Sebastian

Sebastian comes from the Latin Sebastianus, which means "man from Sebaste." Sebaste was a town in Asia Minor, and its name came from the Greek sebastos which meant "august" or "venerable," so it is reasonable enough to give Sebastian that meaning as well, if "man from Sebaste" isn't meaningful enough for you. Sebastian was the name of a 3rd century saint. He was an officer in the Imperial Roman Army, and was tied to a tree and shot multiple times with arrows by his own fellow officers after being charged with being a Christian. More about him can be found here. Sebastian is a more popular name than you might think. In the U.S. the name has been steadily in use enough to nearly always appear in the top 1000, and since the year 2000, Sebastian has been consistently in the top 100. It is similarly popular in other English-speaking countries including Australia and Canada, and is even more popular (top 50) in Sweden and Norway. The usual popularity of the name in prior decades can be largely attributed to its status as a saint name, and as a surname but why it is currently enjoying a popularity rise, I haven't got a clue.

Irene

Irene means "peace." It comes from the Greek eirene. Irene, or Eirene, was a Greek goddess of peace, and as one of the Horai (Seasons) she personified spring. (Her Roman equivalent was Pax, which is Latin for "peace.") Irene, along with other "classical" names from mythology and other sources, began to gain popularity in English speaking countries in the 19th century. It had reached the top 100 of names for new baby girls by the 1880's, and peaked as the 16th most popular name in 1918 and 1919. Irene remained popular, staying in the top 100 until the 1940's. Since then it has declined in popularity, falling out of the top 500 in recent years. One interesting thing to note; Irene was originally pronounced with three syllables ( i-REE-nee,) but now is generally pronounced EYE-reen in the U.S. and some other English speaking countries. The name is a classic and will surely return to popularity once it is no longer associated with the "older generation." Whether it will return as a two syllable name or a three syllable name is anyone's guess.

Demetrius

Demetrius comes from Demeter. Demeter was the Greek goddess of agriculture, and her name translates to "earth mother." There were several early saints named Demetrius, Shakespeare wrote of a Demetrius in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and John Dryden's translation of Plutarch's Demetrius can be found here. Demetrius has been given to baby boys often enough in the U.S. since the 1950's to remain consistently in the top 1000 names, but has never been what could be called "popular." It will probably remain so; as a classical name and a saint's name, it will likely continue to be used, but it would probably require a super-celebrity with the name Demetrius to push it into a popularity spike. The lack of good nicknames for this name also works against it. Although I can't recommend it as a baby name for anyone but the most adventurous of parents, Demetrius is an excellent name for a dog or cat.

Alexa

Alexa can be considered a shorter version of Alexandra, which is itself a feminine version of Alexander, or it can be considered an alternate version of Alexis, which itself comes from the Greek name Alexius. In any case, Alexander and Alexius both mean "to defend." Alexa is currently enjoying a popularity spike, and is a top 100 name in the U.S. for baby girls. Nevertheless, if you are considering this name for your baby girl, I'd recommend going with the full version, Alexandra, simply because it is so much more versatile, and you can still call her Alexa.

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.

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.

Barbara

Barbara is the Latin form of the Greek barbarus. The Greek word comes from bar-bar, which was sort of a Greek version of "blah blah" and referred to the language of foreigners which sounded like no more than "bar-bar" (or blah blah) to them. Therefore, barbarus came to mean "foreign," and Barbara means "foreign woman." The word barbarian comes from the same source. Other meanings related to the word are sometimes given for Barbara, including "strange," "exotic," and "untamed." Barbara is a saint's name: Saint Barbara is the patron saint of stonemasons, architects, and artillerymen, among other things. Barbara is currently somewhat out-of-fashion as a name for baby girls. It was extremely popular during the first half of the 20th century, and was a top ten name in the U.S. for most of the three decades (the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's.) Because of this, many many people have mothers, grandmothers, and even great-grandmothers named Barbara. Often when this happens a name starts to be associated with the "older generations" and goes out of fashion until the older generation has passed. Barbara has not fallen completely out of use, but its popularity has been on a steady decline since the 1960's, and it currently isn't even quite in the top 500. Barbara is a classic name, however, plus a saint's name, so it is doubtful that it will become obssolete. The name can be expected to eventually experience a resurgence in popularity. Barbara is a versatile name, but its versatility is another reason for its decline in popularity; one of the main nicknames for Barbara is Barbie and that name has been virtually taken over by its association with Barbie Dolls. Other nicknames for Barbara are Babs, Babette, and Barb, and Bobbie. The variant spelling Barbra is sometimes used, but I'll deal with that as a name in its own right at some point.

Philip

Philip means comes from the Greek philein which means "to love," and hippos which means horse, therefore, Philip means "lover of horses." Philip is a saint name, and has been a royal name in Spain and France. Philip was the name of Alexander the Great's father, and although it is less popular now than it was in the early to mid 1900's, it is still given to baby boys reasonably often. The name is reasonably versatile; nicknames include Phil, Philo, and Pip, though the latter two are not often heard today.

James

James is the English version of the name Iacomus, which is a Latin version of the Greek Iakobus. (The name Jacob ultimately comes from the same source, via the Hebrew name version of Iakobus, which is Yaakov.) James is a saint name; in the New Testament, two of Christ's disciples were named James. Several Kings of Scotland were named James. James is a perennial favorite in all English-speaking countries. It is normally a masculine name, but has on occasion been given to girls, as well. (Naming a girl James just isn't recommended. It's not like names for girls are rare.) Because James comes from the same source as Jacob, it also means "supplanter" or "holder of the heel." One reason for James' continued popularity is its versatility. Nicknames for James include Jim, Jimmy, and Jamie. The name is considered by many to be overused, and it probably is, but that overuse is not likely to stop--and there is a big difference between an overused "trendy" name that comes out of nowhere and is overused for a few years, and classic names like James, John, Anne, Mary, etc. James is likely to remain popular, and will also remain a good name choice for boys.

Cynthia

Cynthia comes from the Greek Kynthia, and was a title of the goddess Artemis. It means "woman (or goddess) of Kynthus." Kynthus was the mountain on which Artemis was supposedly born. The name wasn't used in the Middle Ages, but reappeared in the 17th and 18th centuries to some extent. Because Artemis was a virgin goddess, and Queen Elizabeth I was the virgin queen, Raleigh, Spenser and others used "Cynthia" to refer to the queen. Many wives of U.S. plantation owners gave the name Cynthia to slaves in the 19th century; many slaves of that time were given names from classic literature. Cynthia has been used steadily if not overwhelmingly since then. It had a brief surge of popularity in the U.S. in the mid 1900's, making it to #10 in the 1960's. Currently it remains comfortably in the top 300; used but not overused. Cynthia is a somewhat versatile name, bringing with it the nickname Cindy, which as a name in its own right has become nearly as much used as Cynthia.

Stephen

Stephen comes from the Greek Stephanos, which means "crown," or "garland." Stephen is a saint's name (Saint Stephen was the first Christian martyr; the story is told in Acts in the New Testament.) Stephen was a very popular name with the early Christians, and has been reasonbly popular in English speaking countries since at least the 12th century. In the United States, Stephen has remained steadily in use at least the top 150 names for baby boys, sometimes rising into the top 50. The name would probably be more popular if not for its sound-alike variant spelling, Steven; the two have to share their popularity, and the short form for both of them, Steve, is often given as a name in its own right. Stephen is a classic old name that is always a good solid choice for a baby boy.

Dorothy

Dorothy is closely related--or maybe derived from--Dorothea, and also is considered a feminine form of Theodore, of which Dorothea is essentially the dyslexic feminine version. They all mean "gift from God," and their origin is ultimately Greek. But who thinks of Theodore when they hear Dorothy? What we do think of when we hear the name Dorothy is "The Wizard of Oz," and most of us probably mentally picture Judy Garland. I do, and I know a real-life Dorothy who (trust me) is nothing like Dorothy Gale. Dorothy was a very popular name with British parents from the 15th century through the 18th century. Dorothy was also very popular in the U.S., consistently appearing in the top 10 baby names for girls from the 1900's through the 1930's. It started to lose popularity after that, and is still in a slump: Dorothy remains in the top 1000, but not in the top 500. The name lost popularity due to over-use, and parents in the U.S. became more concerned with trendiness than tradition. At this moment it still sounds a bit old-fashioned, but considering the re-emergence of the old classic Emily, Dorothy may soon be due for a comeback of sorts. In any case, it's a classic name and probably isn't going to go away entirely.

Cora

The name Cora comes from the Greek "Kore," which means "maiden." It could also theoretically be used as a nickname or short form for any name that has "Cor" in it, but really most of those don't need short forms anyway. Cora was a quite popular name in the latter part of the 1800's and the early 1900's. It dropped steadily in popularity through the rest of the 1900's, hitting a low point in the 1990's. It never actually dropped out of the top 1000 names for baby girls, and has been climbing in popularity somewhat in the past few years, making it back into the top 500, barely. The popularity of the name in the early 1900's probably made it seem old-fashioned for the rest of the century, but apparently that effect is wearing off, which accounts for its being used more once again. Whether or not it will regain its old popularity remains to be seen. I have nothing to really back this up except my own experience with people I've met, but it seems like "Cora" gets used reasonbly often in conjunction with other names, i.e., "Cora Beth," which is just as often a single compound name, "Corabeth." I've only known one person who was just plain "Cora."

Thomas

I really like the name Thomas a lot. My mother had a cat named Thomas--we called him "Sir Thomas" most of the time. My boyfriend's first name is Thomas, so that's another reason to like the name a lot. Thomas is a wonderful name to give a baby boy--in my opinion, because it has that versatility thing going for it. The child you name Thomas can grow up to be a casual Tommy or Tom, or he can use the more formal Thomas. I love names that allow a person to choose who they'd like to be. According to Behind the Name, Thomas is derived from "Te'oma," meaning "twin." I find this pretty darn interesting because I've started to really like the search engine Teoma, and now I'm going to have to remember to look up how they got that name. Some sources say that Thomas is from Hebrew. Behind the Name says it's a Greek form of an Aramaic name. Aramaic was a language that was very similar to Hebrew, and was likely the language spoken by Jesus Christ, so that's reasonable. Thomas was one of the apostles, and gave us the phrase "doubting Thomas." Thomas is a saint name. This name is one of those classic names that might never go out of style. In the U.S. it's currently at a sort of "low point" in popularity--meaning, it fell out of the top 20. Not much of a "low" there. The name is popular in pretty much all countries with a high Catholic population, so that is part of the reason for its popularity. Again, a name I would definitely recommend.

George

George (Washington, duh,) was the first President of the United States, and has belonged to less-distinguished presidents since then, so I guess George will do as the first name added here. The literal meaning of George is someone who works in the earth, so we take that to mean "farmer." The name is derived from Greek. Saint George is the patron saint of England, and a dreaded enemy of dragons everywhere. George has been a popular name among the royal set, and history is littered with kings and princes named George. The name is currently more popular in England than in the U.S. In the U.S., it's been dropping in popularity since the early 1900's, but is still in the top 200 names for boys. Interestingly (to me, at least,) George was among the top 1000 most popular names for girls in the U.S. until 1950. Since I don't know any women, old or otherwise, named George, I'm going to assume for the moment that the name must have been given as a middle name mostly--as a namesake of a male George father or other relative, as the mother's maiden name, or maybe occasionally because moms just admired the female writers who chose "George" as their male pseudonyms. Why the drop in (U.S.) popularity in recent decades? This is one thing you can't blame on a Bush. At least, not entirely. At this point in time when most people hear the name "George," they think of an old, or at least middle-aged man. Maybe George Bush (either of them.) Maybe George Jefferson (you know, from tv.) George of the Jungle? Maybe just Uncle George who tells bad jokes and has a nervous habit of adjusting his dentures with his tongue. In short, right now, the name seems kind of old-fashioned. People who are naming their babies George (in the U.S., that is,)are probably naming them after fathers, grandfathers, or rich old relatives who might kick off at any moment and don't have any children of their own. In a generation or two, when the memories of Georges past have faded, the name will probably regain popularity once again--it's an old standard, a classic, and it's not likely to go away entirely. Why is it still so popular in England? The simple answer is probably that the British are a little more tradition-oriented and less trend-oriented when it comes to naming their babies. For the bored: Where's George, a website that lets you track one dollar bills.