Literary Girl Names

Names invented or popularized by a book or play. Several of the most ordinary-looking names in English use were coined by a single author and have been in circulation ever since.

Rankings for

69 names, most popular first in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Olivia Olivia is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "olive tree," used as the feminine form of Oliver.
Latin #1 in US
Emma Emma is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "whole" or "universal," from the element ermen, found in older names such as Ermintrude.
Germanic #3 in US
Camila Camila is a girl's name of Latin origin, the Spanish and Portuguese form of Camilla.
Latin #19 in US
Scarlett Scarlett is a girl's name of English origin, taken from an occupational surname for someone who sold or dyed scarlet cloth.
English #32 in US
Emily Emily is a girl's name of Latin origin, from the Roman family name Aemilius.
Latin #34 in US
Layla Layla is a girl's name of Arabic origin meaning "night."
Arabic #36 in US
Emilia Emilia is a girl's name of Latin origin, from the Roman family name Aemilius.
Latin #45 in US
Eloise Eloise is a girl's name of French origin, from the medieval Héloïse.
French #49 in US
Stella Stella is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "star."
Latin #52 in US
Alice Alice is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," arrived at by a long contraction of Adelaide.
Germanic #65 in US
Juliette Juliette is a girl's name of Latin origin, the French diminutive of Julie and so of Julia, from the Roman family name Julius.
Latin #110 in US
Eliza Eliza is a girl's name that began as a short form of Elizabeth, and so means "God is my oath," from the Hebrew Elisheva.
Hebrew #115 in US
Evangeline Evangeline is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "bearer of good news."
Greek #147 in US
Arya Arya is a name of Sanskrit origin meaning "noble."
Sanskrit #159 in US
Daphne Daphne is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "laurel tree."
Greek #178 in US
Ophelia Ophelia is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "help" or "benefit."
Greek #264 in US
Juliet Juliet is thirteen in the play, and Shakespeare says so twice — the Nurse gives her age precisely, which most productions quietly ignore and most readers never notice.
English #274 in US
Sabrina Sabrina is the Latin name of the River Severn, and the legend behind it is a drowning — a princess thrown into the river became its spirit.
Latin #321 in US
Lorelai Lorelai is a girl's name of German origin naming a rock on the Rhine, where a siren was said to lure boatmen to their deaths.
German #333 in US
Heidi Heidi is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble one."
Germanic #341 in US
Matilda Matilda is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "mighty in battle."
Germanic #364 in US
Esmeralda Esmeralda is not the character's name in the novel — Hugo's girl is christened Agnès and called Esmeralda for the green amulet she wears, so the name most readers know her by is a nickname.
Spanish #373 in US
Vanessa Vanessa was invented by Jonathan Swift around 1713, built from the name of a woman he was writing to — and it later became the name of a genus of butterflies.
English #377 in US
Laura Laura is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "laurel," the tree whose leaves crowned Roman victors and poets.
Latin #379 in US
Lyra Lyra is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "lyre," the stringed instrument of classical antiquity.
Greek #435 in US
Lorelei Lorelei is a girl's name from a rock on the Rhine River near Koblenz, Germany.
German #441 in US
Fiona Fiona was invented by a Scottish poet, and then used as a pen name by a man — William Sharp published as Fiona Macleod for a decade and denied being her until his death.
Scottish #470 in US
Amanda Amanda is a girl's name from the Latin for she who must be loved, and one of the few names on this site that can be dated to a specific literary invention — Colley Cibber used it for a character in his 1696 play Love's Last Shift.
Latin #493 in US
Beatrice Beatrice is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "she who brings happiness."
Latin #508 in US
Scarlet Scarlet is a girl's name from the bright red color, a spelling of Scarlett.
English, French #509 in US
Estella Estella means star, and Dickens chose the name deliberately — Great Expectations gives it to a girl raised to be beautiful and unreachable, which is what a star is.
Spanish #510 in US
Marlowe Marlowe is a unisex name from an English surname, usually traced to Marlow in Buckinghamshire.
English #523 in US
Miranda Miranda was coined by Shakespeare for The Tempest around 1611, from the Latin for to be wondered at.
Latin #655 in US
Briana Briana is a feminine of Brian, and it first appears in Spenser's Faerie Queene in 1590 — which makes it one of very few names whose earliest recorded use is a specific poem.
Irish #661 in US
Myra Myra was invented by a poet — Fulke Greville coined it around 1580, probably by rearranging Mary, and every later meaning attached to it was supplied after the fact.
English #662 in US
Jessica Jessica is a girl's name invented by Shakespeare for The Merchant of Venice in 1596.
Hebrew #665 in US
Lara Lara is a girl's name of Russian origin, a short form of Larisa, and its meaning is unresolved — most often given as "citadel," after the Greek city of Larissa.
Russian #691 in US
Louisa Louisa is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," a Latinate form of Louise.
Germanic #694 in US
Angelica Angelica is both a name and a plant, and the plant is named for the angel — a medieval legend has one reveal it as a cure during plague, which is why it was grown in monastery gardens.
Latin #708 in US
Ramona Ramona means protecting counsel, and a novel made it — Helen Hunt Jackson wrote Ramona in 1884 to expose the treatment of Native Californians, and readers took the romance and ignored the argument.
Spanish #733 in US
Celia Celia is a girl's name of Latin origin from the Roman family name Caelius, whose meaning is disputed between "heaven" and a much older Etruscan word.
Latin #775 in US
Darcy Darcy is a name of Norman French origin meaning "from Arcy," a place in Normandy.
French #858 in US
Salomé Salomé is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "peace," and the woman the name is best known for is never named in the gospels.
French #1,042 in US
Clarissa Clarissa means bright, and it names one of the longest novels in English — Richardson's Clarissa runs to about a million words, which makes it longer than the whole of Proust in most editions.
Latin #1,116 in US
Imogen Imogen is a girl's name that exists because of a printing error.
Irish #1,118 in US
Roxanne Roxanne means dawn or bright, and it is Persian rather than Greek — Alexander married Roxana in Bactria, and she and their son were murdered after his death.
Persian #1,313 in US
Wendy Wendy is usually credited to J.
English #1,345 in US
Brenda Brenda is a girl's name from an Old Norse word for a sword or a torch, and it appears to have been invented for a novel — Walter Scott used it in The Pirate in 1822, and no earlier use is recorded.
Norse #1,528 in US

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