Just when you think you’ve heard every possible name, parents prove there’s far more to discover. Last year, 723 girls’ names appeared in the U.S. baby name statistics for the first time ever. Some are variations on familiar themes, while others take names in totally new directions. Meet some of the most intriguing new names given to at least five American girls in 2024.
Animation and Comics
Keyleth, Vexahlia: Two half-elf characters in The Legend of Vox Machina, an animated fantasy series based on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign from the web series Critical Role.
Koriandr: Princess Koriand’r, better known as Starfire, is a DC comics superhero with the abilty to harness solar radiation.
Sylphiette: Another part-elf, part-human character, Sylphiette appears in the manga/anime Mushoku Tensei.
Athletes
Masai, Shacarri: Masai Russell and Sha’Carri Richardson are track stars who won gold medals for Team USA at the 2024 Olympics.
Nyad: The film Nyad told the true story of swimmer Diana Nyad, who swam from Cuba to Florida at age 60.
By the Letters
Aiunii: One of the most vowel-packed names of all time. Puerto Rican singer Jay Wheeler and his wife created it for their daughter, inspired by the Arabic for “my eyes.”
Knourish: An unusual example of a creatively spelled word name where the original word (nourish) isn’t used as a name.
Zathena: Athena, the name of the Greek goddess of war and wisdom, gets the extra-oomph Z treatment.
Movies and TV
Rhaenys: Princess Rhaenys Targaryen is “The Queen Who Never Was” in House of the Dragon.
Rizzo: Betty Rizzo is the leader of the Pink Ladies in the musical Grease. (Or, as has been suggested to me, “like Lizzo, but with more rizz.”)
Vedaa: In the 2024 Indian action film Vedaa, the title character is a Dalit law student fighting the evils of caste discrimination.
Ysabeau: This medieval French name is featured as the vampire mother in A Discovery of Witches.
Words
Abundance: A celebration of God’s many blessings, or encouragement to adopt an “abundance mindset” that life isn’t a zero-sum game.
Clever: Most word names are nouns, but rapper Finesse2Tymes started a trend by giving this adjective to a daughter.
Mauve: A brand new color name, likely influenced by the popularity of Maeve.
Triumph: Success-focused names have been given mostly to boys in the past, but this is one sign of change.
Social Media and Reality TV
Asantewaa: Ghanaian TikTok star Martina Dwamena goes by Asantewaa, the name of the storied Queen Mother of the Ashanti who led resistance to British colonial rule.
Quori: Quori-Tyler Bullock was a 2024 contestant on the reality tv series The Circle.
Salish: Salish Matter is a young internet personality. Her parents took her name from the Salish Sea, an area of the Pacific Ocean which is named for the indigenous Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest.
Global Meanings
Eirlys: Welsh name meaning “snowdrop flower.”
Inti: The Incan sun god and the Quechua word for “sun.”
Kiraz: Turkish name meaning “cherry.”
Talvi: Finnish and Estonian name meaning “winter.”
Gaming
Lumine: One of the main playable characters in the game Genshin Impact.
Pneuma: The ancient Greek word for “breath.” Pneuma is a character in the Xenoblade games, and currently America’s one and only Pn name.
Rennala: The mad Queen of the Full Moon in the game Elden Ring.
7 Comments
Right before lockdown started in 2020, three friends and I went out for coffee. We got into a heated debate about the pronunciation of mauve. Two of us argued strongly for “mahwve” while the other two fell into the “mohve” (long ‘o’) camp. I’m very curious if there is any consensus among the families who chose this name for their daughter!
It depends on the accent. I rhyme it with suave.
Oof. I can’t be the only one that thinks of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog from Conan O’Brien… Though since it first came out in 1997, hopefully anyone named Triumph won’t get “For me to POOP ON!!!” in the classroom…
This was my first thought as well!
Rizzo is more Muppet than Grease to me: I’ve seen Muppets From Space many more times than I’ve seen Grease. 😂
Kerri, I’m glad you mentioned that! The Rizzo entry could have been much longer, since Rizzo the Rat was in turn a play on Ratso Rizzo from Midnight Cowboy.
Rizzo really does strike me as “Lizzo with more Rizz”. I can’t hear it as anything else (but I’m young). Either way, I do wonder if there might be too much teasing potential. I can picture it being a bit of a problem as a first name.