Browse Names

Ada 1 f English, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Finnish, Germanic
Originally a short form of Germanic names such as Adelaide or Adelina that begin with the element adal meaning "noble". Saint Ada was a 7th-century Frankish abbess at Le Mans. This name was also borne by Augusta Ada King (1815-1852), the Countess of Lovelace (known as Ada Lovelace), a daughter of Lord Byron. She was an assistant to Charles Babbage, the inventor of an early mechanical computer.

Adelaida f Spanish
Spanish form of Adelaide.

Águeda f Spanish, Portuguese
Spanish and Portuguese form of Agatha.

Aída f Spanish
Spanish form of Ayda.

Aleida f Dutch, Spanish (Latin American)
Dutch and Spanish short form of Adelaide.

Aleyda f Spanish (Latin American)
Variant of Aleida.

Amada f Spanish
Feminine form of Amado.

Amanda f English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Latvian, Late Roman
In part this is a feminine form of Amandus. However, it was not used during the Middle Ages. In the 17th century it was recreated by authors and poets who based it directly on Latin amanda meaning "lovable, worthy of love". Notably, the playwright Colley Cibber used it for a character in his play Love's Last Shift (1696). It came into regular use during the 19th century.

Armida f Italian, Spanish (Latin American)
Probably created by the 16th-century Italian poet Torquato Tasso for his epic poem Jerusalem Delivered (1580). In the poem Armida is a beautiful enchantress who bewitches many of the crusaders.

Bernarda f Slovene, Croatian, Spanish
Feminine form of Bernard.

Bienvenida f Spanish
Derived from Spanish bienvenido meaning "welcome".

Brígida f Portuguese, Spanish
Portuguese and Spanish form of Bridget.

Brunilda f Albanian, Spanish (Rare), Italian (Rare), Portuguese (Rare)
Albanian, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese form of Brunhild.

Cándida f Spanish
Spanish form of Candida.

Casilda f Spanish
Meaning uncertain. This is the name of the 11th-century patron saint of Toledo, Spain. It might have an Arabic origin (Saint Casilda was a Moorish princess), perhaps from قصيدة (qaṣīda) meaning "poem". Alternatively it could be derived from a Visigothic name in which the second element is hilds meaning "battle".

Deolinda f Portuguese, Spanish
Variant of Teodolinda.

Eneida f Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish (Latin American)
From the Portuguese and Spanish name of the Aeneid (see Aeneas).

Esmeralda f Spanish, Portuguese, English, Albanian, Literature
Means "emerald" in Spanish and Portuguese. Victor Hugo used this name in his novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), in which Esmeralda is the Romani girl who is loved by Quasimodo. It has occasionally been used in the English-speaking world since that time.

Fernanda f Spanish, Portuguese, Italian
Spanish, Portuguese and Italian feminine form of Ferdinand.

Florinda f Spanish, Portuguese
Elaborated form of Spanish or Portuguese flor meaning "flower".

Griselda f English, Spanish, Literature
Possibly derived from the Old German elements gris "grey" and hilt "battle". It is not attested as a Germanic name. This was the name of a patient wife in medieval folklore, adapted into tales by Boccaccio (in The Decameron) and Chaucer (in The Canterbury Tales).

Gumersinda f Spanish
Feminine form of Gumersindo.

Hermelinda f Spanish
Spanish form of Ermelinde.

Hilda f English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Spanish, Hungarian, Anglo-Saxon (Latinized), Germanic
Originally a short form of names containing the Old Frankish element hildi, Old High German hilt, Old English hild meaning "battle" (Proto-Germanic *hildiz). The short form was used for both Old English and continental Germanic names. Saint Hilda (or Hild) of Whitby was a 7th-century English saint and abbess. The name became rare in England during the later Middle Ages, but was revived in the 19th century.

Iluminada f Spanish
Spanish form of Illuminata.

Imelda f Italian, Spanish
Italian and Spanish form of Irmhild. The Blessed Imelda Lambertini was a young 14th-century nun from Bologna.

Inmaculada f Spanish
Means "immaculate" in Spanish. This name is given to commemorate the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.

Iraida f Russian, Spanish
Russian and Spanish form of Herais.

Loida f Spanish
Spanish form of Lois 1.

Mafalda f Portuguese, Italian, Spanish
Originally a medieval Portuguese form of Matilda. This name was borne by the wife of Afonso, the first king of Portugal. In modern times it was the name of the titular character in a popular Argentine comic strip (published from 1964 to 1973) by Quino.

María Fernanda f Spanish
Combination of María and Fernanda.

Nélida f Literature, Spanish
Created by French author Marie d'Agoult for her semi-autobiographical novel Nélida (1846), written under the name Daniel Stern. It was probably an anagram of her pen name Daniel.

Nereida f Spanish
Derived from Greek Νηρηΐδες (Nereides) meaning "nymphs, sea sprites", ultimately derived from the name of the Greek sea god Nereus, who supposedly fathered them.

Nilda f Spanish, Portuguese
Short form of Brunilda.

Olinda f Literature, Portuguese, Spanish (Latin American)
The name of a princess of Norway in the medieval Spanish tale of the knight Amadis of Gaul. It is perhaps related to Greek ὀλύνθη (olynthe) meaning "wild fig tree" (similar to Olindo). Olinda is also the name of a Brazilian city.

Plácida f Spanish (Rare)
Spanish feminine form of Placidus (see Placido).

Raimunda f Spanish, Portuguese
Spanish and Portuguese feminine form of Raymond.

Reynalda f Spanish
Feminine form of Reynaldo.

Ricarda f German, Spanish, Portuguese
German, Spanish and Portuguese feminine form of Richard.

Rosalinda f Spanish, Italian
Latinate form of Rosalind.

Rosenda f Spanish
Feminine form of Rosendo.

Segunda f Spanish
Spanish feminine form of Secundus.

Teodolinda f Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Rare)
Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of Theodelinda (see Dietlinde).

Yolanda f Spanish, English
From the medieval French name Yolande, which was probably a form of the name Violante, which was itself a derivative of Latin viola "violet". Alternatively it could be of Germanic origin.... [more]

Zaida f Arabic (Rare), Spanish
Feminine form of Zayd. This was the name of a Muslim princess who took refuge at the court of (and perhaps married) Alfonso VI of León and Castile in the 11th century.

Zoraida f Spanish
Perhaps means "enchanting" or "dawn" in Arabic. This was the name of a minor 12th-century Spanish saint, a convert from Islam. The name was used by Cervantes for a character in his novel Don Quixote (1606), in which Zoraida is a beautiful Moorish woman of Algiers who converts to Christianity and elopes with a Spanish officer.