Randall

Randall comes from the name Randolf, a Norman given name which means "shield wolf" or possibly "raven wolf." Randall is the vernacular form of Randolf that was used in medieval times--which simply means that the spelling "Randall" represents how "Randolf" was pronounced. The surname Randall comes from the use of Randolf as a given name in medieval times, and more modern use as Randall as a given name in its own right is a result of the surname. Randall enjoyed some real popularity in the middle decades of the 20th century, but has been steadily falling in popularity since the 1960's. It is still used often enough to almost make the top 500 list in the U.S., however, and could eventually regain some popularity. The main drawback to the name is the fact that its most obvious nickname, Randy, is a slang term in England meaning "horny."

Jade

Jade is a gem name, and is simply the word for the precious stone used as a given name. Gem names, such as Ruby, were quite popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Jade was not part of this trend, because "jade" was also a slang term used as a synonym for a floozy or hussy, and also a slang term used for a worn out horse--a nag. Jade only really began to be used popularly as a given name after Mick Jagger's daughter, Jade, was so named, in the early 1970's. Since then, Jade has been a fairly popular name in the U.S., mostly given to girls, but given to boys often enough to have made the top 1000 occasionally since the 1970's. Jade (for girls) has been even more popular other English speaking countries in recent years, and has become especially popular in France and Belgium, as well. Jada and Jayda are both names derived from Jade that have lately been gaining popularity.

Samuel

Samuel is a Biblical name, which comes from the Hebrew Shemuel, and means "God has heard." Samuel was a judge and a prophet of the Old Testament, and he anointed both Saul and David king. Samuel was popular with the Puritans of the 17th century, and with the Prostestant Noncomformists in the 18th and 19th centuries. Samuel remained popular throughout the 20th century, rarely falling out of the top 50 names for baby boys in the United States. Samuel remains just as popular today, not just in the U.S. and England, but through nearly all of the English speaking world, as well as in France, Spain, and Sweden. Samuel brings with it the nicknames Sam and Sammy. Famous Samuels include Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and Samuel Morse. The Samuel most in-the-news lately has been Samuel Alito, whose confirmation hearings may have caused many people to feel a strong need for a Sam Adams.

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.

Denise

Denise is a French name; it's the feminine form of Denis/Dennis. Dennis comes from Dionysius, which was originally a word for a follower or devotee of the Greek god Dionysos. So, if you want to take the attitude that a name retains the meaning of its original form, then Denise means "follower of Dionysos." Denise is a saint name; Saint Denise lived in the 3rd century You can read her story at Wikipedia. Denise began to be used in the U.S. in the 1920's and grew quickly in popularity through the 30's and 40's. Extremely popular in the 50's, 60's, and 70's, the name is now well past its popularity peak, but is still fairly common as a name for new baby girls today.

Susan

Susan is a short form of the name Susanna, which comes from the Hebrew name Shoshana, and means "lily," or "rose." This sort of qualifies it as a plant or flower name (such as Rose or Lily or Heather, but it's not really considered in that group, normally.) From the 1940's through the 1970's, Susan was a ridiculously popular name. Its popularity finally started to wane in the 1980's, and has been declining steadily ever since, mainly because people simply grew tired of the name. Susan is still used, but not nearly as much--it has even fallen out of the top 500 in the U.S. Famous Susans include Susan B. Anthony, actressess Susan Sarandon, Susan Lucci, and Susan Hayward, and in fiction, Susan is one of the children in the Narnia series, and Suellen O'Hara, Scarlett's sister from Gone With the Wind is actually named Susan Eleanor--Suellen is her nickname. Usual nicknames for Susan include Sue, Suzie, and Susie, which makes it a quite versatile name, but those nicknames are in the same boat as Susan--they are considered a little overused and old-fashioned at this point. Susan is a name that has been around for a long time though, and probably should be considered a classic. It is more than likely that in future generations it will regain its popularity once again.

Carla

Carla is a feminine form of Carl, which itself comes from the name Charles. Since Charles means "man" or "free man," then Carla can be taken to mean "woman" or "free woman." Carla is an extremely popular name in Spain. In the U.S., Carla began to be used in the 1920's, reached a popularity peak in the 1960's, and has been declining slowly in popularity ever since. Carla wasn't used enough, even at the peak of its popularity, to be considered over-used, and its decline has been slow; people still like this name apparently. It has remained in the top 500, and could see a revival in popularity at any time--especially if it gets a push from a famous Carla, whether real or fictional.

Missy (Missie)

Missy (occasionally spelled Missie) has two sources. First, it is a simple transfer of the word missy, which comes from miss, the traditional form of address for an unmarried girl or woman in English. Second, Missy is sometimes used as a nickname or pet form of Melissa. Missy is very rare as a name in its own right. It has been used since the 1950's at least, and nearly made the top 500 in the U.S. during several years in the 1960's, but that was the peak of its popularity. Although Missy has never been a very popular name for people, it has been used quite a bit for cats and small white dogs.

Heather

Most names can go into some category or another, or several categories in some cases. Examples include gem names like Ruby and Jasper, saint names, names that were surnames, and so on. One of those categories is flowers, or plants, and Heather is one of these names. Heather is a plant often associated with Scotland, and the heather page at Electric Scotland has some nice pictures of it, a great legend, and excellent information about the evolution of the word heather from Old Scottish to the present form. Actually that page probably contains more information about heather than anyone could ever need, but go there anyway for the legend and the pictures. It's very nice. The most famous Heather on the Internet is blogger Heather Armstrong, a.k.a. Dooce. And of course there's Heather Locklear, but Dooce is much more interesting. Really. Heather only started to be used regularly as a given name for baby girls in the 1930's, but had made it all the way to the top 10 in the 1970's. Its popularity has waned steadily since the 70's, but it is still in the top 300, so is certainly not out of use. The loss of popularity is almost certainly due to over-use (see the 1989 movie Heathers , with its clique of Heathers.)

Connie

Connie is a nickname of Constance, but has been used as a name in its own right since the 1880's. It was fairly popular in the U.S. from the 1940's through the 1960's, but declined after that and has disappeared from the top 1000 since 1998. Famous Connies include Connie Francis and Connie Chung.

Karen

Karen is a Danish form of Katherine. Exactly where Katherine comes from or what it means is so widely disagreed on that I've come to the conclusion that no one has anything worthy of being called a clue. Karen was brought to America by Scandinavian settlers, according to Ask Oxford, and appeared in the U.S. top 1000 in the 1930's, and rose all the way to the #4 position in the 1960's. Its use has declined somewhat since then, but Karen is still one of the top 200 names in the U.S. In Britain the name Karen wasn't used until the 1950's. Karen doesn't offer much in the way of nickname versatility, and it doesn't hold the appeal of "new and original" that it once did, but it's still a quite pretty name with no obvious bad associations, so if you really like the name there are no good reasons not to use it for your baby. Karen has also very occasionally been used as a boy's name, actually making it into the top 1000 in the 1950's and 1960's. In this case it is probably considered to be a short form of the Armenian male name Karekin, (and probably should have been spelt Karin.)

Laura

Laura comes from the Late Latin male name Laurus, which means "laurel," referring to the crown of laurel you always seen on the heads of important Romans. Laura is a saint name; Saint Laura was a Spanish nun who met a grisly death in a vat of molten lead. The Italian poet Petrarch wrote love poetry to "Laura" in the 1300's leading to a certain amount of popularity for the name in Italy. The name began to be popular in English-speaking countries in the 19th century. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote books that most people are aware of if not familiar with, and many women (and maybe some men, who knows?)are fans of Laura Ashley. Current well-known Laura's include Laura Bush and "Dr. Laura." Laura has been hugely popular in the U.S. in the past century, only falling out of the top 1000 since the year 2000. A note: the pronunciation of Laura can vary depending on who you are and where you are. Some people rhyme it, or almost, with "Norah," while others say the "au" with a sound closer to "ah." Some have made their pronunciation intent more obvious by simply spelling it "Lora," though this can also be a name in its own right.

Malinda

Malinda is Melinda in disguise. This variant spelling has been used often enough to have appeared consistently in the top 1000 names for girls from the beginning of the 20th century through the 1980's. Since then it's been more rare. People may be turned off the name by the association with the "mal" prefix, meaning "bad, badly." (Malady, malfunction, malice, malpractice, etc.) Since Malinda is a variant spelling of Melinda, I'll mention that Melinda itself has no real meaning; it's an invented name, possibly a combination of the "mel" prefix, as in Melissa, and the popular "inda" ending, or it could be just a re-spelling of Belinda.

Patricia

Patricia comes from Latin. To be Patrician in ancient Rome meant to be a member of the noble class, so Patricia means "noble." Patricia was an extremely popular name in the U.S. from the 1930's until the 1970's, when it began to decline. The name remains in the top 400 names for baby girls in the U.S., and will probably remain in use. At the moment it has that vaguely old-fashioned sound to most of us; this comes from the fact that many of us know or have known at least one older lady named "Patricia," which simply makes it out of vogue. The name will most likely regain some popularity in future generations. Patricia is a versatile name, bringing with it nicknames such as Pat, Pattie, Patsy, and the more recently in-vogue Tricia--all of which are also used as given names in their own right.

Albert

Like William (see below,) Albert is a name that is an Old French form of name derived from Germanic, and like William, Albert was introduced to England by the Norman Conquest. Also like William, Albert is derived from two parts, adal which means "noble," and berht, which means "bright," or "famous." Albert has not had the immense popularity in English-speaking countries that William has, but then, few names have. Albert was extremely popular, especially in England from 1840 through the 1920's, in honor of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the husband of Queen Victoria. The name was also well-used in the United States through the first half of the 1900's, finally falling out of the top 100 in the tradition-rejecting 1960's. The name has declined slowly yet steadily in popularity since then, but still remains in the top 400 names for baby boys in the U.S. Albert is definitely in a popularity lull, and to many ears it now sounds hopelessly old-fashioned. Still, as a middle name, particularly given in honor of an older relative, it's a fine name. Its use as a first "main" name is not really recommended at this point however, simply because even its common nicknames, (Al, Bert, Bertie) have a definite out-of-style sound to them. Albert remains a great name for a cat with a certain aloof and dignified manner.

Earl

The use of Earl as a first name comes from two related sources which both come from the same source themselves--the noble title Earl, as in the Earl of Sandwich. First, several titles were used, mainly in the U.S., as nicknames: Earl, Duke, King, Prince, Princess, Queen, etc., and then the nicknames migrated to become used as given names. The other source is the common practice of using a surname, such as the mother's maiden name, as part of a child's given name. Earl is a surname which also began as a nickname or descriptive term given to someone who worked in the household of an Earl. Although Earl held a place in the top 30 names for boys in the early 1900's, its use has declined steadily, and it had nearly dropped out of the top 1000 by 2004. The name has been returned to popular consciousness recently by the television show "My Name Is Earl," but I'm doubting that many new parents will be naming their sons after the lead character in that show. One well-known Earl is banjo player Earl Scruggs, who helped to define a sound with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys that would eventually become the musical genre bluegrass.

Gloria

Gloria, unsurprisingly, comes from the Latin word for "Glory." The first known use of the word as a name was in E.D.E.N. Southworth's novel, Gloria, a Novel, published in 1891. It appeared again as a name in George Bernard Shaw's play You Never Can Tell, in 1898. Once introduced, the name took wing, and has been very popular in the U.S., especially from the 1920's thru the 1950's. Famous Glorias include Gloria Swanson, Gloria Estefan, and Gloria Steinem. Although the name doesn't have the popularity it did in earlier decades, it never has falled out of the top 500, and it looks like this late entry to the name arena might have real staying power, unlike so many of the shooting star names.

Frederick

Frederick comes from Old German and means "peaceful ruler." Frederick was a top 100 baby name for boys in the U.S. until the 1950's, but it's been used less and less since then--it seems decidedly old-fashioned at this point. Another thing that Frederick has going against it as a baby name at the moment is that the full form, Frederick, seems too formal and stiff, while the short form, Fred, generally makes us think of Fred Flintstone or Fred Mertz, and definitely sounds old-fashioned. Another common short form of Frederick is Freddy (or Freddie,) which brings to mind Freddy Krueger, so that's no help for the name, either. The name is an old classic though, and has been historically royal in Germany and Prussia. It's been abused by popular culture over the past few decades, but its chances of outliving the fame of television shows and movies are excellent, so I'm betting it will one day make a comeback. When you get past all the current connections, it's a very distinguished-sounding name. At the moment though, I'd definitely hesitate before naming a baby Frederick--at least give the kid a first or middle name with fewer interesting connections; he'll be glad you did. All that aside, Fred is a great name for a dog or cat, and we once had a fish named Fred. He was a very small bream that my brother caught in the lake and for some reason we decided to keep him and put him in an aquarium. He lived there for over a year, and seemed reasonbly happy, for a fish. Then one night someone had left the cover halfway off his tank and he made a leap for a passing fly (he loved flies,) landed on the floor, and was pretty dried out by the time we found him the next day--and obviously dead. Of course, we don't know for a fact that he was leaping for a fly, but that is probably what happened. None of that has anything at all to do with the name Frederick, but that's life.