Priscilla

Priscilla is a Biblical name; it appears in Acts in the New Testament. Priscilla is a Latin name which comes from the Roman family name Priscus, which means "ancient." Because Priscilla appeared in the New Testament, the 17th century Puritans liked it. Priscilla was popular again in the 19th century, probably largely because of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's classic poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish. Throughout the 20th century, Priscilla was quietly in use, though not really popular, remaining in the top 200 or 300 names for girls, with no apparent effect from the fame of Priscilla Presley. In the years since the turn of the century, Priscilla has begun to slide a bit farther down in popularity, into the top 400.

Caroline

Caroline is a feminine version of Carolus, which is the Latin form of Charles. Charles means "man" or "free man." Caroline is currently quite popular, having been in the top 100 names for girls since the mid 1990's. Caroline was also quite popular in 1880, which is the earliest year of records from the SSA's Popular Baby Names database, and it has never been an unpopular name in the years in between. Caroline's most often used nickname is Carrie.

Gary

Gary has several origins, which mostly all reach back to the same base origin, which is the Germanic element gar, which means "spear." Many names, such as Gareth, Garret, Garland, and Garfield, begin with this element, and Gary was originally a nickname or short form for those names. Widely used nicknames often become given names in their own right, and they also often spawned surnames. Both of these happened with Gary, so today, Gary can be a nickname, a name in its own right, or a transferred use of the surname as a given name. Gary was a very popular name in the U.S. from the 1930's through the 1960's, probably largely because of the fame of actor Gary Cooper. The name is still used, and is still in the U.S. top 500, but has been steadily dropping since the 1970's. Other famous, or at least well-known, Garys include Gary the snail, from the popular Spongebob Squarepants cartoon; actor Gary Dourdan, who plays Warrick Brown on television's CSI; Gary Levox, the lead singer for the country group Rascal Flatts; actor Gary Oldman; and the town, Gary, Indiana. Although this name is still suffering somewhat from its extreme popularity in the 20th century, and not being helped by having a famous snail using the name, Gary will most likely make a comeback and return to popular use eventually.

Elsa

Elsa is a nickname of Elizabeth or Elisabeth, and it is a very international name, found in a multitude of countries, from Sweden to Italy to Germany. Elsa is a character in Wagner's Lohengrin, and Elsa is a famous lioness written about in Joy Adamson's Born Free, which was also made into a popular movie. Actress Elsa Lanchester was famous for her role in Bride of Frankenstein, and Elsa is one of the most sympathetic characters in Helen Hooven Santmyer's ...And Ladies of the Club (which is one of my favorite books ever.) Elsa was a reasonbly common name in the U.S. in the first couple of decades of the 1900's, but hasn't managed to find a place in the top 500 since then. Personally, I really like this name and would like to see it make a strong comeback, but the association with Elsa the lioness might still be too strong for many new parents.

Vic

Vic is a nickname for Victor, or occasionally for Victoria.

Folant

Folant is a Welsh version of the name Valentine, which means "strong, healthy." Folant is quite rare, and I haven't had much luck in finding any real history of this name, but it should be noted that it's been around and was used enough at one time that Folant is also a surname.

Acacia

Acacia is a flower name. The origin and meaning of the name are not certain. One possible origin is the Greek word ake, which means "point," and refers to thorns. Another possible origin is the Greek word kakos, meaning "bad," combined with the Greek prefix a, meaning "not." The idea here is that the resulting word, akakos, referred to the flower's ability to ward away evil, or "bad." Where names are concerned, Acacia is usually taken to mean "thorny," but there's no good reason why it couldn't be taken to mean "sharp," and used for a little girl who's expected to be one smart cookie.

Viggo

Viggo is Scandinavian and can be a nickname or short form for any name containing the element Vig, which means "war." Pronunciation of the name seems to vary depending on geography, but the most famous Viggo, Viggo Mortensen, from the Lord of the Rings movies, apparently pronounces his name "Vee-go."

Tobiah

Tobiah is Biblical name. Its origin is Hebrew, and it means "God is good." Tobiah appears in the Old Testament as an Ammonite opposed to Nehemiah. The more familiar Tobias comes from this name.

Fearchar

Fearchar is a Gaelic name that means "dear man," from the elements fear (man) and char (dear.) This name shows up in the early histories of Scotland and Ireland, and anyone researching their Irish or Scottish genealogy is likely to run across it. The slightly more familiar name Farquhar is the English version of Fearchar, and became a surname, so if you hit a dead end in your genealogy search with either Fearchar or Farquhar, try broadening your search to include the other.

Jocelyn

Jocelyn comes from the Old French name Joscelin, which was introduced to Britain by the Normans around the time of the Norman Conquest and was ultimately derived from the name of a Germanic tribe, the Gauts. In the days of the Conquest the name was masculine. The name fell out of use as a given name, but it had by that time spawned the surname Jocelyn, which eventually itself began to be used as a given name. This time around though, the name is nearly always feminine rather than masculine, probably because of the lyn which is equated with the feminine Lynn. In its new feminine capacity, Jocelyn began appearing in the U.S. top 1000 in the 1930's, but didn't begin to really gain popularity until the 1980's. In 2002, Jocelyn cracked the top 100, and continues to rise in popularity.

Makayla

Makayla is a respelling (variant form) of the name Michaela, which is a feminine form of Michael. This version is a fairly recent invention, and first appeared on the U.S. top 1000 list in 1990. It has gained popularity quickly since then, making it into the top 50 in 2004. Why has this name gotten so popular so fast, and is it likely to remain popular? The reason for its popularity has a lot to do with the fact that not only is it a respelling of Michaela, it is also simply "Kayla" with a "Ma" at the beginning. Kayla is an extremely popular name; it has been in the top 20 consistently since 1990, which is also when the "deluxe" version, Makayla, appeared. By now, Kayla is becoming somewhat overused, and should soon begin to drop in popularity, and most likely, Makayla's popularity will fall too. Although many people love the name, obviously, and have given it to their daughters, to many other eyes it appears awkward and misspelled. With so many Makaylas now in the world, that attitude may fade as the name begins to seem more familiar and normal.

Kerry

Kerry is a name that is used for both girls and boys. According to Ask Oxford it is a recent addition to the name pool. According to the U.S. Social Security Administration's Popular Baby Names website, however, Kerry appered in the top 1000 names for boys as early as 1934 and for girls in 1943, which isn't that recent, really. Kerry is a county in Ireland, and in most instances, that is probably what inspired the use of Kerry as a first name. It is important to remember, though, that Kerry is also a surname (as in John Kerry, whose website is the first result you get currently if you simply search for "Kerry" on Google.) Although Kerry enjoyed some popularity in the U.S. in the 1950's through the 1970's, it began to lose popularity swiftly after that, and has lately been completely out of fashion for both girls and boys. Any current lack of popularity of the name may or may not be due to the fame of John Kerry.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah means "appointed by God," or "God has uplifted." Jeremiah is a Biblical name; he was a prophet and the author of the Book of Jeremiah, and probably the author of the Book of Lamentations. Jeremiah was a popular name with the Puritans of the 1600's, and in general with Christian fundamentalists. In 1971 the band Three Dog Night had a huge hit with the song Joy to the World, which many people identify by its attention-grabbing first line, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog." Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, Jeremiah began to gain popularity, moving from #629 in the U.S. in 1969 to #68 in 1977. The name began to lose popularity again in the 80's and 90's, but remained in the top 200 name for U.S baby boys, and has begun to climb in popularity once again since the year 2000, as parents once again looked to classic and Biblical (or musical, perhaps) names for their children.

Emerson

Emerson is a surname that is sometimes used as a given name. The surname means "son of Emery." Emerson was a reasonbly common given name for boys in the late 18th century and in the first few decades of the 19th century, sometimes givin in honor of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Instances of the name began to taper off during the 1940's, and it disappared entirely from the top 1000 after the 1960's. In the 1990's Emerson began to appear again as a name for baby boys, but was still quite rare. In 2002, Emerson appeared on the top 1000 list for names for new baby girls in the U.S. Although Emerson has been gaining some popularity for boys in the past few years, it hasn't gained much popularity for girls thus far, but that could easily change. Emma and Emily have recently been extremely popular, and Emerson has the identical first syllable, and the ability to use Emma or Emmy as a nickname. And, now the name has appeared as a name for a little girl on a popular television show, Desperate Housewives. This is a name that definitely bears watching over the next year or two.

Nathan

Nathan is a Hebrew name and means "giver." Because Nathan appears inside two other names, Jonathan and Nathaniel, Nathan is sometimes considered a short form of those names. In the Old Testament, King David had a son named Nathan, and Nathan was also a prophet who served King David, but who also rebuked him after the Bathsheba incident, and intervened when Adonijah attempted to take the throne for himself. Much later, another Nathan, Nathan Hale, was an American Revolution hero who said "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country," before being hanged by the British. Nathan is currently an internationally popular name, holding a position in the top 30 most popular names for boys in not only the U.S., but in nearly all English speaking countries.

Kendall

Kendall is a surname that is also used as a given name. There are several possible sources for the surname; the entry for Kendall at Ask Oxford does the best job of outlining those. After making the transition from surname to given name, Kendall was a name usually given to boys. Parents may have liked it somewhat because it seemed akin to Kenneth, both of which bring with them the nicknames Ken and Kenny. In the 1980's, some new parents began using Kendall as a girl's name, and in the 1990's, the popularity of Kendall as a girl's name may have been spurred a little by the character Kendall on the daytime soap All My Children. Now, the name is used much more for new baby girls than it is for boys. In either case, masculine or feminine, the name is common enough to not be unusual, but not common enough to be considered "popular." I'm assuming that while boys named Kendall can (and do) use Ken and Kenny as nicknames, I'm curious as to what, if any, nicknames for girls are used for Kendall. The only obvious one that I can see is Dollie/Dolly, and that seems too outdated for present tastes. Are we going to wind up with girls called Kenny, or Kennie? (Now that I think of it, and see it, Kennie isn't a bad name for a girl, really.)