
- Namesakes: Allen Ming, a Malaysian swimmer and double gold medalist at the Southeast Asian Games (2001 and 2003). Allen Ludden, an American game show host for Password between 1961 and 1980.
- Popularity: Allen is an American classic well past its peak. It sat 71st in 1940 and has slipped to 578th in 2025, with 507 boys, but more than 271,000 American Allens have been recorded since 1880, per Social Security Administration data.
Alusia
Alusia is Polish in origin and reads as an affectionate form rather than a formal one, the sort of name a grandmother uses. Its meanings, beautiful and lovely, are stated plainly with none of the mythology that weighs down the Greek entries here. The soft middle sound is the whole appeal, and it does not need a nickname because it already is one.
- Origin: Polish
- Meaning: Beautiful, lovely
- Pronunciation: Aeh-LUW-Zah
- Popularity: Alusia has never turned up in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name files, which only list names reaching at least five babies in a year. It is a genuine rarity on this side of the Atlantic.
Ani
Ani is short enough to be mistaken for a nickname and old enough to outrank most of them. Though it turns up in Slavic culture, it belongs first to Armenia, where it was also the name of a medieval city in what is now Turkey. Hindi gives it a separate meaning, glass, which suits a name this clear and this light. Two syllables, no silent letters, and it works on a toddler and an adult equally well.
- Origin: Slavic
- Meaning: Very beautiful
- Pronunciation: AAH-Niy
- Variations: Anee, Aney, Anie, Any
- Namesakes: Ani Vardanyan, an Armenian figure skater and the 2005 Armenian national silver medalist. Ani Mirotadze, a member of the Georgia Parliament from 2012 to 2016.
- Popularity: Ani stays quietly on the U.S. books rather than disappearing from them. It ranked 2,961st in 2025 with 56 girls, holding fairly steady against the previous decade, and its strongest year was 2004.
Annabelle
Annabelle is a compound and wears it well: the Latin Anna, meaning grace by way of Hebrew, joined to the French belle, meaning beauty. Grace and beauty in one name is about as direct as the category gets. The double L and the trailing E give it a storybook look on paper, which is exactly why it surged with parents who wanted something ornate but familiar. Annie and Belle are both waiting inside it, so a child can pick her own register as she grows. Ornate and unfussy at the same time is a hard trick, and this one has managed it for decades.
- Origin: French, Latin
- Meaning: Beautiful grace
- Pronunciation: AEN-aeh-Behl
- Variations: Annabel, Annabell
- Namesakes: Annabelle, a French singer whose song “Fuis Lawrence d’Arabia” peaked at No. 12 on the French Singles Chart in 1987. Annabelle Rankin, an Australian politician and the first Queensland woman elected to parliament.
- Popularity: Annabelle had a strong run and is easing back. It peaked at 57th in 2014 with 4,363 girls and ranked 343rd in 2025 with 891, down roughly 38 percent on the previous decade, per Social Security Administration records.
Anusha
Anusha is a morning name. Sanskrit gives it dawn and auspicious morning, Persian gives it immortal, and the Tamil anusham, a celestial star, may sit under all of it. Few names on this list tie beauty so directly to a time of day, and it gives the whole thing a calm that the grander Greek entries lack. It is easy to say once you have heard it, and Anu is the obvious short form.
- Origin: Indian
- Meaning: Beautiful morning
- Pronunciation: Ah-NEW-shah
- Variations: Anoush, Anousha
- Namesakes: Anusha Mani, an Indian playback singer in the Bollywood film industry. Anusha Dandekar, an Indian-Australian MTV VJ and TV host.
- Popularity: Anusha last met the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2024, ranking 11,215th with eight girls. Its strongest U.S. year was 2002, and it has been fading here since.
Aoife
Aoife is the spelling that scares people and the sound that wins them over. It comes from the Gaelic aoibh, meaning radiance, and belongs in Celtic mythology to a warrior princess rather than a passive beauty. That is the whole case for it: the meaning is loveliness, the story is strength. You will spell it out for the rest of your life, and most Aoifes decide fairly early that they do not mind. There is no obvious short form, and at two syllables it does not need one. That plainness is a good part of why it has held on.
- Origin: Irish, Gaelic
- Meaning: Beauty
- Pronunciation: IY-Fah
- Variations: Aife, Aoiffe
- Namesakes: Aoife-Grace Moore, an Irish journalist for the Irish Examiner. Aoife O’Rourke, an Irish boxer and gold medalist at the 2019 Women’s European Amateur Boxing Championships.
- Popularity: Aoife is slowly gaining ground in the U.S. It ranked 2,120th in 2025 with 88 girls, up about 63 percent on the previous decade, though it remains rare by federal count.
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty in Greek mythology, and her name originally carried the sense of risen from the sea. She governed fertility as well as desire, which gives the name a warmth that the marble statues do not. This is a maximalist choice and should be treated as one, since nothing about four syllables and a goddess is subtle. Families who love the reference more than the length usually keep Dita or Rodi close by.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Beauty goddess
- Pronunciation: Aeh-frah-DAIY-Tiy
- Variations: Afrodite, Aphrodyte
- Namesakes: Aphrodite Jones, an American author, and host of the TV series True Crime with Aphrodite Jones. Aphrodite Vuitton, an Australian reality TV actress and housemate on Big Brother Australia 4.
- Popularity: Aphrodite is rare but rising in the U.S. It ranked 6,870th in 2025 with 16 girls, up around 88 percent on the previous decade, and its highest annual count came as recently as 2024.
Arabella
Arabella is a name that collected meanings on its travels. The Latin oribilis, meaning prayerful, sits at the root, while German readings give eagle heroine and Spanish gives little Arabian woman. None of them cancels the others out, and the result is a name that sounds ornate and turns out to have real substance underneath. It shares its ending with Annabelle and Isabella but keeps a cooler, more formal edge than either. Bella and Ari are both there when four syllables is too many for a school morning. The length gives it room, and the short forms mean nobody has to use all of it. Sounding aristocratic without sounding stuffy is a narrow line, and this name walks it.
- Origin: English, Latin
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: AA-raa-BEHL-Laa
- Variations: Arabela, Arabelle, Arebela
- Namesakes: Arabella Edge, an Australian writer whose book The Company won a 2001 Commonwealth Writers Prize. Arabella Ng, a Chinese alpine skier who competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
- Popularity: Arabella is climbing in the U.S., ranking 213th in 2025 with 1,423 girls, up about 61 percent on the previous decade. It is gaining abroad too: Ireland’s Central Statistics Office lists it among six new entrants to the country’s top 100 girls’ names in 2025 (1).
Argider
Argider is Basque and built from two plain parts: argi, meaning light, and eder, meaning beautiful. Beautiful light is a lovely thing to hand a child, and Basque names rarely travel, so this one stays genuinely unusual. The G is hard and the stress lands on the first syllable, which is worth practicing before you commit.
- Origin: Basque, Spanish
- Meaning: Beautiful light
- Pronunciation: AHR-gi-Derr
- Popularity: Argider does not appear in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data at all, which is limited to names given to five or more babies in a year. Outside Spain it is barely used.
Astrid
Astrid comes from the Old Norse Astridr, built from ass, meaning god, and fridr, meaning beautiful. Divinely beautiful is a heavy translation for a name that sounds this crisp and modern, which is a large part of the appeal. The Greek astron, meaning star, has attached itself over the years too, so most people hear starlight in it whether or not the etymology agrees. It is short, it is spelled the way it sounds, and it has never once been fussy. The rise behind it has been steady rather than sudden. Norse names have been arriving in force for a decade, and this is the one that reads as least like a costume. It needs no nickname at all.
- Origin: Scandinavian
- Meaning: Divinely beautiful
- Pronunciation: AA-Strahd
- Variations: Astrad, Astread, Astred, Astryd
- Namesakes: Princess Astrid (Astrid Ingeborg), daughter of King Olav V and the Crown Princess Märtha of Norway. Astrid Pereira, a Colombian coffee producer and winner of the Colombian Cup of Excellence in 2015.
- Popularity: Astrid is at its all-time U.S. high on both measures. It ranked 376th in 2025 with 818 girls, the best rank and the largest count in Social Security Administration data going back to 1892, and births are up around 203 percent on the previous decade.
Aysun
Aysun is Turkish and its full sense is a person whose face is as beautiful as the moon, which is the most romantic definition on this page. Moon names carry a particular kind of praise, one about glow rather than features. The spelling is short and the pronunciation is not obvious to English speakers, so expect to say it before people read it. For a family drawn to night-sky names, this is the quiet alternative to Luna.
- Origin: Turkish
- Meaning: Beautiful as the moon
- Pronunciation: EY-Sahn
- Variations: Azym
- Namesakes: Aysun Özbek, a Turkish volleyball player for the Turkish national team. Aysun Aliyeva, an Azerbaijani footballer for Turkish club Çaykur Rizespor.
- Popularity: Aysun barely registers in U.S. records. Only a handful of American babies have been logged under the name since it first cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2023.
Beauregard
Beauregard names several places in France known for their beautiful view, and the word order says exactly that: beau, then regard. In English it has picked up the sense of an admirer, which fits a name this openly ornamental. It carries strong Southern American associations, so it arrives with a bit of period drama attached whether you want that or not. Beau does most of the daily work, and Beau alone has been on plenty of birth certificates.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Beautiful gaze
- Pronunciation: Bow-rey-GAARD
- Variations: Beaureguard, Boregard
- Namesakes: Larry Pitchford (known as Beauregarde), an American wrestler and winner of the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship in 1968.
- Popularity: Beauregard is scarce but growing in the U.S. It ranked 3,521st in 2025 with 32 boys, roughly 160 percent above the previous decade, per Social Security Administration data.
Bella
Bella means beautiful in Spanish, French, Latin, Portuguese and Greek, which is a rare stretch for four letters. It also functions as a diminutive for anything ending in bella, so Isabella, Annabella and Arabella all fold into it. That flexibility is why it stopped being a nickname and became a full name in its own right. It is warm, it is short, and it has been ready for playgrounds and passports for a century. It works as a full legal name and as the affectionate form of a longer one, which is unusual. Parents who love Isabella but not its popularity tend to land here instead.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: BEHL-ah
- Variations: Bela, Belah, Belle
- Namesakes: Bella Abzug, an American social activist, and leader in the women’s movement. Bella Chagall, a Jewish-Belarusian writer and the first wife of painter Marc Chagall.
- Popularity: Bella is holding its ground in the U.S. after a large run. It peaked at 48th in 2010 with 5,136 girls and still ranked 136th in 2025 with 2,129, barely changed on the previous decade, which works out to about one girl in 755.
Bellezza
Bellezza is the Italian word for beauty used straight, with no softening and no diminutive. It began as a surname rooted in the southern Campania region before anyone thought to hand it to a daughter. Using an abstract noun as a first name is a bold move in any language, and this one commits harder than Bella ever does. Belle and Bez are both available if the full word feels like a lot.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: Beauty
- Pronunciation: Beh-LEH-Zaa
- Variations: Belleza
- Popularity: Bellezza is about as rare as U.S. records get. It cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in a single year, 2021, and has not appeared since.
Bellini
Bellini is an Italian surname, the plural form of Bellino, and it belongs to the same family as Bella, Belle and Bello. The ini ending is a diminutive, so the sense lands on little beautiful one rather than beauty outright. Surnames have been moving into first-name territory for years, and this beautiful girl’s name is a musical, unexpected way to do it.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: Little beautiful one
- Pronunciation: Beh-LIY-niy
- Variations: Bellina
- Popularity: Bellini has never appeared in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data, which only lists names given to at least five babies in a year.
Bello
Bello comes from the Latin bellus and started life as a surname for a handsome man before becoming a personal name in medieval times. Very few boys’ names state good looks this plainly, and fewer still do it in two easy syllables. It is the masculine mirror of Bella and shares all of that name’s warmth without any of its popularity.
- Origin: Italian, Spanish
- Meaning: Handsome, beautiful
- Pronunciation: BEH-Low
- Variations: Belo
- Namesakes: Bello Nock, an American daredevil clown and circus performer included in Time magazine’s list of “America’s Best Artists and Entertainers.”
- Popularity: Bello does not appear in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name files, which list only names reaching five or more babies in a year.
Belva
Belva means lovely vista and works as a Latin variant of Bella. It is also a ready-made nickname for a girl named Annabella, Isabella or Belinda, which gives it a useful double life. The V keeps it from sounding like every other Bell name on the list, and it has an early-twentieth-century solidity that suits the current taste for great-grandmother names.
- Origin: Latin, Italian
- Meaning: Beautiful view
- Pronunciation: BEHL-Vaa
- Variations: Belvah
- Namesakes: Belva Davis (born Belvagene Melton), an American journalist and the first female African-American TV reporter on the U.S. West Coast. Belva Plain, an American author whose novel Evergreen topped the New York Times Bestseller List in 1978.
- Popularity: Belva is a name that never quite left. It ranked 485th in 1914 at its peak, and while it sat 15,304th in 2025 with five girls, more than 7,900 American Belvas have been recorded since 1881, per Social Security Administration data.
Belvedere
Belvedere is Italian for beautiful view, from bel and vedere, and architecture claimed it long before parents did. It is the word for the part of a building that exists purely so you can look out. As an old-fashioned name it is undeniably grand, and it is the sort of choice that needs a short form ready on day one. Bel, Ved and Dere all do the job.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: Beautiful view
- Pronunciation: BEHL-vah-Dihr
- Variations: Belveder
- Popularity: Belvedere has never met the Social Security Administration’s five-birth threshold for inclusion in its published U.S. baby name data. It is far more familiar as a building than as a boy.
Bonnie
Bonnie comes from the Scottish bonny, meaning attractive and fair, which itself leans on the French bonne and the Latin bonus, both meaning good. Beautiful and good in the same four letters is a tidy piece of work. It spent decades sounding like a name from an old film and then quietly turned modern again, which is what happens to the best of the vintage revivals. Nothing about it needs shortening, explaining or spelling twice. That is a rarer quality on this list than you might expect.
- Origin: Scottish, Gaelic
- Meaning: Beautiful, pretty
- Pronunciation: BAAN-iy
- Variations: Bonney, Bonni, Bonny
- Namesakes: Bonnie Tyler (born Gaynor Sullivan), a Welsh singer known for the hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in 1980. Bonnie Fuller, a Canadian executive, owner, and editor-in-chief of Hollywood Life.
- Popularity: Bonnie is in the middle of a real U.S. revival. It ranked 396th in 2025 with 785 girls, up about 165 percent on the previous decade, and it is far stronger in Britain, where the Office for National Statistics put it 16th among girls’ names registered in England and Wales in 2024 (2).
Cadhla
Cadhla began as the Irish surname O Cadhla, marking a descendant of the Cadhla family, before it moved to the front of the name. Alongside beautiful it carries comely and graceful, which is a gentler set of meanings than most of the mythological entries here. The spelling gives no clue to English speakers about the sound, so this is a name you commit to knowing you will be teaching it.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: CAADH-Laa
- Popularity: Cadhla is scarce in U.S. records. It last cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2022, and fewer than 40 American girls have been logged under the name in total.
Calixto
Calixto rests on the Greek kallistos, meaning most beautiful, which is the superlative rather than the plain adjective. It picked up a Latin association with calix, a chalice, along the way, and three Spanish popes carried the name, including Saint Callixtus I. That gives it a solemnity that Calisto and Callisto do not have. In Spanish-speaking families it sounds entirely at home, and Cali is the short form that travels.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: Kaa-LIYKS-tow
- Variations: Callisto, Calisto
- Namesakes: Calixto Zaldivar, a Filipino Supreme Court Justice from 1964 to 1974. Calixto Leicea, a Cuban musician and first trumpeter of the group Sonora Matancera.
- Popularity: Calixto is uncommon in the U.S. but trending up. It ranked 4,885th in 2025 with 20 boys, its largest annual count on record and roughly 54 percent above the previous decade.
Callidora
Callidora means golden-voiced beauty, and in Greek it also reads as gift of beauty, which is two ideas for the price of one name. It is a variant of Cailida and it is unapologetically long. Four syllables and an ancient Greek pedigree will not suit every household, but Calle and Dora are both sitting inside it if you want the sound without the ceremony.
- Origin: Spanish, Greek
- Meaning: Golden-voiced beauty
- Pronunciation: Kae-liy-DOR-ah
- Variations: Calidora, Callidorah, Callidorra, Callydora, Calydora
- Popularity: Callidora is about as rare as U.S. records get. It cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor once, in 2021, at 15,706th, and has not returned since.
Callista
Callista is built on the Greek kalos, meaning fair, and lands on most beautiful once the superlative ending is added. In Greek myth Calista was transformed into a she-bear and set in the sky as the Great Bear, which is a rare case of a beauty name ending up as a constellation. That story gives it a wildness the smooth sound does not advertise. Callie is the obvious short form and the one most Callistas end up answering to. It is the rare beauty name that comes with a story about survival rather than admiration.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Most beautiful
- Pronunciation: KaeL-IHS-taa
- Variations: Calista, Calysta
- Namesakes: Calista Flockhart, an American actress known for the Fox TV series Ally McBeal (1997 to 2002). Callista Chapola-Chimombo, the First Lady of the Republic of Malawi from 2010 to 2012.
- Popularity: Callista is quietly retreating in the U.S. It ranked 3,585th in 2025 with 42 girls, down about 27 percent on the previous decade, and its strongest year was 1999.
Caoimhin
Caoimhin joins caomh, meaning dear and noble, to gein, meaning birth, so the whole name reads as beautifully born. It also means kind in Irish, which is a gentler thing to wish on a boy than good looks. This is the original that Kevin came from, and choosing it over the anglicized form is a deliberate act. Expect to spell it, expect to say it, and expect a lot of people to love it once they hear it.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Beautiful, handsome
- Pronunciation: KAAYM-Hihn
- Variations: Caoimhghín
- Namesakes: Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, an Irish fiddler whose album Kitty Lie Over was named the No.1 Traditional Album of 2003 by the Irish Echo newspaper.
- Popularity: Caoimhin has never appeared in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data, which lists only names given to at least five babies in a year. The anglicized Kevin, by contrast, is one of the most recorded boys’ names in the country.
Carolina
Carolina descends from the Latin name Carolus, a form of Charles meaning free man, which is a long way from prettiest woman of the universe. A French reading adds song of happiness, and between the two the name ends up sounding both stately and warm. Four syllables give it real presence at a graduation ceremony. Carrie, Lina and Caro are all inside it for the years before that. It also crosses between English and Spanish without changing shape, which few long names do.
- Origin: Spanish, Latin
- Meaning: Prettiest woman of the universe
- Pronunciation: Kaer-ah-LEE-nah
- Variations: Caroleina, Carolinah, Carolyna
- Namesakes: Carolina Gomez, an Argentine cyclo-cross cyclist who competed at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships. Carolina Östberg, a Swedish opera singer with the Royal Swedish Opera.
- Popularity: Carolina is steady in the U.S. It ranked 405th in 2025 with 769 girls, close to where it sat a decade ago, and nearly 48,000 American Carolinas have been recorded since 1880, per Social Security Administration data.
Cavanaugh
Cavanaugh started as the Irish surname Caomhanach, meaning son of Caomhan, and picked up the readings comely and chubby on the way to becoming a first name. Born handsome is the meaning that gets quoted, and it is hard to think of a more generous thing to say about a newborn. It is long, it is unmistakably Irish, and it shortens to Cav without losing anything.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Born handsome
- Pronunciation: KAEV-ah-Naow
- Variations: Cavanagh
- Popularity: Cavanaugh is a rare U.S. entry. It ranked 12,371st in 2025 with five boys, and fewer than 60 have been logged in total since it first appeared in Social Security Administration data in 2002.
Cemile
Cemile is the Turkish form of the Arabic jamilah, meaning beautiful and radiant. What sets it apart from the rest of this list is the specific sense it carries: beauty in behavior, closer to kindness than to appearance. That makes it one of the few names here that praises a child for something she can actually control. The C is pronounced like a J, which is the single thing to teach people up front.
- Origin: Turkish, Arabic
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: JEH-mih-Leh
- Namesakes: Cemile Sultan, an Ottoman princess and the daughter of Sultan Abdulmejid I. Cemile Giousouf, a German member of the Bundestag from 2013 until 2017.
- Popularity: Cemile is scarce in U.S. records. It last cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2018, and only a dozen or so American girls have been logged under the name.
Cosima
Cosima traces to the Greek Kosmas, meaning order and decency, and it is the same root that gives English the idea of a cosmos. Universal harmony is the gloss that usually gets attached, which makes it a name about the beauty of things being in their right place. It sounds Italian, reads as European and has none of the frilliness its length suggests. Cosi and Mimi are the natural short forms.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Beauty
- Pronunciation: Kow-SIY-maa
- Variations: Cosema, Cosiema, Cosyma, Cozima
- Namesakes: Cosima Diamond, the daughter of British TV chef Nigella Lawson. Cosima De Vito, an Australian pop singer whose song “When the War Is Over” (2004) reached No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart.
- Popularity: Cosima is rare in the U.S. and moving up. It ranked 6,171st in 2025 with 19 girls, roughly 98 percent above the previous decade, per Social Security Administration data.
Cosmo
Cosmo began as an Italian surname carrying the sense of decency, and it became the English form of Cosimo after Cosimo III de Medici. Order and beauty are the two ideas sitting inside it, which is an unusual pairing for a boy’s name that sounds this playful. For a generation of viewers it will always belong to Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld, and that association has done it no harm at all. Two syllables, a strong finish, and no shortening required. It lands somewhere between vintage and space-age, which is a useful place for a boy’s name to sit.
- Origin: Italian, Greek
- Meaning: Beauty, order
- Pronunciation: KAHZ-Mow
- Variations: Cozmo, Cozmos, Cosimo
- Namesakes: Cosmo Landesman, a British-American journalist who founded the Modern Review magazine. Cosmo Maciocia, a Canadian member of the National Assembly of Quebec.
- Popularity: Cosmo is climbing hard in the U.S. It ranked 1,934th in 2025 with 80 boys, up about 236 percent on the previous decade and its highest annual count came in 2022.
Eavan
Eavan is the anglicized form of the Gaelic name Aoibheann, meaning beautiful sheen. A Hebrew reading brings in he was gracious, which is how it ends up sharing ground with Evan. That gives it a genuinely unisex feel without the harder edge Evan has. It is the far easier way into the Aoibheann sound for anyone who does not fancy the Irish spelling.
- Origin: Irish, Hebrew
- Meaning: Fair one, beautiful
- Pronunciation: AY-Vaen
- Variations: Evan, Ebyn
- Namesakes: Eavan Boland, an Irish poet and recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1994.
- Popularity: Eavan is uncommon in the U.S. It last met the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2021, and its best showing came in 2004.
Ece
Ece comes from the Turkic ece, meaning mother, and carries the sense of a beautiful woman or a queen. In Turkish mythology, Ece is another name for Umay, goddess of the earth and fertility, so the beauty here is bound up with motherhood rather than romance. Three letters, two syllables, and a great deal packed into both. It is said EH-jeh, which nobody guesses on the first try.
- Origin: Turkish
- Meaning: Beautiful woman, queen
- Pronunciation: EH-jeh
- Namesakes: Ece Ege, a Turkish-French fashion designer and founder of the pret-a-porter line Dice Kayek. Ece Temelkuran, a Turkish TV presenter on Haberturk TV from 2010 to 2011.
- Popularity: Ece is rare in the U.S. and slowly gaining. It ranked 11,196th in 2025 with eight girls, up around 24 percent on the previous decade, and its largest count came in 2009.
Eileen
Eileen is the Scottish form whose Irish equivalent is Aileen, and the name has been read as connected to an inlet, meaning of water or island. An Arabic strand gives it torch of light, and beautiful and desired come along with that. Few names in this collection have gathered quite so many origins without losing their shape. It is a mid-century classic finding its second wind, and Leenie is there when Eileen feels too formal. Few names this simple have gathered quite so much history behind them.
- Origin: Arabic, Gaelic
- Meaning: Beautiful, desired
- Pronunciation: Ay-LEEN
- Variations: Eileane, Eileene, Eiliene, Eilleen
- Namesakes: Eileen Ford, an American model agency executive and co-founder of Ford Models. Princess Eileen of Albania, an Englishwoman who became the wife of Carol Victor, Hereditary Prince of Albania.
- Popularity: Eileen is turning back up in the U.S. It ranked 654th in 2025 with 437 girls, up about 31 percent on the previous decade, though it is far from its 1943 peak of 68th. Nearly 190,000 have been recorded since 1882, per Social Security Administration data.
Elu
Elu is a Native American name meaning beautiful and fair, and in the Zuni tradition of the southwestern U.S. it carries full of grace. Hebrew and Sanskrit each add their own readings, unmixed among them, which makes for an unusually wide reach for two syllables. It is short, gender-neutral and almost unheard of on a class list. Nothing about it needs abbreviating.
- Origin: Native American
- Meaning: Beautiful, fair
- Pronunciation: IH-Luw
- Variations: Eloo, Elue
- Popularity: Elu is one of the rarest names here by U.S. count. It cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor once, in 2021, and has not returned since.
Fritha
Fritha is a Norse name meaning fair and beautiful, and Old Norse also gives it strong peace. It works as a short form of Frithswith and sits close to Frida without being mistaken for it. The TH sound in the middle is soft, which is what keeps this from feeling severe. For parents drawn to Norse names who have watched Astrid and Freya fill up the nursery, this is the one nobody else has.
- Origin: Norse
- Meaning: Fair, beautiful
- Pronunciation: FRIH-Dhah
- Variations: Firtha, Freyth
- Namesakes: Fritha Goodey, a British actress known for the film About a Boy (2002).
- Popularity: Fritha is exceptionally rare in the U.S. It has cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in a single year, 1982, and has not appeared in the published data since.
Fumiko
Fumiko is a classic among Japanese girl names, and the readings that attach to it are generous: child of treasured beauty, child of beautiful wealth, child of abundant beauty. The ko ending means child and marks a whole generation of Japanese names built the same way. It is formal in the best sense, the kind of name that suits a woman as well as a girl. Fumi is the everyday version.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Beautiful, child
- Pronunciation: FUW-miy-Kow
- Namesakes: Fumiko Okuno, a Japanese synchronized swimmer and bronze medalist at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Fumiko Saiga, the first female Japanese judge on the International Criminal Court.
- Popularity: Fumiko has largely left the U.S. books. It last met the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 1986, and its strongest year by far was 1923, when it ranked 956th.
Harika
Harika refers to the goddess Parvati, associated with beauty in Hindu culture, and Turkish adds wonderful and a superior woman. Miracle sits alongside beautiful in the meaning, so the name asks for more than a pretty face. It is three even syllables with the stress in the middle, and it sounds decisive rather than delicate.
- Origin: Hindi
- Meaning: Beautiful, a miracle
- Pronunciation: Haa-RIY-kaa
- Variations: Hareeka, Hareekah, Harikah, Haryka, Harykah
- Namesakes: Harika Dronavalli, an Indian chess player and FIDE Grandmaster. Harika Narayan, an Indian Tollywood playback singer, and finalist in the National Hindi Singing Competition Sing Dil Se.
- Popularity: Harika is rare in U.S. records. It last cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2019, down roughly 23 percent on the previous decade, with its best showing in 2005.
Hassan
Hassan means handsome and beautiful in Arabic and also carries benefactor, which is why it is associated with a doer of good. It was borne by the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, so this classic Muslim name arrives with real weight behind it. Two syllables, no spelling debate in most of the world, and a meaning that covers both looks and character. It also travels without translation, which almost nothing else here manages.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Handsome, beautiful
- Pronunciation: Haa-SAEN
- Variations: Hasan, Hasson
- Namesakes: Prince Hassan bin Talal, a member of the Jordanian royal family and Crown Prince from 1965 to 1999. Hassan Ali Maatouk, a Lebanese footballer and captain of the Lebanon national team.
- Popularity: Hassan is at its all-time U.S. high. It ranked 626th in 2025 with 447 boys, the best rank and the largest count in Social Security Administration data since 1923, up about 39 percent on the previous decade.
Hermosa
Hermosa is simply the Spanish word for beautiful, the feminine form of hermoso, and it descends from the Latin forma. Using the adjective itself as a name is direct in a way that few entries here manage. It will read as a place name to some Americans and as a compliment to every Spanish speaker who hears it. Mosa and Hermie are both workable if the full word feels too on the nose.
- Origin: Spanish, Latin
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: Ehr-MOW-saa
- Variations: Hermosah, Hermossa, Hermoza
- Popularity: Hermosa is rare in the U.S. It last met the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2024, and fewer than 30 American girls have been logged under the name since it first appeared in 2017.
Indira
Indira is drawn from the Hindu Indra, god of heaven and thunderstorms, and it is one of the thousand names of Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and beauty. That pairing, splendor and prosperity, gives it a reach beyond looks. It is smooth to say, it has been carried by formidable women, and it never sounds like a nickname. Indie is the modern short form and it works.
- Origin: Sanskrit, Hindi
- Meaning: Beauty, splendid
- Pronunciation: Ehn-DIY-raa
- Variations: Indeera, Indeerah, Indeira, Indirah
- Namesakes: Indira Varma, a British actress known for the TV series Game of Thrones. Indira Hridayesh, an Indian politician on the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council from 1974 to 2000.
- Popularity: Indira holds a small, steady place in U.S. records. It ranked 3,797th in 2025 with 39 girls, close to its position a decade earlier, and it has been on the books since 1966.
Irvin
Irvin most likely comes from the surname Irvine, read as ir, meaning green, and afron, meaning water. Handsome and fair of face attached themselves along the way, which is how a green-water place name ended up on a list about beauty. It is an early twentieth-century name with a clipped, no-nonsense sound, and it has aged into something almost fresh again. Irv is short, blunt and completely unbothered.
- Origin: Scottish, Gaelic
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: ER-Vihn
- Variations: Irven, Irvine, Irvyn, Irvyne
- Namesakes: Irvin Duguid, a Scottish musician, and member of the rock band Stiltskin. Irvin Yeaworth Jr., a German-American director, best known for the film The Blob.
- Popularity: Irvin has slipped a long way in the U.S. It ranked 164th back in 1916 and sat 1,937th in 2025 with 80 boys, down about 55 percent on the previous decade, though nearly 40,000 have been recorded overall.
Jacinta
Jacinta takes its name from a precious stone and rests on the Greek hyakinthos, meaning hyacinth. It is also the Spanish name for that flower, so the name covers gemstones and gardens at once. Beauty by way of botany is a softer route than the goddess names on this list take. Jaci and Cinta both come out of it easily.
- Origin: Greek, Spanish
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: Haa-SIYN-Taa
- Variations: Jacintah, Jacynta, Jazinta
- Namesakes: Jacinta Tynan, an Australian news presenter on Sky News Australia. Jacinta Gray, a New Zealand road cyclist who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: Jacinta is gaining in the U.S. It ranked 4,397th in 2025 with 32 girls, up roughly 55 percent on the previous decade, per Social Security Administration data.
Jaeda
Jaeda is a variation of Jade with an Arabic sense of long-necked beauty behind it, and goodness sits in there too. Good and beautiful woman is the full reading, which is more generous than the single-word meanings most of these names carry. The spelling puts distance between it and the far more common Jada without changing the sound. Names rise and fall on fashion rather than merit, and this one is well overdue a second look.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Long-necked beauty
- Pronunciation: JHEH-Dah
- Variations: Jada, Jayda, Jadah
- Namesakes: Jaeda Miller, a Canadian actress known for the PBS animated series Ready Jet Go!
- Popularity: Jaeda has fallen further than any other name on this list. It ranked 831st at its 2007 peak and sat 10,436th in 2025 with nine girls, down 81 percent on the previous decade, per Social Security Administration data.
Jaffa
Jaffa appears as Yaffa in Hebrew and means beautiful and lovely in both Hebrew and Arabic. It is also an ancient Phoenician port city, ruled in turn by Israelites, Arabs and Turks, and famous enough for its oranges that the fruit still carries the name. A name that is simultaneously a compliment, a city and a variety of orange is doing a lot of work. It is unisex, it is short, and almost nobody in the U.S. is using it.
- Origin: Hebrew, Arabic
- Meaning: Beautiful, lovely
- Pronunciation: JHAEF-aa
- Popularity: Jaffa has never appeared in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data, which lists only names given to five or more babies in a year.
Jamil
Jamil derives from the Arabic jamila, meaning beautiful, and grace has attached to it as well. It travels as Gamil and as the Turkish Cemil, so a boy with this name is recognizable across a great deal of the world. Two syllables with the stress at the end give it a confident finish, which is part of why this attractive name has stayed in use for so long.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Beautiful, handsome
- Pronunciation: Jhaa-MIYL
- Variations: Jamille, Jamill, Jamile
- Namesakes: Jamil al-Zahawi, an Iraqi poet known for his defense of women’s rights. Jamil al-Ulshi, a Syrian politician and two-time prime minister of Syria.
- Popularity: Jamil is easing back in the U.S. It ranked 2,695th in 2025 with 48 boys, down about 37 percent on the previous decade, with its strongest rank coming in 1978.
Jolie
Jolie comes from the French joli, describing someone agreeable, and it also carries merry. Most people meet it as Angelina Jolie’s surname, which has kept it visible without turning it into a trend. As a first name it is light, French and completely unpretentious, and it sits well next to Rosalie and Elodie. Jo is right there if a child wants something plainer. It has stayed in steady use without ever becoming a trend, which is about the best a name can hope for.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Pretty, beautiful
- Pronunciation: JHOW-Liy
- Variations: Joely, Jolee, Joley, Joli, Joly
- Namesakes: Jolie Rickman, an American musician known for political songs with social activism themes. Jolie Gabor, Countess de Szigethy, a Hungarian-American socialite and mother of Zsa Zsa Gabor.
- Popularity: Jolie is steady in the U.S. It ranked 1,030th in 2025 with 243 girls, close to where it stood a decade earlier, with its best rank recorded in 2008.
Kauno
Kauno rests on the Finnish kauneus, meaning beauty, and it is scarcely heard outside Finland. Finnish names travel less than Scandinavian ones do, which is exactly what makes this feel undiscovered rather than dated. The vowels are open and the stress lands on the first syllable, so it is easier to say than it looks.
- Origin: Finnish
- Meaning: Beauty
- Pronunciation: KAO-Now
- Namesakes: Kauno Kleemola, a Finnish politician and Deputy Prime Minister in 1961.
- Popularity: Kauno does not appear in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name files, which cover only names given to at least five babies in a year.
Kavanaugh
Kavanaugh comes from the Gaelic surname Caomhanach, meaning son of Caomhan, and it shares that root with Kevin. Born handsome is the meaning that follows it around. It is the sharper-looking cousin of Cavanaugh, and the K gives it a modern edge that the C spelling does not have. Kav does the daily work.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Born handsome
- Pronunciation: Kae-VAH-Nah
- Variations: Kavanagh
- Popularity: Kavanaugh is a one-year entry in U.S. records. It met the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2004 and has not appeared in the published data since.
Kazumi
Kazumi pairs beauty with harmony, and harmony is the meaning that usually gets top billing in Japanese. It belongs to the same family as Kazuki and Kazuo and stands perfectly well on its own. Unisex in practice, three clean syllables, and no letter in it that an English speaker has to guess at.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Beautiful peace
- Pronunciation: KAA-Zuw-miy
- Variations: Kasumi
- Namesakes: Kazumi Onishi, a Japanese figure skater, and a four-time Japanese national champion. Kazumi Yamashita, a Japanese manga artist and winner of the 2003 Kodansha Manga Award.
- Popularity: Kazumi is scarce in U.S. records. It last cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2020, and its strongest year was 1927.
Keefe
Keefe began as the Irish surname O’Keeffe, built on caomh, meaning kind, with gentle and lovable following close behind. Handsome and noble are the meanings that landed on the first name. It is one syllable, it rhymes with leaf, and it has none of the softness the meaning suggests. For anyone who likes Irish surnames as first names but finds Cavanaugh and Kavanaugh a mouthful, this is the compact option.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Handsome, noble
- Pronunciation: KIYF
- Variations: Keafe, Keeffe, Keif, Keiff, Kiefe
- Namesakes: Keefe Cato, an American baseball player for the Cincinnati Reds in 1983 and 1984. Keefe Brasselle, an American actor in The Eddie Cantor Story (1953) film.
- Popularity: Keefe has all but left the U.S. books. It last met the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2012, and its best year was 1963, when it ranked 1,365th.
Keely
Keely comes from the Gaelic cadhla, meaning beautiful and graceful, and it may also connect to the Irish cael, meaning narrow and slender. That gives it a lightness the spelling does not telegraph. It rode the wave of ee-ending Irish girl names in the 1990s and has been quiet since, which is usually the point at which a name becomes interesting again. Kee is the short form nobody has to be taught.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: KEE-Lee
- Variations: Keeley, Keelie, Keylee
- Namesakes: Keely Smith (born Dorothy Keely), an American jazz singer who performed and recorded with her husband, Louis Prima.
- Popularity: Keely has dropped off sharply in the U.S. It ranked 455th at its 1997 peak and sat 2,737th in 2025 with 63 girls, down about 65 percent on the previous decade.
Keeva
Keeva means beautiful and gentle, with kind and precious close behind in Gaelic. Spelled Kiva it has a Hebrew reading of protected, so the name gathers up a whole set of good wishes. It is the phonetic way into the Irish Caoimhe, which is the same problem Aoife and Cadhla present and the same solution. Two syllables, spelled the way it sounds, and almost nobody else in the class will have it.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Beautiful, gentle
- Pronunciation: KEE-vah
- Namesakes: Keeva Fennelly, an Irish camogie player who competed in the 2009 All Ireland camogie final.
- Popularity: Keeva is rare in the U.S. but gaining. It ranked 7,679th in 2025 with 14 girls, up about 48 percent on the previous decade, per Social Security Administration data.
Kenneth
Kenneth is the anglicized form of the Gaelic Cainnech and Cinaed, and comely is one of the meanings that came along with it. Gaelic also gives it born of fire, so the name manages handsome and fierce in the same breath. It is one of the very few names on this list that most Americans would call ordinary, which is exactly what makes its meaning a surprise. Ken and Kenny have carried it for generations and will keep doing so. Most American families have two or three Kens somewhere in the tree. That familiarity is either the whole reason to use it or the whole reason not to.
- Origin: Scottish, Gaelic
- Meaning: Handsome, beautiful
- Pronunciation: KEHN-Nehth
- Variations: Kennath, Kennyth, Keneth, Kennith
- Namesakes: Kenneth Branagh, a British actor, and filmmaker, listed No. 20 on The Irish Times list of Ireland’s greatest film actors. Kenneth Tynan, an English theater critic at The Observer.
- Popularity: Kenneth is a mid-century giant in slow retreat. It ranked 13th in 1939 and 294th in 2025 with 1,148 boys, down about 35 percent on the previous decade, yet more than 1.28 million American Kenneths have been recorded since 1880, per Social Security Administration data.
Kevin
Kevin comes from the Irish Caoimhin, built from coem, meaning handsome, and gein, meaning birth. Saint Kevin is a patron saint of Ireland, which gave the name a long head start before the twentieth century made it a household staple. Almost nobody who meets a Kevin thinks about what it means, and handsome by birth is a fine thing to have been carrying around unnoticed. It is short, it is universal, and it needs no explanation anywhere.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Handsome
- Pronunciation: KEHV-ihn
- Variations: Kevinn, Keven, Kevyn
- Namesakes: Kevin Bridges, a Scottish stand-up comedian with his own 2012 TV series Kevin Bridges: What’s the Story? Kevin Molino, a Trinidadian footballer for the Trinidad and Tobago national team.
- Popularity: Kevin is a former chart-topper settling down. It ranked 11th in 1963 and 221st in 2025 with 1,628 boys, down about 63 percent on the previous decade, with more than 1.18 million recorded since 1912. It is one of the five names charted above.
Kitoko
Kitoko is used mostly in Africa and means beautiful, with handsome man as a second reading. Little else is documented about it, which is honest to say rather than something to paper over. It works for a boy or a girl, the rhythm is even across three syllables, and it is genuinely unfamiliar in the U.S.
- Origin: African
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: Kiy-TOW-kow
- Variations: Kytoko
- Namesakes: Kitoko (born Patrick Bibarwa), a Rwandan Afrobeats and hip-hop singer who released Ifaranga in 2010.
- Popularity: Kitoko has never appeared in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data, which lists only names given to at least five babies in a year.
Kyomi
Kyomi joins the Japanese kiyo, meaning to purify or cleanse, with mi, meaning beauty, so the whole thing reads as pure and beautiful. Clean and clear belong to it as well. Very few names tie beauty to clarity rather than ornament, and that is what gives this one its calm. It arrives ready-made with Kyo as a short form.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Pure and beautiful
- Pronunciation: Kiy-YOW-Miy
- Variations: Kiyomi
- Namesakes: Kyomi Hirata, a Japanese foil fencer who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: Kyomi is the fastest-rising name on this list by a wide margin. It ranked 548th in 2025 with 551 girls, both records for the name, with births up about 1,950 percent on the previous decade, per Social Security Administration data.
Leinani
Leinani is a Pacific Islander name built from the Hawaiian lei, meaning flower, and lani, meaning royal or heaven. Beautiful child and heavenly blossoms are both fair readings. Hawaiian names carry their images right on the surface, and this one puts a garland and a sky in four syllables. Lani on its own is a name plenty of families stop at.
- Origin: Hawaiian
- Meaning: Beautiful child
- Pronunciation: Lay-NAA-niy
- Namesakes: Leinani Melville, an American author known for the book Children of the Rainbow.
- Popularity: Leinani is rare in the U.S. and rising. It last cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2024 with 10 girls, roughly double its rate in the previous decade.
Linda
Linda is best known as a form of the Spanish lindo, meaning beautiful and cute, and German adds lind, meaning tender. It has also been tied to the linden tree, which suits a name this sturdy. No name on this list has ever been as popular as Linda was, so a baby Linda today reads as a deliberate choice rather than a default. That is a genuinely different thing than it was seventy years ago. The sound itself never dated. Only the association did.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Beautiful, pretty
- Pronunciation: LIHN-dah
- Variations: Linnda, Lynda
- Namesakes: Linda Burney, an Australian House of Representatives member. Linda Hamilton, an American actress, best known for the Terminator film series.
- Popularity: Linda was once the most popular girls’ name in the country. It ranked first in 1947 and peaked at 96,220 girls in 1948; in 2025 it ranked 902nd with 294. More than 1.45 million American Lindas have been recorded, per Social Security Administration data.
Lydia
Lydia comes from the Greek ludia, read as noble one and as from Lydia, a region of the ancient world. Dark-haired maiden is a third reading, and it has never stopped anyone naming a fair-haired daughter Lydia. It has that rare quality of feeling biblical, classical and current all at once. Lyd and Liddy exist, though most Lydias never bother with either. Being the only name here inside the U.S. top 100 makes it the safe choice of the bunch, and safe is not an insult.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Beautiful one
- Pronunciation: LIHD-iy-Ah
- Variations: Lidiya, Lydea, Lidia
- Namesakes: Lydia Hearst-Shaw, an American heiress and the great-granddaughter of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. Lydia Stahl, a Soviet-born secret agent for Soviet Military Intelligence in the 1920s and 1930s.
- Popularity: Lydia is the only name on this list currently inside the U.S. top 100. It ranked 92nd in 2025 with 2,692 girls, roughly one in every 597, and it has been on the books since 1880, per Social Security Administration data. It appears on the chart above.
Mabs
Mabs is an anglicized form of Medb, the queen who turns up in Irish literature as the queen of the fairies. Beautiful lover is the meaning usually attached, with intoxicating and happiness alongside it. The single syllable and the closing S make it look like a nickname and function as a full name, which is a trick very few names manage.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Beautiful lover
- Pronunciation: MAEBS
- Variations: Mabe, Maebh
- Namesakes: Mabs Howth, an Irish actress known for The Christian (1911) film.
- Popularity: Mabs does not appear in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data, which covers only names given to five or more babies in a year.
Maliha
Maliha derives from the Arabic malahah, describing a state of being gorgeous or a state of grace. It also carries well-spoken and, most memorably, a woman with a happy, glowing face. That last reading is the one worth keeping, because it describes a person rather than a feature. Three syllables, soft consonants, and Mali as the ready short form.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Attractive, beautiful
- Pronunciation: Mah-LEE-ha
- Namesakes: Maliha Khan, a Pakistani Member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. Maliha Masood, a Pakistani-American writer of the travel memoir Zaatar Days, Henna Nights.
- Popularity: Maliha is uncommon in the U.S. and slipping. It ranked 5,340th in 2025 with 24 girls, down roughly 36 percent on the previous decade, with its best rank in 2009.
Mckenna
Mckenna began as a thirteenth-century Scottish surname meaning beloved of Aodh, and child of the handsome one is the reading that puts it on this list. It also means fiery love, which is a lot of heat for a name most people file next to McKenzie. It is unisex on paper and used mostly for girls in practice. Kenna is the half of it that has quietly become a name of its own.
- Origin: Gaelic
- Meaning: Child of the handsome one
- Pronunciation: Mihk-KEHN-naa
- Namesakes: Mckenna Grace, an American actress named one of the top 30 stars under age 18 by The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 and 2019.
- Popularity: Mckenna is easing back in the U.S. It peaked at 177th in 2002 with 1,795 girls and ranked 410th in 2025 with 758, down about 19 percent on the previous decade.
Mei
Mei is the Chinese version of May, and beautiful is the meaning it is best known for, with gorgeous and plum alongside. Latin adds great one, which is a coincidence rather than a connection. Three letters is about as economical as a name gets, and it pairs with nearly any surname or middle name you put beside it. It is also one of the few names here that a two-year-old can write. Three letters and no ambiguity is a gift you only appreciate later.
- Origin: Chinese
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: MEH
- Variations: Meiko
- Namesakes: Mei Fong, a Malaysian-Chinese-American staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Mei Miura, a Japanese ice hockey player for the Japanese national team.
- Popularity: Mei is at its U.S. high. It ranked 1,744th in 2025 with 117 girls, the best rank and largest count in Social Security Administration records for the name, up about 86 percent on the previous decade.
Memphis
Memphis is the Greek form of the Egyptian Menefer, the ancient capital whose name meant enduring and beautiful. It is also, for most Americans, the city where Elvis Presley lived at Graceland, and there is no separating the name from that. Abode of the good is a further reading attached to it. Ancient capital, southern city and boy’s name at once is a heavy load for two syllables, and somehow it carries it. Whether it suits your child comes down mostly to how you feel about the city.
- Origin: Greek, Egyptian
- Meaning: Enduring and beautiful
- Pronunciation: MEHM-Fihs
- Variations: Memphus, Memphys
- Namesakes: Memphis Depay, a Dutch footballer for the Netherlands national team. Memphis Eve Hewson, an Irish actress known for the 2014 Steven Soderbergh series The Knick.
- Popularity: Memphis is climbing steadily in the U.S. It ranked 640th in 2025 with 437 boys, up about 90 percent on the previous decade, with its highest count logged in 2021.
Menefer
Menefer, more properly Mennefer, was the ancient Egyptian capital that the Greeks renamed Memphis. The beautiful city is the reading that comes with it, and established and beautiful is the fuller sense. Choosing this over Memphis means choosing the original over the famous descendant, which some families will find irresistible and others will find one step too far.
- Origin: Egyptian
- Meaning: Established and beautiful
- Pronunciation: MEH-nih-Fer
- Variations: Menefar, Menefir, Menefur, Menefyr
- Popularity: Menefer has never appeared in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data, which lists only names given to at least five babies in a year.
Mika
Mika turns up in Hungarian, Japanese, Russian and Finnish, and beautiful fragrance is the reading that follows it around. In Japan it belongs to girls; in Scandinavian countries it is a short form of Mikael. Very few names are genuinely at home in that many places without being altered. Two syllables, no spelling problem, and it fits whoever you are expecting.
- Origin: Japanese, Scandinavian
- Meaning: Beautiful, good
- Pronunciation: MIY-Kaa
- Variations: Micha
- Namesakes: Michael Penniman Jr. (known as Mika), a Lebanese-born British singer-songwriter, named the number-one breakthrough act of 2007 in a BBC poll. Mika Zibanejad, a Swedish ice hockey player for the New York Rangers.
- Popularity: Mika holds steady in the U.S. It ranked 1,641st in 2025 with 127 girls, effectively unchanged on the previous decade, with its best rank in 2017.
Misaki
Misaki means beautiful bloom and, in Japan, also refers to supernatural spirits ranging from gods to demons. Ocean, chronicle and flower are further readings, which is an unusually wide spread even by Japanese standards. A name that can mean a blossom and a spirit in the same breath is not a quiet one. It is three syllables, evenly stressed, and easy for English speakers once they have heard it.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Beautiful bloom
- Pronunciation: Miy-SAA-Kiy
- Namesakes: Misaki Iwasa, a Japanese pop star and member of the Japanese idol group AKB48. Misaki Kumakura, a Japanese rower who competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: Misaki is the rarest of the names here that still register in the federal data. It ranked 16,500th in 2025, roughly one girl in 333,000, and its strongest year was 2003.
Miya
Miya means beautiful in Japanese and also carries temple or shrine, and relax. It is tied as well to mian, a traditional Persian title. Two syllables, a soft landing, and a meaning rooted in sacred places rather than appearance. It sits comfortably alongside Mia and Maya without being either of them.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: MIY-Yaa
- Variations: Miyah
- Namesakes: Miya Cech, an American actress, appearing in the film Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2019). Miya Tachibana, a Japanese synchronized swimmer and silver medalist at the 2004 Olympics.
- Popularity: Miya is drifting down in the U.S. It ranked 1,681st in 2025 with 123 girls, down about 22 percent on the previous decade, with its highest count recorded in 2014.
Miyeon
Miyeon is Korean for beautiful, with kind-hearted and pleasing as further readings. Korean given names have grown far more visible outside Korea in recent years, and this is one of the softer options among them. The two syllables run together quickly, closer to MEE-yon than the spelling suggests.
- Origin: Korean
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: MEE-Yon
- Namesakes: Miyeon (born Cho Mi Yeon), a South Korean singer and member of the South Korean girl group (G)I-DLE.
- Popularity: Miyeon has never met the Social Security Administration’s five-birth threshold for inclusion in its published U.S. baby name data, so it has no federal ranking here.
Miyo
Miyo means beautiful child, and because Japanese characters can be arranged differently, the same sound also yields night, pearl and light. That is the quiet pleasure of Japanese names: the sound is fixed and the meaning is chosen. Two syllables, no ambiguity in English pronunciation, and a rarity here that has nothing to do with difficulty.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Beautiful child
- Pronunciation: MIY-Yow
- Namesakes: Miyo Ichikawa, a Japanese curler and 2012 Pacific-Asia silver medallist. Miyo Okamoto, a Japanese footballer, and coach of the Thailand women’s national football team.
- Popularity: Miyo has largely left the U.S. books. It last cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2008, and its strongest showing was in 1924.
Naava
Naava is Hebrew for beautiful, with delightful and pretty alongside it. Spelled Nava it doubles as a diminutive of Navit. The extra A is the whole difference, and it slows the name down in a way that suits it. Short, warm, and almost never heard on an American playground.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: NAAH-Vaa
- Variations: Nava
- Popularity: Naava is rare in the U.S. and edging up. It ranked 7,041st in 2025 with 16 girls, roughly 39 percent above the previous decade, per Social Security Administration data.
Nohea
Nohea is Hawaiian and means handsome and beautiful in equal measure, which is why it works for either child. It may be a short form of Nohealani. Hawaiian names built on no and hea tend to describe how something looks rather than what it is, and this one is pure praise. Three syllables with the stress in the middle, and no need to shorten it.
- Origin: Hawaiian
- Meaning: Handsome
- Pronunciation: Now-HHEH-aa
- Popularity: Nohea is rare in the U.S. and gaining slowly. It ranked 14,456th in 2025 with six girls, about 52 percent above the previous decade, with its best year in 2016.
Nomi
Nomi rests on the Hebrew no’am, meaning pleasantness, and na’am, meaning to please, with delightful following on. It sits close to Naomi without being a shortening of it, and it has the crispness that two-syllable Hebrew names do so well. For parents circling Naomi and finding it too popular, this is the sideways step.
- Origin: Hebrew, Japanese
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: NOW-Miy
- Variations: Noami, Noemie
- Namesakes: Nomi Prins, an American author who writes about Wall Street. Nomi Ruiz, an American singer, known for her work as Jessica 6.
- Popularity: Nomi is climbing fast from a small base. It ranked 2,883rd in 2025 with 59 girls, up about 347 percent on the previous decade, with its highest annual count in 2024.
Omarosa
Omarosa means my beautiful and precious child, with graceful child as a further reading, and it is one of the very few names anywhere that addresses the parent’s feeling rather than the child’s appearance. Nigerian names often work that way, packing a whole sentence into a single word. Four syllables is a lot, and Rosa is sitting right there inside it.
- Origin: African, Nigerian
- Meaning: My beautiful child
- Pronunciation: OW-maa-RAO-Saa
- Variations: Omarose
- Namesakes: Omarosa Manigault, an American reality TV participant and political aide to former US President Donald Trump.
- Popularity: Omarosa has never appeared in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data, which lists only names given to at least five babies in a year.
Oregon
Oregon has been read as ogwa, meaning river, joined to pe-on, meaning west, giving river of the west, with an Algonquin reading of good and beautiful river. Place names have moved steadily into the nursery, and this one at least has a meaning worth having behind it. It is unisex, unmistakably American, and about as unusual as a familiar word can be on a birth certificate.
- Origin: Native American
- Meaning: Beautiful river
- Pronunciation: OHR-eh-Gaan
- Popularity: Oregon does not appear in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name files, which cover only names given to five or more babies in a year.
Ratih
Ratih means goddess of beauty in Sanskrit, with grace beside it, and Indonesian adds god-like. Most beautiful is the plain gloss. Naming a daughter after a goddess of beauty outright is a bolder move than borrowing a word that happens to mean lovely, and this name does not hedge. Two syllables, ending on a soft H, easier to say than the spelling suggests.
- Origin: Indonesian, Sanskrit
- Meaning: Most beautiful
- Pronunciation: RAAH-tee
- Namesakes: Ratih Hardjono, an Indonesian journalist for the Indonesian newspaper Kompas.
- Popularity: Ratih has never met the Social Security Administration’s five-birth threshold for inclusion in its published U.S. baby name data, so it carries no federal ranking here.
Reiko
Reiko is Japanese for beautiful, lovely child, and the same sound also yields next child and wise child depending on the characters used. There is a separate German boy’s name spelled the same way meaning gratitude, which is pure coincidence. The ko ending marks it as a name from a particular generation in Japan, and that vintage quality is a good part of the charm now. Rei stands alone perfectly well.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Beautiful, lovely child
- Pronunciation: REY-Kow
- Variations: Raiko, Reyko
- Namesakes: Reiko Mori, a Japanese novelist, who won the Akutagawa Award in 1979. Reiko Aonuma, a Japanese basketball player who competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics.
- Popularity: Reiko has faded from U.S. records. It last cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2023, and its highest annual count came in 1975.
Rosalind
Rosalind is usually read through the Spanish rosa, meaning rose, and linda, meaning beautiful, giving beautiful rose. The German Roslindis, meaning gentle horse, is the older and less flattering root, and the flower reading has comfortably won. It is a Shakespearean-sounding name with a hard consonant at the end, which stops it drifting into sweetness. Roz and Rosie pull it in two completely different directions, and both work. It sounds like a name belonging to someone with strong opinions, which is no bad thing.
- Origin: Spanish, German
- Meaning: Beautiful rose
- Pronunciation: RAAZ-aa-Lihnd
- Variations: Rosalin, Roslyn, Rosalinda
- Namesakes: Rosalind Cornett, a British table tennis player who competed at the World Table Tennis Championships between 1951 and 1955. Rosalind Blauer, a Canadian economist, dealing with the effects of inflation.
- Popularity: Rosalind is in the middle of a real comeback. It ranked 1,521st in 2025 with 140 girls, up about 162 percent on the previous decade, though still well short of its 1942 peak at 292nd.
Rumi
Rumi means beauty in Japanese, and flow and lapis lazuli, the deep blue stone, belong to it as well. In Arabic it reads as peaceful and good. Two very different traditions arriving at the same two syllables is part of why the name has traveled so easily. It is unisex, it is short, and it has climbed faster than almost anything else on this list. For a name this new to American records, it has settled in remarkably quickly.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Beauty
- Pronunciation: RUW-Miy
- Namesakes: Rumi Okubo, a Japanese voice actress and winner of a Best Female Newcomer award at the Seiyu Awards. Rumi Suizu, a Japanese figure skater and the 2007 Japan Junior champion.
- Popularity: Rumi is at its U.S. peak on every measure. It ranked 1,283rd in 2025 with 175 girls, the best rank and largest count on record for the name, up around 655 percent on the previous decade.
Rupin
Rupin is Sanskrit for handsome, with embodied beauty as the fuller reading, and it is about as direct a compliment as a boy’s name can carry. It is a cool name precisely because it is unfamiliar in the U.S. and completely unremarkable to say. Two syllables, stress on the first, nothing to spell out twice.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: Handsome
- Pronunciation: RUW-Pin
- Variations: Rupinder
- Popularity: Rupin has never appeared in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data, which lists only names given to at least five babies in a year.
Sabeh
Sabeh is a Muslim name meaning pretty and handsome, which is why it sits comfortably as unisex. It names a small village in Iran and is used more as a surname than a first name. That gives it the slightly formal quality surnames always bring with them, and it is rare enough here to be effectively unclaimed.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: SAA-beh
- Variations: Sabah
- Popularity: Sabeh does not appear in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name files, which include only names given to five or more babies in a year.
Shakila
Shakila means beautiful in Arabic and Hindi, with well-shaped as a further reading, and it is the feminine counterpart of Shaquille. Three syllables with the weight in the middle give it a rhythm that carries. It belongs to that group of names that were widely used somewhere and never crossed over here, which is exactly what makes it available.
- Origin: Arabic, Hindi
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: Shey-KEE-Lah
- Variations: Shakeela, Shakeila, Shakilah, Shaquila, Shekila
- Namesakes: Shakila (born Badshah Begum), an Indian actress known for the film C.I.D. (1956). Shakila Sedaghat, an Iranian-American singer and Global Music Award winner in 2015.
- Popularity: Shakila has slipped out of U.S. records. It last met the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2011, and its strongest year was 1992.
Shana
Shana is Hebrew for beautiful and also carries lily. It may be a feminine form of John, meaning God is gracious, and it works as a short form of Shoshana. Two syllables, no silent letters, and a softness that the 1980s liked and then abandoned. Names that peaked in a single decade tend to sound dated for about forty years and fresh after that, and Shana is roughly on schedule.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: SHAA-Naa
- Variations: Shanna
- Namesakes: Shana Alexander, an American journalist and the first woman columnist for Life magazine. Shana Swash, an English actress, known for the BBC One soap opera EastEnders (2004 to 2006).
- Popularity: Shana has fallen a long way in the U.S. It ranked 174th at its 1984 best and sat 5,213rd in 2025 with 25 girls, down about 51 percent on the previous decade, with nearly 30,000 recorded overall.
Shaquille
Shaquille comes from the Arabic Shakil, meaning beauty, with pretty and good looking alongside. For an entire generation it belongs to one basketball player and nobody else, which is what happens when a single bearer arrives at exactly the moment a name breaks out. The Arabic original is far older than that association and worth knowing about. Shaq is inevitable, and most families make their peace with it.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Handsome
- Pronunciation: Shah-KEEL
- Variations: Shakeel, Shakil, Shaquil, Shaquile, Shaquill
- Namesakes: Shaquille O’Neal, an American basketball player, and a four-time NBA champion. Shaquille Adams, a Kittian footballer for Garden Hotspurs FC.
- Popularity: Shaquille is rare now but ticking back up. It ranked 181st in its 1993 peak year with 1,785 boys and sat 2,927th in 2025 with 43, up about 51 percent on the previous decade.
Shiva
Shiva is the great god of Hindu tradition, the one who creates and protects the universe, and the name carries auspicious, pure and divine. Beautiful and charming come with it. Naming a child after a supreme deity is normal practice in some families and unthinkable in others, so this is a name that says a great deal about the household it lands in. It is used for girls in India as well as boys, and two syllables make it easy anywhere.
- Origin: Hindi, Persian
- Meaning: Beautiful, charming
- Pronunciation: Shiy-Vah
- Namesakes: Shiva (born Andrea Arrigoni), an Italian rapper whose 2020 single “Auto blu” reached number 1 on FIMI’s singles chart. Shiva Raichandani, a British-Indian semi-finalist on Britain’s Got Talent.
- Popularity: Shiva is uncommon in the U.S. and climbing. It ranked 4,370th in 2025 with 24 babies, up roughly 49 percent on the previous decade, with its highest count logged in 2021.
Sigrid
Sigrid comes from the Old Norse Sigridr, built from sigr, meaning victory, and fridr, meaning beautiful, and peace and fair belong to it too. Beautiful victory is a rare thing to hand a daughter, since almost every other name here stops at the first half. This Viking name has the hard G and clipped ending that make Nordic names feel modern rather than antique. Siggy is the short form, and Sig works just as well.
- Origin: Scandinavian
- Meaning: Beautiful victory
- Pronunciation: SIY-Griyd
- Variations: Sigryd, Sigryde, Siegrid
- Namesakes: Sigrid Lidströmer, a Swedish author who translated Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol into Swedish. Sigrid Undset, a Norwegian-Danish novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.
- Popularity: Sigrid is the biggest comeback on this list. It peaked in 1915, bottomed out in 1992 and has since recovered to about 6.7 times that low point, ranking 4,445th in 2025 with 32 girls, per Social Security Administration data.
Suchin
Suchin means beautiful thought, and it carries the same sense in Hindi as it does in Thai. A name about the quality of someone’s thinking rather than their face is unusual anywhere. It is a Thai girl’s name that has barely traveled, which keeps it genuinely uncommon here.
- Origin: Thai
- Meaning: Beautiful thought
- Pronunciation: SUW-Chihn
- Variations: Sujin
- Namesakes: Suchin Borihanwanakhet, a Thai writer and teacher, awarded the Outstanding Woman in Buddhism award by the UN.
- Popularity: Suchin has never appeared in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name data, which lists only names reaching at least five babies in a year.
Tove
Tove began as the Old Norse Tofa, read as beautiful Thor or simply good, and it belongs to the long line of Norse names built on the god’s name. It is far easier to live with than the fuller Thorfrithr it stands in for. Among Norwegian girl names it is a staple, and in the U.S. it is still a discovery. One syllable in Scandinavia, two in most American mouths, and charming either way.
- Origin: Scandinavian
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: TUW-Vah
- Variations: Tova
- Namesakes: Tove Larsen, a Danish politician and Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs from 1981 to 1982. Tove Jansson, a Swedish-Finnish author of the Moomin children’s books.
- Popularity: Tove is rare in the U.S. and rising sharply. It ranked 6,807th in 2025 with 17 girls, up about 161 percent on the previous decade, with its highest count recorded in 2022.
Usain
Usain is a variation of the Arabic Husain and Hussein, meaning beautiful and good, with good-mannered and virtuous alongside. Like Shaquille it is tied for most people to one athlete, and unlike Shaquille it never converted that fame into American use. The meaning stands on its own regardless, and the name is short, strong and completely unclaimed here.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Beautiful, good
- Pronunciation: YUU-Sane
- Namesakes: Usain Bolt, a Jamaican sprinter, considered the greatest sprinter of all time.
- Popularity: Usain does not appear in the Social Security Administration’s published U.S. baby name files, which list only names given to five or more babies in a year.
Vashti
Vashti was a queen of Persia in the Book of Esther, and the name comes from the Persian vahishta, meaning excellent, with best of women as a further reading. Lovely is the meaning that puts it on this list, though excellence is the stronger idea. A biblical queen who is remembered for refusing an order makes an interesting namesake. Two syllables, a sharp finish, and nothing else quite like it.
- Origin: Persian
- Meaning: Lovely
- Pronunciation: VAESH-Tiy
- Variations: Vashtee, Vashtey, Vashtie, Vashty
- Namesakes: Vashti Cunningham, an American track and field athlete who won the 2016 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Vashti Bartlett, an American nurse with the American Red Cross during World War I.
- Popularity: Vashti is rare in the U.S. and slipping. It ranked 8,823rd in 2025 with 12 girls, down about 34 percent on the previous decade, with its strongest year all the way back in 1913.
Venus
Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty, the counterpart of the Greek Aphrodite and the Egyptian Isis, and the name also carries loved one and beloved. It doubles as the second planet, which gives a child a permanent place in the night sky. Nothing on this list is more direct: Venus simply is beauty, in Roman terms. It has no natural nickname and does not need one. The name asks a lot of a child and hands her plenty to work with.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Beauty
- Pronunciation: VIY-Nahs
- Variations: Venis, Venys
- Namesakes: Venus Williams, an American tennis player with seven Grand Slam singles titles. Venus Faiq, an Iraqi-Kurdish-Dutch journalist for Kurdistan’s People Television.
- Popularity: Venus is uncommon in the U.S. and gaining. It ranked 2,001st in 2025 with 96 girls, up about 79 percent on the previous decade, and it has appeared in the data since 1887.
Westlyn
Westlyn is a modern American construction, the surname West joined to the name ending Lyn, and beautiful west is the reading it has picked up. Split into two words it is also a place in Oregon. Invented names get a hard time, but this one follows the same rules as Everlyn and Brooklyn and sounds like neither. It shortens to West, which is having a moment of its own.
- Origin: English, American
- Meaning: Beautiful west
- Pronunciation: WEST-Lin
- Variations: Westlynn
- Popularity: Westlyn is new and climbing fast. First recorded in Social Security Administration data in 2015, it ranked 4,658th in 2025 with 30 girls, running about 790 percent above the previous decade.
Yamileth
Yamileth is the Spanish form of the Hebrew Yamilet and comes by way of Yamila, itself a Spanish take on the Arabic Jamila, meaning beautiful. It also means elegant. Three routes through three languages to arrive at one name is a good indication of how far the Arabic root has traveled. The TH ending is what makes it distinctive, and Yami is the short form families actually use.
- Origin: Arabic, Spanish
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: Yaa-MIY-Lehth
- Variations: Yamilet
- Namesakes: Yamileth Duarte, a Mexican boxer and WBC female super bantamweight champion since 2019.
- Popularity: Yamileth is steady in the U.S. It ranked 1,026th in 2025 with 245 girls, close to where it sat a decade earlier, with its best rank in 2014.
Zaine
Zaine comes from the Arabic Zayn, meaning beautiful, and Hebrew gives it gift from God. It shares a sound with Zane, Zain and Zayn, and the spelling you choose is really a choice about which tradition you want visible. This version keeps the Arabic root and the English look at the same time. One syllable, no ambiguity, and it works from birth to boardroom. The Z at the front does most of the character work.
- Origin: Arabic, Hebrew
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: ZEYN
- Variations: Zain, Zane, Zayn, Zeine
- Namesakes: Zaine Pierre, a Saint Lucian footballer for Manchester City.
- Popularity: Zaine is holding steady in the U.S. It ranked 2,602nd in 2025 with 51 boys, essentially unchanged on the previous decade, with its highest count in 2015.
Zeynep
Zeynep is the Turkish version of the Arabic Zaynab, read as a precious rock or gem and as ornament. It was borne by a daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, which gives it deep standing across a large part of the world. Beauty here means something adorned and valued rather than merely pretty. The P at the end is what English speakers stumble on, and once heard it is not forgotten.
- Origin: Turkish
- Meaning: Beauty
- Pronunciation: ZAAY-Nep
- Namesakes: Zeynep Algan, the Turkish Ambassador to Senegal in 2012. Zeynep Sevde, a Turkish writer who owns a publishing house for children’s books.
- Popularity: Zeynep is climbing steadily in the U.S. It ranked 2,098th in 2025 with 90 girls, up about 152 percent on the previous decade, with its best rank in 2022.
Zinedine
Zinedine joins the Arabic zayn, meaning grace and beauty, to din, meaning religious belief, giving beauty of the faith. Growth and progress belong to it as well, and the North Algerian Zidane carries delightful. It is three syllables of pure momentum and it has one very famous bearer, which is either the reason to choose it or the reason not to.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Beauty of the faith
- Pronunciation: ZIYN-ah-Diyn
- Variations: Zidane
- Namesakes: Zinedine Zidane, a French footballer named FIFA World Player of the Year in 2000 and 2003. Zinedine Soualem, a French actor, best known for the 1992 film Riens du tout.
- Popularity: Zinedine is scarce in U.S. records. It last cleared the Social Security Administration’s five-birth reporting floor in 2024, holding roughly level with the previous decade, and its best year was 2006.
Zuri
Zuri is Swahili for beautiful, which is the most direct route to the meaning on this whole page. Arabic gives it white and light, and it can work as a short form of the Hebrew Zuriel for a boy. Two syllables, an open ending and a meaning nobody has to look up: that combination is why it has climbed so quickly. It suits a toddler and an adult with equal ease. The climb has been fast enough that it no longer reads as an unusual choice. Ten years ago it would have.
- Origin: Swahili
- Meaning: Beautiful
- Pronunciation: ZUW-Riy
- Variations: Zuree, Zurey, Zurie, Zury
- Namesakes: Zuri Hall, an American entertainment reporter for Access Hollywood on NBC. Zuri Tibby, an American model and first black spokesmodel for Victoria’s Secret PINK.
- Popularity: Zuri is climbing quickly in the U.S. It ranked 329th in 2025 with 932 babies, up about 238 percent on the previous decade, with its best rank recorded in 2022.
