Strong baby girl names come in more than one shape. Some mean warrior or victory outright, others mean steady, patient, or simply unbreakable, and a few belong to women who earned the label the hard way.
Below are 100 of them, listed alphabetically, each with its origin, meaning, and pronunciation, plus a popularity figure where a real one exists.
You will find Norse shield-maidens, Greek goddesses, Igbo and Kikuyu names, and a handful of familiar classics like Audrey and Matilda that carry a strength meaning most people never notice.
What Are The Strongest Baby Girl Names?
The strongest girl names split into two kinds: outright warrior meanings like Bellatrix (female warrior) and Boudicca (victory), and quiet-strength classics like Audrey (noble strength) and Matilda (strength in battle). Choosing a name for what it means puts you in very old company, and Greek, Norse, Hebrew and Igbo parents all did it on purpose, in the belief that a name sets a direction. Popularity across this list runs the whole range: Charlotte ranked #2 among American girls born in 2025 on the Social Security Administration’s national tally, behind Olivia at #1 (1), while Gertrude has not ranked in the US top 1000 since 1965. These 100 names are listed alphabetically, so you can skim for the sound first and read the meaning after.
1. Adira
The Hebrew Bible uses adir to describe God: strong, mighty, not a word handed out lightly. Adira is its feminine form, and reference works catalogue it as a rare submitted spelling used in Hebrew and Arabic, so the root arrives without the crowd. Animation fans meet it somewhere else entirely, as Rapunzel’s warrior guide in Tangled: The Series, the swordswoman who leads the way to the Black Rocks. That is a fitting second life for a word meaning mighty. The sound is soft in the way American parents like, three open syllables ending in a vowel. The meaning underneath does not soften at all. Adi and Dira both work as everyday short forms.
2. Alcmene
Alcmene comes from the Ancient Greek Alkmene, which pairs alke, meaning strength or prowess, with either mene, the moon, or menis, wrath. Both readings land in the same place. In myth she was the wife of Amphitryon and the mother of Heracles by Zeus, who came to her disguised as her absent husband. Her labor was said to last seven days and seven nights, which is an endurance record even by mythological standards. This is a formal, weighty choice for a family drawn to the classics.
3. Alessia
Alessia Cara was discovered after a producer’s daughter played him her YouTube covers, and she went on to become the first Canadian to win Best New Artist at the Grammys. Her name is the Italian feminine form of Alexius, built on the Greek alexo, meaning to defend, the same root behind Alexander. It sits well inside the Italian top 100, and English speakers handle both the spelling and the sound without stumbling.
4. Alexia
Gamers will recognize Alexia Ashford from Resident Evil, a scientist who injects herself with a virus and sets out to rule everything in reach, which is villainy but hardly timid. The name is the feminine counterpart of Alexis and carries the same meaning, defender of man, in a shape far less used than Alexis or Alexandra. It shortens cleanly to Lexi if you want something lighter for daily use.
5. Aluma
In medieval Hebrew the word meant strong or brave; in modern Hebrew the same spelling reads as sheaf, the bundle of grain gathered at harvest. Aluma carries both, three easy syllables with almost no chance of a second one in the class.
6. Andricia
Sources agree that Andricia means strong and agree on almost nothing else. Some place it in South Africa, others call it Greek, and the country where it actually turns up most often is Brazil. If a thin paper trail does not bother you, you get a genuinely uncommon name with an unambiguous meaning.
7. Audrey
Audrey began as a medieval shortening of the Anglo-Saxon Aethelthryth, borne by a seventh-century princess of East Anglia who became a saint. The English word tawdry traces back to the cheap lace sold at her fair, which is a strange afterlife for a name meaning noble strength. It has never dropped out of the US top 1000, a rare run of steadiness. There is a darker footnote too: Hurricane Audrey killed at least 416 people on the Louisiana coast in 1957, and the name was retired from the storm list for good.
8. Ayesha
Ayesha is an Arabic name meaning alive, and it is one of the most widely used girls’ names across the Muslim world. Flight Lieutenant Ayesha Farooq made headlines as the first woman in the Pakistan Air Force to pass the exams and be declared combat ready. The spelling varies a great deal, so decide early whether you want Ayesha, Aisha or Aaisha on the birth certificate.
9. Baldey
Iceland does not use family surnames the way most of the world does; children take a name showing whose son or daughter they are. So an Icelandic Baldey is identified by her own name first and her father’s second, which suits a name this direct. It means strong, bold or even dangerous, built on the same bald element that gives us Baldur. Outside Iceland it is essentially unused. Expect to spell it out.
10. Balsinde
Balsinde surfaces in medieval European records, mostly as a surname and only occasionally as a given name. The meaning runs between strong and destruction depending on which element you weight, which tells you something about the era that used it. It is long dormant, so choosing it is closer to reviving a name than picking one.
11. Balwinder
Indra rules the heavens in Hindu tradition, an ancient deity of thunderbolts who brings the rain, defeats the anti-gods and guards the east. Balwinder puts a Punjabi word for strength and might in front of him, so the whole name reads as the strength of Indra. Punjabi families give it to sons and daughters alike. It is an Indian name with real weight behind each half rather than a pleasant sound assembled from parts. Say it bal-WIN-der and the English ear gets it on the first try. Bal makes a short, sturdy nickname.
12. Belisama
Belisama was a goddess worshipped in ancient Gaul and Britain, tied to fire, light, lakes and rivers. Roman writers matched her with Minerva, their goddess of wisdom and war, which says plenty about how she was regarded. The name itself reads as strong or bright. Four syllables sound like a lot on paper, but it moves easily out loud, and Bella or Sama are waiting if you want something shorter.
13. Bellatrix
The star on the left shoulder of the constellation Orion is one of the brightest in the night sky, and it is called Bellatrix, Latin for female warrior. Most modern readers meet the name as Bellatrix Lestrange first, so be ready for the Death Eater to arrive before the star does. Trixie and Bella soften it considerably.
14. Bellicent
Bellicent belongs to the Arthurian tradition and blends elements meaning proper or decent with strength. King Arthur’s half sister appears as Bellisent in the late thirteenth-century romance Of Arthour and of Merlin, and Tennyson used the Bellicent spelling when he wrote Gareth and Lynette. That gives it a genuine literary pedigree rather than an invented one. It shares the Belle sound that is having a moment, without the shortcut spelling.
15. Berke
Berke comes from the Turkish berk and the Mongolian berkh, both meaning strong or firm. In Mongolia it is strictly a boys’ name and was borne by the ruler of the Golden Horde from 1257 to 1266; in Turkey it works for either sex. Two crisp syllables and no nickname required, which suits parents who want the whole name used.
16. Boudicca
Boudicca is a Latinized Brythonic name from boud, meaning victory, and it is hard to think of a name that earned its meaning more literally. She was a first-century queen of the Iceni who raised a revolt against Roman occupation of Britain and burned Colchester, London and St Albans before she was stopped. The spelling varies widely in the sources, from Boudica to the Victorian Boadicea. Bodie and Bo are the natural short forms if the full name feels like a lot for a toddler.
17. Bree
Bree is the anglicized form of the Irish name Brigh, meaning power or high, and it works as a full name in its own right. It is also the shortened version of Brianna, the feminine form of Brian. If you plan to use Brianna on the certificate and Bree at home, know that the longer name shifts the meaning slightly toward high or noble. One syllable, no spelling lesson needed, and it ages well from preschool to boardroom.
18. Brigitta
In Irish mythology Brigid was the goddess of fire, poetry and wisdom, later folded into the saint of the same name, and the root under her name means strength. Brigitta is the Hungarian, German and Dutch form of it, a good way to nod to Irish heritage without using the version everyone expects. Gitta and Britta are both ready-made nicknames.
19. Carla
The feminine form of Carl, and behind Carl sits the Germanic karlaz, meaning free man, the same root that produced Charles and Charlotte. Popular name references often gloss the whole family as warrior, but that is a later association rather than the derivation. Carla hit its American peak in the mid-1960s and has drifted down steadily since, which puts it in the sweet spot where a name feels familiar but not current. Short, unfussy, and it survives every accent intact.
20. Carole
Wartime parents pushed Carole to No. 35 on the US Social Security list in 1942, its American peak by a wide margin. It is the French feminine form of Carolus, the Latin version of Charles, and the final e is what separates it from the far plainer Carol. Songwriter Carole King later gave it a second life on record shelves. It is squarely a grandmother name right now, which is exactly the stage before a revival.
21. Charlotte
Charlotte arrived in Britain in the seventeenth century as the French feminine diminutive of Charles, and it now sits at the very top of the American charts. Underneath the lace is a name meaning free man, which is not what most people expect from it. It is one of the rare names that is almost never out of fashion, so it is a safe pick if you dislike gambling on trends. The trade-off is company: at #2 in the US, she will not be the only Charlotte in her year. Charlie and Lottie are the standard short forms.
22. Chike
Igbo names are routinely built as short statements of faith, and Chike is one of the plainest: God’s power, in one of the principal languages of Nigeria. It is genuinely gender neutral, given to sons and daughters alike. The Nigerian singer known simply as Chike came up through Project Fame West Africa and The Voice Nigeria, which gives the name a current cultural anchor rather than only a historical one. Two syllables, and the ch sounds like the ch in cheese. Once you know that, nobody stumbles.
23. Claudette
Claudette is the French diminutive of Claudia, from the ancient Roman family name Claudius. The strength here is entirely in the bearer: Claudette Colvin was 15 when she refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated Montgomery bus in March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks did the same and was written into the history books. That story alone earns the name a place on this list. It has the same vintage French air as Colette and Josette, and Claude or Etta both work as short forms.
24. Comfort
The modern sense of comfort is a softening. Behind it sits the Latin confortare, to strengthen greatly, which is a sturdier idea than a blanket and a cup of tea. Greek and Roman parents believed a name with a specific meaning could plant that trait in a child, and the virtue names are the direct descendants of that belief. Puritan families revived the practice in England and New England, where a daughter might be named for the quality her parents hoped she would carry. Ghana and Nigeria use Comfort widely today, and there the virtue names never went out of style at all. It is a word everyone already knows, so no child will have to spell it. What she will have to explain is that it does not mean soft.
25. Constantia
Constantia is the feminine form of the Late Latin name Constans, meaning constant or steadfast, a quieter kind of strength than warrior or victory. The best known bearer was the eldest daughter of the emperor Constantine the Great and his second wife Fausta, later venerated as Saint Constance. The name promises endurance rather than force, which is arguably the harder trait. Connie is the obvious nickname, and Stanzi is the interesting one.
26. Elfreda
Elfreda is the modern form of the Old English name Aelfthryth, which joins the words for elf and strength. Aelfthryth was a fashionable name among Anglo-Saxon nobles, then collapsed after the Norman conquest brought a new naming fashion with it. Victorian antiquarians pulled it back in the far more sayable Elfreda spelling in the nineteenth century. Freda and Elfie both take the edge off a name that otherwise reads as very old indeed.
27. Empedonika
Empedonika is an Ancient Greek name built from empedos, meaning steadfast, and nike, meaning victory. Put together it reads as victory that holds, which is a more interesting promise than victory alone. It is genuinely obscure, so your daughter will almost certainly be the only Empi in her class or on the field. Five syllables asks something of a preschooler, but the nickname arrives instantly.
28. Erica
Heather grows across the Scottish moors under the Latin name erica, and the girls’ name shares that spelling exactly. Erica is otherwise the feminine form of Eric, from Old Norse elements meaning eternal ruler, and it came into use in the eighteenth century. So it carries a ruler’s meaning and a wildflower’s image at the same time. It has slipped out of the US top 1000 in the last few years, which makes it recognizable without being current. A sound choice if your family has Nordic roots and you want something that will not date the birth certificate.
29. Erinna
Erinna is a lesson in how slippery name origins get. The prevailing theory reads it as a shortened form of Herinna, from the Greek heros, giving a meaning of female hero, but scholars have argued the point for a long time and no version has won outright. The historical Erinna was a Greek poet whose surviving work was admired enough to be compared with Sappho’s. If you like Erin but want something with more history behind it, this is the version to look at.
30. Ermintrude
Ermintrude joins ancient Germanic words meaning whole and strength, and it was a serious aristocratic name in early medieval Europe. Its modern life has been mostly comic: Ermintrude was the opera-singing cow in the British children’s series The Magic Roundabout, which is a hard association to shake in the UK. As an old German name it still has real substance if you can get past that. Trudy is the escape hatch, and it is a genuinely charming one.
31. Etana
Swahili reads it as strong and Hebrew reads it as determination, and the two land close enough that families bridging East African and Jewish heritage do not have to choose. Etana also sounds like nothing else on the American charts.
32. Fallon
Fallon means leader and evolved from the Irish surname O Fallamhain. Television did the rest of the work: the prime-time soap Dynasty premiered in 1981 with a character named Fallon, and the name appeared in the American top 1000 that same year, which is about as clean a cause-and-effect as baby name data ever gives you. It has since settled into the surname-as-first-name group alongside Harlow and Quinn. Unisex in feel, decisive in meaning, and short enough to shout across a yard.
33. Fianna
Fianna is a noun repurposed as a name. In Irish mythology the Fianna were roving bands of warriors and hunters led by Fionn mac Cumhaill, modelled on real companies that existed in medieval Ireland. The word’s own meaning is not settled, so what you are really giving a child is the association rather than a definition. It sounds close enough to Fiona to feel usable while carrying a far more interesting story.
34. Freja
Freyja claimed half of the heroes who fell in battle and took them to her field, Folkvangr, while Odin took the rest. That is a startling amount of authority for a goddess usually described in terms of love and beauty, and Freja is the Danish and Swedish form of her name. The word itself simply means lady. It is a fixture across Scandinavia and has climbed steeply in Britain. American parents more often reach for the Freya spelling. Either way it comes out FRAY-ah.
35. Frideswide
Frideswide comes from the Old English Frithuswith, joining the elements for peace and strong. Saint Frideswide founded a priory on the site that eventually became Christ Church and is patron saint of both the city of Oxford and the university. That gives the name an unusually specific sense of place, which is a gift if Oxford means something to your family. It is a mouthful by any standard, so plan on Frida or Fritha for daily use.
36. Gabriella
Gabriel carries word between God and people in the holy books of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, always as the messenger, and the name reaches across all three faiths because of it. Gabriella is his feminine form, a Hebrew name from gever, meaning strong man, and el, meaning God. Read literally it is God is my strength, which is a lot of name for a small person and something to grow into. It sat at #105 in the United States in 2025, popular enough to be recognized without putting three of her in one classroom. The Gabriel spelling family is wide, so Gabriela and Gabrielle are both live options. Gabby, Ella and Bri all come free with it.
37. Geesi
Geesi means courageous, bold or brave in Somali, and it is used as a name and as an everyday word of praise. English speakers reliably guess gee-see on first reading, so the pronunciation note earns its place: the double e takes the long a sound. Two syllables, an unmistakable meaning, and almost no competition in English-speaking countries.
38. Generys
Generys is a medieval Welsh name meaning girl hero, recorded in poetry from the twelfth century. It manages to be pretty without tipping into cute, which is a narrow line for a girls’ name to walk. The one drawback is unavoidable: a good number of people will assume you named your daughter after the Game of Thrones character Daenerys, so decide now whether that bothers you. Gen and Neris are both usable short forms.
39. Gertrude
Gertrude joins the Old German elements ger, meaning spear, and drud, meaning strength, so the literal reading is spear strength. It was everywhere in the early 1900s, fell hard, and has been off the American charts for two generations. That length of absence is usually what a name needs before it can come back, and Gertrude has the right sound profile for the current taste in antiques. The one thing to weigh honestly is the schoolyard, where Gertie is friendly and Dirty Gerty is not.
40. Gesa
Coastal families in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands used Gesa as a Low German short form of Gertrude, for girls whose names carried the ger element. It eventually broke away and kept the spear-strength meaning of the parent name in two soft syllables. Rarely seen anywhere today, which for some parents is the whole appeal.
41. Gunhild
Gunhild is built from two Old Norse words that both mean war, which is either redundant or emphatic depending on your mood. It is a slight step away from strong toward outright battle, but it was too good to leave out: this is a name Vikings gave their daughters in the hope of raising wild, warlike women. Norse queens and skalds carried it. Gunn on its own is short, blunt and surprisingly wearable.
42. Gwendolen
Gwendolen likely comes from the Welsh elements gwen, meaning white or blessed, and dolen, meaning ring. It appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s twelfth-century chronicle as Guendoloena, a queen of the ancient Britons whose husband divorced her, installed his mistress in her father’s castle and declared himself king. She raised an army, beat him and took the throne herself, which is the part of the story worth telling your daughter. Gwen and Wendy both descend from it.
43. Harlow
Harlow traces back to a Germanic word for army and served as a boys’ name at the turn of the last century before dropping out of use in the 1930s. Nicole Richie chose it for her daughter in 2008 and it has been a girls’ name ever since, one of the clearest single-handed reversals in modern naming. The old Hollywood echo of Jean Harlow does it no harm either. It fits neatly with Marlowe, Sloane and the rest of the surname group.
44. Harriet
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery, escaped, then went back again and again to lead others out along the Underground Railroad, and served the Union Army as an armed scout and spy during the Civil War. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the novel that Lincoln reportedly credited with helping start that same war. Few names come with two bearers of that weight. The name itself is the English form of Henriette, a feminine form of Henry, and it means home ruler. That reading looks modest next to the two women who carried it. Hattie is the nickname doing most of the work in its current revival.
45. Hera
Hera’s meaning is genuinely unknown; the name is probably older than Greek itself, and the popular link to the word for hero is a guess rather than a fact. What is not in doubt is the figure. Hera was queen of the gods, sister and wife of Zeus, and she presided over marriage and childbirth, ruling in her own right both before and after that marriage. Two syllables, no spelling issues, and it fits the current appetite for short mythological names.
46. Herta
Herta is a short, hard-edged name meaning strong, common in the German-speaking communities of central and eastern Europe. Herta Muller, born in Romania to a German-speaking family, wrote fiction and poetry describing life under the Ceausescu dictatorship and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009. That is a fitting namesake for a name about strength: the resistance was on the page. It is nearly unused in English-speaking countries, so it arrives without baggage.
47. Hertha
Hertha exists because of a misreading. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote about Nerthus, a Germanic goddess of fertility, and later scribes copied the name as Herthus, at which point an entirely new name entered the world and stayed. It is now read as strong or vigorous. Few names can claim to be the product of a scribal slip that lasted two thousand years, which is a good story to hand a child.
48. Hilda
Saint Hilda of Whitby ran one of the most influential monasteries in Anglo-Saxon England and hosted the synod that settled how the English church would calculate Easter. The name she carried comes from the Germanic element hild, meaning battle, and began as a nickname for girls whose longer names contained it, Mathilda among them. So its authority is historical as well as etymological. It has been off the American charts since 1986, when it last showed at #933. Finland and Sweden never let it go, and it is genuinely fashionable in both. Short, blunt and completely free of frills.
49. Indartusa
Indartusa is the Basque word for strong, pressed into service as a name. The Basque people live across what is now north-eastern Spain and south-western France and speak a language unrelated to any other in Europe, which is why this name looks like nothing else on the list. If you have roots in the region it is a direct way to mark them. Four syllables sound long until you say them; the stress falls on the third and it moves quickly.
50. Indra
Latvia, Sweden and Finland read Indra as a girls’ name meaning home ruler. India and Nepal read the same four letters as the Hindu god of the heavens, storms, thunder, rain and war, and give it mostly to boys. Short and strong everywhere, with the caveat that the association shifts depending on who is reading it.
51. Iraida
Russian speakers write it in Cyrillic; the Latin spelling you see here is the one Finland, Sweden and Norway use for this Russian name, which means hero and comes from a Greek original. It has the long, rolling shape that Slavic girls’ names do well, and it shortens naturally to Ira or Ida. Almost unheard of in English-speaking countries, so it stays distinctive without being unpronounceable.
52. Jaiyana
Jaiyana means strength in Arabic, though some sources root it in Urdu instead, and both usages are real across Pakistan and India. It turns up on plenty of popular Muslim name lists, but we describe names by language or region rather than by religion wherever we can, since the same name usually crosses several faiths. The long a sound in the middle gives it a lilt that most strength names do not have. Jai and Yana both work if you want something shorter.
53. Jara
Jara is a Slavic name meaning fierce, which puts it straight into the tough girls’ names category. It is the feminine form of Jaro, itself a short form of Jaromir, built from Slavic words for fierce and for peace or world. Note the pronunciation: the j takes a y sound, so it is YAH-rah rather than JAH-rah. Two syllables, one clear meaning, and it travels well.
54. Kaimana
Mana is not a casual word in Hawaiian and Polynesian thought; it names the authority a person or a place actually carries. Put kai, the sea, in front of it and you get Kaimana, a Hawaiian name reading as powerful sea. The nineteenth-century marriage records in the Hawaii State Archives list it as the single name of seven men and two women, so it comes with a documented history rather than a modern invention. It works for a son or a daughter. Kai is the ready-made short form.
55. Kendra
Kendra is a feminine form of Ken or Kendrick, giving a meaning that runs between royal power and chief hero depending on which parent name you follow. Its roots pull from Old English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish and Gaelic all at once, so it is a tidy choice for a family with tangled British ancestry. It has hovered near the bottom of the American top 1000 for years, familiar without being fashionable. Kenny and Kenna both work, and neither is obvious.
56. Larasati
Larasati is an Indonesian name meaning firm, strong and steadfast. Dewi Larasati appears in the Javanese staging of the Mahabharata as one of Arjuna’s wives, and she is an Indonesian addition rather than a figure from the Indian original: poets there created her as a woman skilled in soldiering and archery. That makes her a homegrown warrior rather than an imported one. Lara is the obvious short form and needs no explanation anywhere.
57. Llewella
Llewella is the feminine form of the Welsh Llywelyn, a name carried by princes of Gwynedd and read as leader. The double l at the front is a genuine Welsh sound that English speakers usually approximate with a plain l, and nobody in Wales will mind. Readers of Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber will know Princess Llewella, who withdraws from her family to live in Rebma, the underwater mirror of Amber. Luella is the anglicized route if the spelling feels like a fight.
58. Mary
Mary looks plain and is anything but settled. Scholars have argued for beloved, for wished-for child, for sea of bitterness, and even for rebelliousness, and no reading has ever won outright. Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, arguing that women were not naturally inferior but only undereducated; it is treated as a founding text of feminism. For a name that spent centuries as the default choice for a daughter, that is a fitting flagbearer. It is also the most quietly durable name in the English language.
59. Matilda
Empress Matilda fought a civil war for the English throne and came close to winning it, which is a reasonable amount of pressure to put on a name. The name itself is the Germanic Mahthilt, joining maht, meaning might or strength, with hilt, meaning battle. It and its short medieval form Maud were popular across Europe from the tenth century onward. Most modern parents meet it instead through Roald Dahl’s small, ferocious heroine, which is not a bad introduction either. It has climbed steadily back up the American charts and sat at #364 in 2025 (2). Tilly is doing most of the persuading.
60. Meja
A modern Swedish name that traces back to the Germanic element magan, meaning strength. The same four letters do very different work elsewhere: meja is the Indonesian and Malay word for table, itself borrowed from the Portuguese mesa. If your family speaks either language, decide which reading you want to lead with. In English it is simply a soft, short name with a hard meaning underneath.
61. Mélisande
Mélisande is the French form of a Germanic name meaning strong work, and it is the elegant cousin of Millicent. It spread through medieval France after Queen Melisende of Jerusalem came to power in the twelfth century; her husband tried to take the crown out from under her, and after a short civil war she kept it and ruled for years. The name later attached itself to Debussy’s opera and to a very different character in Game of Thrones. Melly and Sandy both sit underneath it.
62. Mildred
Mildred comes from the Old English Mildthryth, combining milde, meaning gentle, with thryth, meaning strength, and gentle strength is a more interesting promise than most warrior names manage. Saint Mildred was a seventh-century abbess in Kent known for exactly that combination. The name owned the American charts in the 1910s, sat sixth for six straight years, then fell off entirely by the mid-1980s. Millie has come roaring back without it, which is usually the step before the full name follows.
63. Millicent
Millicent descends from the Gothic Amalaswintha, from amals, meaning vigorous or brave, and swinths, meaning strong. Amalaswintha was a sixth-century Ostrogothic queen, remarkable for her time as much for her scholarship and diplomacy as for holding power at all. The name arrived in England through French and settled in as a Victorian favorite. It is old-fashioned in the way that is currently an advantage, and Millie is already everywhere.
64. Minna
Coastal families in the Netherlands and Germany used Minna for girls whose names began with mein, their local form of the Old High German magan, meaning strength. A separate Old High German word, minna, means love, so reference books list the name under both. Either way it is short, warm and easy for a child to write early.
65. Neith
Neith comes from ancient Egyptian and is usually read as she is the terrifying one, which is not a meaning many names can match. She was one of the oldest deities in the Egyptian record, a goddess of weaving, war and the hunt, and some traditions credit her with being the first being and the creator of everything that followed. Creator and warrior in the same figure is unusual. One syllable, no nickname, and it lands hard.
66. Nerthus
Nerthus comes from the Germanic Nerthuz, meaning strong, vigorous or healthy. She is a Germanic goddess of fertility recorded by Tacitus, and some scholars identify her with the unnamed sister-wife of the Old Norse god Njord, which would make her one of the oldest named deities in northern Europe. She is also the accidental parent of Hertha, further up this list, thanks to a copyist’s error. This is a scholarly choice rather than a playground one.
67. Nimerah
Nimerah means tigress, and by extension strength or power, which makes it about as literal as a strong girls’ name gets. Arabic in origin, it is also used as an Urdu name across Pakistan and India. Animal names for daughters are common in Arabic and rarely this pointed. Nimi is the natural nickname if tigress feels like a lot to carry to preschool.
68. Olesia
Ukraine uses Olesia often enough that it is a real name with real bearers, and the rest of the world uses it so rarely that your daughter is unlikely to meet another. It grew out of Alexandra and carries the same meaning, defender of men. Lesia works as a short form and is a familiar name in its own right in Ukraine.
69. Philomena
Philomena is a Latinized Greek name from phileo, meaning to love, in a form that reads as one who is loved. It spread widely after 1802, when a Roman tomb marked Filumena was uncovered and the remains inside were venerated as a saint. The 2013 film Philomena put it in front of a new audience, telling the story of an unmarried Irish woman whose son was taken from her and placed for adoption in America without her consent, and of her decades-long search for him. Strength here is the quiet, unyielding kind. Mena is the modern short form.
70. Potentia
Few girls’ names are this unapologetic. Potentia is the Latin potens, meaning powerful, and the root of the English word potential, used as a given name in Sweden. The longer form Potentiana turns up in Denmark and the Faroe Islands, where it still holds a name day on 19 May. Nordic name days are a real calendar rather than a curiosity, so the name has an official footprint even where hardly anyone uses it. It asks nothing and apologizes for nothing.
71. Reginn
Reginn is an Old Norse name meaning the power of the gods, from the same root as the Regin element in Ragnar and Ragnhild. It was traditionally a boys’ name across the Nordic countries and appears in the Volsunga saga as the smith who fosters Sigurd. Parents outside Scandinavia have started using it for daughters, part of a wider shift of Norse names across the gender line. Two syllables and no soft edges.
72. Rögn
Rögn is the Icelandic form of the Old Norse Reginn, and it means might or the power of the gods. It is rare even in Iceland and effectively unknown anywhere else, partly because the vowel does not exist in English and the spelling asks for an accent most keyboards do not offer. If you want the shortest possible name meaning power, this is it. Be ready to spell it, say it and spell it again.
73. Ronalda
Ronalda is a Scottish name meaning wise ruler, the feminine form of Ronald. Ronald itself is a variation of the Old Norse Ragnvaldr, brought to Scotland by Scandinavian settlers and raiders, so the name marks a real historical collision. That makes it a reasonable pick for a family with Scottish or Scandinavian heritage, or both. Ronnie is the nickname, and it has aged into something charming rather than dated.
74. Rǫskva
Rǫskva is an Old Norse name meaning vigorous or brave. In Norse mythology she and her brother Thialfi become servants to Thor after their father’s household loses a wager with him, and they travel with the god through several of his best-known adventures. That built-in sibling pairing makes the two names a natural fit for twins. Most English-speaking families write it Roskva and skip the hooked o.
75. Roswitha
Roswitha is the softened modern spelling of Hrotsvitha, a Germanic name joining the elements for fame and strength. Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim was a tenth-century canoness who wrote six Latin plays, and she is widely described as the first woman playwright in Europe and the first person since antiquity to write drama in Latin at all. For a theatrical or literary family that is a hard namesake to beat. Rosi and Witha both work day to day.
76. Ruth
The biblical Ruth refused to leave her widowed mother-in-law and rebuilt a life in a country that was not hers. Loyalty of that order is its own kind of strength, and it is what the Hebrew name, meaning friend or companion, has carried ever since. Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued her way through a legal system that had almost no room for women in it, then spent 27 years on the Supreme Court. Whatever you make of her rulings, the endurance is not in question. One syllable, no ambiguity, no spelling conversation. It has never needed a nickname and does not have one.
77. Sabiha
Sabiha means beautiful, and in Arabic it also carries the sense of morning or dawn. The reason it belongs on a list of strong names is Sabiha Gokcen, born in 1913, who became the world’s first woman combat pilot and was the only woman featured on the 1996 US Air Force poster of the twenty greatest aviators in history. Istanbul’s second airport carries her name. Sometimes the strength is in the bearer rather than the etymology.
78. Sabira
Sabira comes from the Arabic sabir, meaning patient and enduring, and it is the feminine form of Sabir. Sources split on whether to translate it as patient, as steadfast, or as both, which is less a contradiction than a matter of emphasis: the underlying word describes holding steady under pressure. That is a quieter strength than the warrior names on this list and a more useful one most days. It is widely used across the Arabic-speaking world and rare in English-speaking countries.
79. Shakti
In Hinduism the word names the feminine divine energy moving through everything that exists, and a shakti is also the female counterpart of a god, most often Parvati to Shiva. That makes this Hindu name one of very few where the creative force itself is female. Two syllables, easy to say, and no shortage of meaning to grow into.
80. Sharla
Sharla is an English variant spelling of Charla, and like Charlotte and Carla it grows out of the same Germanic root meaning army or warrior. That makes it a way to honor a relative named Charles without reaching for the obvious Charlotte or Charlene. The sh spelling gives it a softer opening than the c version. It had its moment in mid-century America and has been quiet since, which leaves it open.
81. Signe
Signe is the modern Scandinavian form of Signy, from the Old Norse sigr, meaning victory, and nyr, meaning new. It sits in the Swedish top twenty right now, so this is a living name rather than a museum piece. The sagas are less cheerful about it: the two best-known Signys both die in fires they set themselves, having taken their revenge first. Note that the final e is sounded, so it is SIG-neh rather than sign.
82. Sigrid
Sigrid joins the Old Norse elements sigr, meaning victory, and fridr, meaning beautiful or beloved. You would assume it never left Scandinavia, but it had a real run in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century, carried over by Norwegian and Swedish immigrant families. It remains a top-fifty name in both Sweden and Norway today. Siri is the traditional short form, for better or worse.
83. Simone
At 17 Simone Segouin joined the French Resistance and took part in dozens of operations against the occupying German forces, including the liberation of Paris. The photographs of her holding a captured submachine gun are among the most reproduced images of the Resistance. Simone de Beauvoir and Simone Biles have since given the same name two more kinds of nerve. Underneath all of it is the French feminine form of Simon, a Hebrew name meaning he has heard. It is elegant on paper and tough in practice, which is a rare pairing. Say it see-MOHN, and Simmy covers the small years.
84. Solveig
Solveig comes from the Old Norse words for sun and strength, which is a rare pairing of warmth with force. It belongs to the patient heroine of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, and Grieg’s suite for the play gave the world Solveig’s Song, later borrowed by the American metal band Kamelot. The name is still firmly in use in Norway. English speakers regularly try SOL-vayg; the g is nearly silent, so SOL-vay gets you closer.
85. Tahmina
Tahmina traces back to the Avestan Takhma Urupi, meaning strong and valiant. In the Shahnameh, the Persian epic completed by Ferdowsi around the year 1010, Tahmina is the daughter of the king of Samangan who chooses Rostam for herself, marries him and raises their son alone; years later, father and son meet on the battlefield without knowing each other, and it ends badly. It is one of the great tragedies of Persian literature. The name is common in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Bangladesh, and rare everywhere else.
86. Treasa
People routinely assume this is the Irish form of Theresa, and it is not. Treasa is thought to come from the Irish Gaelic word for strength, while Theresa arrived from the Spanish and Portuguese Teresa, which comes from a Greek root meaning either to harvest or summer. The two have been used interchangeably in Ireland for so long that the confusion is now part of the story. If you want an Irish name that is neither Aoife nor Saoirse, this one is waiting.
87. Trudi
Trudi is the short form of Gertrude turned into a name of its own, carrying the same spear and strength elements as its parent. The Trudy spelling had a solid run in America through the mid-1940s and early 1950s before both versions faded. It is friendlier than Gertrude by a wide margin, which is exactly why it broke away in the first place. A good compromise if you love the old name but not the whole of it.
88. Tukuma
Greenlandic names are almost entirely absent from English-speaking countries, so Tukuma, meaning vigorous, is about as far off the beaten path as a real, used name gets. It goes to boys and girls alike and is the softer-sounding relative of Tukumak, which carries the same meaning with a harder ending. Three open syllables make it easier to say than it looks.
89. Valencia
Every March the Spanish city of Valencia burns enormous sculptures in its streets for the Fallas festival, in honor of St Joseph, patron saint of carpenters. The Romans founded that city and gave it the Latin valentia, meaning strength or vigor, as its name. A girls’ name that means strength and arrives with a fire festival attached is not doing things by halves. It is long enough to feel formal and warm enough not to. Valentia is the closer spelling variant if you want the Latin more visible. Val and Lenci both work day to day.
90. Valerie
Valerie is the English and German form of Valeria, the feminine of the Roman family name Valerius, which is built on valere, meaning to be strong. It has stayed inside the American top 200 for decades without ever becoming a trend, which is the kind of stability most parents are actually after. Ms. Frizzle of The Magic School Bus is a Valerie, as was the actress Valerie Harper, and Steve Winwood and Amy Winehouse both put the name in a chorus. Familiar, unfussy and quietly built on strength.
91. Velda
Velda means power and to rule, and it belongs to the group of short Germanic names that American parents used steadily through the first half of the last century. It disappeared after the 1960s and has not come back, which puts it a long way past the usual revival window. Mickey Spillane fans know Velda as the sharp, capable secretary in the Mike Hammer novels. If you want a vintage name that nobody else has reclaimed yet, this one is genuinely available.
92. Vilja
Naming a daughter for her own will rather than for a weapon is a different kind of strength, and arguably a more useful one. Vilja is the Swedish vilja and the Norwegian vilje, both meaning will or strong desire, so the name is literally willpower. The j takes a y sound.
93. Walburga
Walburga joins the German wald, meaning power, with burg, meaning fortress, which is about as fortified as a name can get. Saint Walburga was born in England around 710, educated in a convent, and later wrote an account of her brother’s travels in Palestine; she is often named as the first woman author of both England and Germany. Walpurgis Night, the eve of 1 May, is named for her. This is a serious, heavy name, and Wally or Burga are the only real ways to lighten it.
94. Waltraud
Waltraud combines the Germanic walha, meaning foreign, with thrud, meaning strength. It was a common name in Germany and Austria for much of the twentieth century and now reads as firmly of that era there, in the way Doris or Barbara does in English. The ancient form was the considerably more imposing Waldedrudis. Traudl is the traditional German nickname and softens it a great deal.
95. Wangchuk
The royal house of Bhutan has carried Wangchuk as its family name since 1907, but ordinary Bhutanese families use it too, as either of a person’s two given names rather than a surname. The Tibetan word means possessing power and stands in for the Sanskrit title Ishvara. It is not gender specific, and that mix of everyday use and royal association gives it real standing in the Himalayas.
96. Wangui
Wangui comes from the Kikuyu word ngui, meaning song leader, the person who sets the tune for everyone else. In the origin story of the Kikuyu people of Kenya, Gikuyu is created by God and marries Mumbi, and their nine daughters found the nine Kikuyu clans; Wangui is one of those clan names, so a girl who carries it carries a lineage with it. Leading the song is its own kind of authority. Wanjiru and Wanjiku belong to the same set if you want to look further.
97. Wei
Chinese names carry their meaning in the writing rather than the sound, so the character decides everything. Written one way this Chinese name means power or greatness; written another it means towering, or extraordinary, or small, or fern. The same spoken Wei can be five different names on paper, which is worth settling before the birth certificate is filled in. One syllable, and it works in any language.
98. Wilma
Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely at four and a half pounds in 1940, had pneumonia and scarlet fever as a small child, contracted polio at five and wore a leg brace until she was 12. She then won three gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics, in the 100 meters, the 200 meters and the relay, the first American woman to take three golds at a single Games (3). Set against that, the etymology is almost quiet: a short form of Wilhelmina, the feminine of William, brought to America by German settlers in the nineteenth century. It is long gone from the American charts. Sweden keeps it inside the top forty. That gap is most of the argument for using it now.
99. Yennenga
Yennenga means slim, which tells you nothing about why the name belongs here; the woman does. Born more than 900 years ago in what is now Ghana, she was a princess who rode, fought with bow, spear and javelin alongside her father, and commanded her own battalion. Her son Ouedraogo founded the Mossi kingdoms, and she is honored as the mother of the Mossi people of Burkina Faso to this day; the top prize at the FESPACO film festival is the Golden Stallion of Yennenga, named for the horse that carried her. Few names come attached to a national founder.
100. Yi
Yi read with the character meaning resolute gives you decisive and firm, a name about making up your mind and staying there. As with Wei, other characters sharing the sound mean very different things: joy or harmony, suitable or proper, and justice or righteousness. All four are used as given names, so the choice of character is the real decision. It is the shortest name on this list and one of the most quietly forceful.
Start As You Mean To Go On
A name will not make a girl strong, but it goes with her into every room, and the meaning underneath it is something she can grow into and eventually claim as her own.
Parents have been doing this for thousands of years, from Greek and Roman families who believed a virtue name planted that virtue in a child, to Viking families who gave their daughters battle names on purpose. Pick the one whose sound you love, then tell her what it means and why you chose it.
