adeleIAm's Personal Name List

Short form of Griselda. This is the name of a princess in the Legend of Zelda video games, debuting in 1986 and called ゼルダ (Zeruda) in Japanese. According to creator Shigeru Miyamoto she was named after the American socialite Zelda Fitzgerald (1900-1948).

Short form of Giovanna.

Derived from Greek θάλλω (thallo) meaning "to blossom". Thales of Miletus was a 6th-century BC Greek philosopher and mathematician.

Feminine form of the Roman name Tatianus, a derivative of the Roman name Tatius. This was the name of a 3rd-century saint who was martyred in Rome under the emperor Alexander Severus. She was especially venerated in Orthodox Christianity, and the name has been common in Russia (as Татьяна) and Eastern Europe. It was not regularly used in the English-speaking world until the 1980s.

Welsh form of Jane.

Means "love" in Turkish.

Means "love, infatuation" in Turkish and Azerbaijani, ultimately from Arabic سوداء (sawda) meaning "black bile, melancholy, sadness".

Feminine form of the Late Latin name Seraphinus, derived from the biblical word seraphim, which was Hebrew in origin and meant "fiery ones". The seraphim were an order of angels, described by Isaiah in the Bible as having six wings each.

This was the name of a 13th-century Italian saint who made clothes for the poor. As an English name, it has never been common.

From an English surname that was originally derived from a place name meaning "priest town" (Old English preost and tun).

Perhaps a diminutive of Otho. William Shakespeare used this name in his tragedy Othello (1603), where it belongs to a Moor who is manipulated by Iago into killing his wife Desdemona.

Derived from Greek ὠφέλεια (opheleia) meaning "help, advantage". This was a rare ancient Greek name, which was either rediscovered or recreated by the poet Jacopo Sannazaro for a character in his poem Arcadia (1480). It was borrowed by Shakespeare for his play Hamlet (1600), in which it belongs to the daughter of Polonius and the potential love interest of Hamlet. She eventually goes insane and drowns herself after Hamlet kills her father. In spite of this negative association, the name has been in use since the 19th century.

Derived from the Old German element uodil meaning "heritage" or ot meaning "wealth, fortune". Saint Odilia (or Odila) was an 8th-century nun who is considered the patron saint of Alsace. She was apparently born blind but gained sight when she was baptized.

French form of Odilia.

Old German form of Odilia.

Form of Odilia.

Variant of May. A famous bearer was the American actress Mae West (1893-1980), whose birth name was Mary.

Means "bringing light", derived from Latin lux "light" and ferre "to bring". In Latin this name originally referred to the morning star, Venus, but later became associated with the chief angel who rebelled against God's rule in heaven (see Isaiah 14:12). In later literature, such as the Divine Comedy (1321) by Dante and Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton, Lucifer became associated with Satan himself.

Feminine form of Lucianus.

Romanian and English form of Lucianus. Lucian is the usual name of Lucianus of Samosata in English.

Simply from the English word love, derived from Old English lufu.

Diminutive of Lola. This is the name of a 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov.

Derived from Akkadian lilitu meaning "of the night". This was the name of a demon in ancient Assyrian myths. In Jewish tradition she was Adam's first wife, sent out of Eden and replaced by Eve because she would not submit to him. The offspring of Adam (or Samael) and Lilith were the evil spirits of the world.

Irish form of Lily.

Name used by author Anne Rice for a character in her Vampire Chronicles series of novels, first released in 1976, where it belongs to the French vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. Rice possibly intended the name to appear derived from Old French or Occitan l'estat "state, status", though apparently her husband's name Stan was inspiration.

From a surname that was a variant of Lennox.

Italian form of Laelia.

From Latvian laime and Lithuanian laima, which mean "luck, fate". This was the name of the Latvian and Lithuanian goddess of fate, luck, pregnancy and childbirth. She was the sister of the goddesses Dēkla and Kārta, who were also associated with fate.

Variant of Lacy. This is currently the most popular spelling of this name.

Derived from Greek κλυτός (klytos) meaning "famous, noble". In Greek myth Klytië was an ocean nymph who loved the sun god Helios. Her love was not returned, and she pined away staring at him until she was transformed into a heliotrope flower, whose head moves to follow the sun.

Derived from Greek κλέος (kleos) meaning "glory". In Greek mythology she was the goddess of history and heroic poetry, one of the nine Muses. She was said to have introduced the alphabet to Greece.

Meaning unknown, perhaps an invented name.

Variant of Kayla.

Swedish short form of Katherine.

Variant of Kayla.

Means "fate, destiny" in Turkish.

Variant of Judas. It is used in many English versions of the New Testament to denote the second apostle named Judas, in order to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. He was supposedly the author of the Epistle of Jude. In the English-speaking world, Jude has occasionally been used as a given name since the time of the Protestant Reformation.

Spanish and Portuguese form of Iacomus (see James).

Variant of Jamie. The character Jaime Sommers from the television series The Bionic Woman (1976-1978) helped to popularize the name. It can sometimes be given in reference to the French phrase j'aime meaning "I love", though it is pronounced differently.

From the Semitic root 'ṯtr, which possibly relates to the Evening Star. Ishtar was an Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian goddess who presided over love, war and fertility. She was cognate with the Canaanite and Phoenician Ashtoreth, and she was also identified with the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Her name in Akkadian cuneiform 𒀭𒈹 was the same as the Sumerian cuneiform for Inanna.

Diminutive of Indiana. This is the nickname of the hero of the Indiana Jones movies, starring Harrison Ford.

German form of Franciscus (see Francis). This name was borne by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828), the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886) and the Austrian-Czech author Franz Kafka (1883-1924), whose works include The Trial and The Castle. It was also the name of rulers of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire.

Derived from Irish fíon meaning "wine".

Means "cosmos, the universe" in Turkish. In Turkic mythology the Evren is a gigantic snake-like dragon.

Latinate form of Estelle. This is the name of the heroine, Estella Havisham, in Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations (1860).

Turkish form of Aminah 2.

Meaning unknown.

From the biblical place name, itself possibly from Hebrew עֵדֶן ('eden) meaning "pleasure, delight", or perhaps derived from Sumerian 𒂔 (edin) meaning "plain". According to the Old Testament the Garden of Eden was the place where the first people, Adam and Eve, lived before they were expelled.

From the Greek word ἠχώ (echo) meaning "echo, reflected sound", related to ἠχή (eche) meaning "sound". In Greek mythology Echo was a nymph given a speech impediment by Hera, so that she could only repeat what others said. She fell in love with Narcissus, but her love was not returned, and she pined away until nothing remained of her except her voice.

Medieval short form of Durante. The most notable bearer of this name was Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the Italian poet who wrote the Divine Comedy.

From the Greek name Δαμιανός (Damianos), which was derived from Greek δαμάζω (damazo) meaning "to tame". Saint Damian was martyred with his twin brother Cosmas in Syria early in the 4th century. They are the patron saints of physicians. Due to his renown, the name came into general use in Christian Europe. Another saint by this name was Peter Damian, an 11th-century cardinal and theologian from Italy.

Latinized form of Kleio.

Short form of Cleopatra, Cleon or Cleopas.

Italian masculine form of Carmen.

Variant of Carmen.

Turkish form of Aisha.

Means "of the moon" in Turkish and Azerbaijani, from Turkic ay "moon".

Means "moonlight, halo" in Turkish.

French form of Aurora.

Means "dawn" in Latin. Aurora was the Roman goddess of the morning. It has occasionally been used as a given name since the Renaissance.

Means "happy, blessed" in Hebrew. Asher in the Old Testament is a son of Jacob by Leah's handmaid Zilpah, and the ancestor of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The meaning of his name is explained in Genesis 30:13.

Feminine form of Arcadius. This is the name of a region on the Greek Peloponnese, long idealized for its natural beauty.

Variant of either Amalia or Emilia.

French form of Amelia.

Portuguese and French form of Amelia.

French form of Amarantha.

Czech form of Amalia.

Feminine variant of Alex.

Medieval short form of Adeline. As an English name, in modern times it has sometimes been regarded as a variant of Eileen. This was the name of a popular 1965 song by the French singer Christophe.

Anglicized form of Alasdair.

French form of Amy.

Spanish diminutive of Adela. It is used especially in Mexico, where it is the name of a folk song about a female soldier.

French and English form of Adelina.

Elaborated form of Adela.

French form of Adela.

Form of Adela used in several languages. A famous bearer was the dancer and actress Adele Astaire (1896-1981). It was also borne by the British singer Adele Adkins (1988-), known simply as Adele. Shortly after she released her debut album in 2008 the name reentered the American top 1000 chart after a 40-year absence.