Kelouise's Personal Name List

From a Germanic name that was derived from the element adal meaning "noble" (Proto-Germanic *aþalaz).

Meaning uncertain, possibly a short form of Adelina.

Variant of Alethea.

Medieval Scottish name, probably a variant of Annabel. It has long been associated with Latin orabilis meaning "invokable, yielding to prayer", and the name was often recorded in forms resembling this.

Unrelated, this was an older name of the city of Irbid in Jordan, from Greek Ἄρβηλα (Arbela).

Diminutive of Arline and other names beginning with Arl.

Italian feminine and masculine form of Caelestis. It is also the Portuguese, Spanish and English feminine form.

From an English surname that was derived from Norman French d'Arcy, originally denoting one who came from the town of Arcy in La Manche, France. This is the surname of a character, Fitzwilliam Darcy, in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice (1813).

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 Old English name Eadgyð, derived from the elements ead "wealth, fortune" and guð "battle". It was popular among Anglo-Saxon royalty, being borne for example by Saint Eadgyeth;, the daughter of King Edgar the Peaceful. It was also borne by the Anglo-Saxon wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. The name remained common after the Norman Conquest. It became rare after the 15th century, but was revived in the 19th century.

From the Old French name Héloïse, which was probably from the Germanic name Helewidis, composed of the elements heil meaning "healthy, whole" and wit meaning "wide". It is sometimes associated with the Greek word ἥλιος (helios) meaning "sun" or the name Louise, though there is no etymological connection. This name was borne by the 12th-century French scholar and philosopher Héloïse. Secretly marrying the theologian Peter Abelard at a young age, she became a nun (and eventually an abbess) after Abelard was violently castrated by order of her uncle Fulbert.

There was a medieval English form of this name, Helewis, though it died out after the 13th century. In the 19th century it was revived in the English-speaking world in the form Eloise.

Variant of Eloise.

Means "elm tree" in Cornish. This is a recently coined Cornish name.

Variant of Esmé.

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.

From the English word felicity meaning "happiness", which ultimately derives from Latin felicitas "good luck". This was one of the virtue names adopted by the Puritans around the 17th century. It can sometimes be used as an English form of the Latin name Felicitas. This name jumped in popularity in the United States after the premiere of the television series Felicity in 1998. It is more common in the United Kingdom.

English form of the Late Latin name Franciscus meaning "Frenchman", ultimately from the Germanic tribe of the Franks, who were named for a type of spear that they used (Proto-Germanic *frankô). This name was borne by the 13th-century Saint Francis of Assisi, who was originally named Giovanni but was given the nickname Francesco by his father, an admirer of the French. Francis went on to renounce his father's wealth and devote his life to the poor, founding the Franciscan order of friars. Later in his life he apparently received the stigmata.

Due to the renown of the saint, this name became widespread in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. However, it was not regularly used in Britain until the 16th century. Famous bearers include Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552), a missionary to East Asia, the philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon (1561-1626), the explorer and admiral Francis Drake (1540-1595), and Pope Francis (1936-).

In the English-speaking world this name is occasionally used for girls, as a variant of the homophone Frances.

Variant of Gwendolen. This is the usual spelling in the United States.

Feminine form of Junius. This was the name of an early Christian mentioned in the New Testament (there is some debate about whether the name belongs to a man or a woman).

Means "my song, my joy" in Hebrew, from לִי (li) "for me" and רֹן (ron) "joy, song".

Combination of Lou and the popular name suffix ella.

Latinate feminine form of Louis. A famous bearer was the American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), the author of Little Women.

Swedish feminine form of Louis.

Norwegian feminine form of Louis.

Feminine form of Lucius. Saint Lucia was a 4th-century martyr from Syracuse. She was said to have had her eyes gouged out, and thus she is the patron saint of the blind. She was widely revered in the Middle Ages, and her name has been used throughout Christian Europe (in various spellings). It has been used in the England since the 12th century, usually in the spellings Lucy or Luce.

Latin diminutive of Lucia. This was the name of a 3rd-century saint martyred in Rome.

An elaboration of Lucia created by Cervantes for his novel Don Quixote (1605). It was subsequently used by Molière in his play The Doctor in Spite of Himself (1666).

Variant of Louella.

Swedish and Norwegian short form of Magdalene.

Feminine form of Marcellus.

Diminutive of Merle.

From the Slavic element milŭ meaning "gracious, dear", originally a short form of names containing that element.

Spanish and Italian form of Ophelia.

Anglicized form of Órlaith.

Feminine form of Peter. This was also the name of an ancient city in the region that is now Jordan.

From the English word for the flower, ultimately deriving from Latin prima rosa "first rose".

Latin form of Sapphira.

Means "little girl" in Aramaic. The name is taken from the phrase talitha cumi meaning "little girl arise" spoken by Jesus in order to restore a young girl to life (see Mark 5:41).

From the English word meaning "verity, truth", from Latin verus "true, real". This was one of the virtue names adopted by the Puritans in the 17th century.

Feminine form of William.

Meaning unknown, possibly an invented name. It arose in the 19th century.