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Arabic names, Celtic names, famous namesakes, French names, Gaelic names, germanic names, Hawaiian names, Irish names, Japanese names, locational names, name combinations, nicknames, Persian names, polynesian names, Roman names, saints names, Sanskrit names, scandinavian names, surname names, Swedish names, unisex names
Girls
Alexandra
Alira
Annabella
Anika
Ava Lily
Brooke
Claire
Daisy
Drisana
Grace
Gwyneth Chloe
Harvey
Ke’ala
Keela
Isabella
Mia
Mikayla
Montanna
Paige
Tully Belle
Boys
Beau
Bodie
Chace Tyler
Charles
Eskander
Isaac
James
Jensen
Jeremiah
Kooper
Leo
Maximus
Mekai
Oliver
Oscar
Remy
Riley
Sandon
Shaun
Taj
Tommy
Tyler
Zachariah/Zakkariah
Not sure (hard to tell on a bub!)
Marley (boy?)
Milan (girl?)
Osh (boy?)
Waltzing More Than Matilda 
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What’s the meaning of Zakkariah?
Hi Ryann, Zakkariah is an Arabic variant of Zachariah, which is a form of Zechariah, meaning “Yahweh remembers”.
There are quite a few people called Zechariah in the Bible, including a prophet and the father of John the Baptist.
(The English form is Zachary).
Thanks for commenting!
I think I can help you with Osh… maybe. I know my mum’s friend entered her baby girl Sesi Bea into the Bonds baby search, and her son is called Oshi Kalani, maybe she entered him too, as Osh? I’m not sure, you’d probably know he is a boy though because I think he’s about 2 or 3.
I love Anika, Daisy, Isabella and Tully Belle for girls, and Oscar for boys. I know a couple of girls named Tully, one of them is Tully Scarlet which I think is gorgeous. My sister Tallulah was also named Tully for several weeks before my parents changed it to Tallulah (Lulu for short).
Oh thanks that very helpful inside information, Sophia! The baby did look more like a boy than a girl, but the photos for the shortlist are very small and it’s a bit hard to tell sometimes.
Oshi is Japanese for “push, force”; confusingly it’s listed as a girl’s name on Australian baby name sites.
Tully is a nice name, but Lulu is adorable.
Mekai is how the actor Mehki Phifer’s first name is pronounced. I wonder if that could be the source.
Wow, good thinking! What a brain!
That seems quite plausible, although there are dozens of people on Facebook called Mekai (from diverse cultures). I also see that Mekai is a type of tree species in India … I think it’s one of those names that could come from almost anywhere.
Boxer Michael Dallas Jnr had a son called Mekai in 2008. I don’t know if that’s a contributing factor though.
I suspect it’s a bit of both — the actor and the boxer, probably most likely the boxer, since he’s spelling it Mekai. But if Mekhi’s pronounced Mekai, I’m sure that’ll be a factor in the naming of some Mekais too.
I wonder how many of the facebook folk are really called Mekai, or have adopted it as an alias (perhaps from your original mekai ‘hell’)?
Alira wasn’t a person’s name, but a place or object name – *just* possible it was being used as a name, but more likely just an error for Almira or something.
Osh: I’m still thinking it might be after the city – I have seen Russian and Slavic place names used on Australian babies to honour cultural heritage, but Ossian and Oshriel probably aren’t well enough known to be used just as a short form.
(Don’t worry I deleted your 2nd comment!) 🙂
Good idea that Almira might be behind the anomalies. I have found a reference to Alira/Elera being an ancient name for a little brook in Germany now called the Eller, and said to derive from eller ‘alder’. But I’m pretty certain this is far, far too obscure to be the source of the name.
Interesting that Slavic city names are being used in that way — nice. I reckon Ossian is still a possibility, though. I have seen some examples of the phonetic spelling Oshan, and I know a little boy over here called Ossian, who goes by ‘Osh’.
Or maybe it’s short for another name with ‘osh’ in it, such as Hebrew Osher or Enosh, Persian Anosh or Kourosh, or Indian Santhosh?
Maybe! There is a Japanese boy name Kyoshi as well … I guess we’ll never know.
Ooo, I love a challenge!
Right, Alira — there is a tiny handful of Aliras scattered across the 19th and 20th Centuries records (and I mean tiny handful). Some of these are dubious too, and may be scribal errors.
Its current use is almost certainly down to the appearance of a character called Aleera in the 2005 film Van Helsing. She was one of Dracula’s wives. I would guess the spelling Alira (and Alirah) arose largely because people had simply heard the name in the film, and not seen it written down (who ever pays attention to the credits at the end of a film?).
As far as I can tell, the name was simply made up. Aleera is not a Romanian or Bulgarian name, although the word ‘alera’ does mean allergy in Bulgarian!
There’s also a very minor character called Alera in Greek myth; in Ancient Greek the meaning of the exceedingly rare word alera was uncertain — it may have the unfortunate meaning ‘dung’!
I find it ironic that one meaning given online is ‘harp’. Actually, in ancient Greek alyros means ‘without a harp’.
Now for Mekai. My guess is that it is Hawaiian. In Hawaiian, it could mean ‘like the sea ‘ (from me ‘like a’ + kai ‘sea’); makai means ‘at the seaside’. I wondered about a Maori source, but the best possible meaning in Maori is ‘must eat’ — which would seem like an odd choice!
Milan — yes, I think the city’s behind it’s use for girls. Osh, again, yes, short for Ossian, I reckon. Marley will presumably be in honour of Bob Marley.
Thanks for all that, Nook of Names!
Alira: I have seen so many Aleeras (multiple, multiple spellings!) lately that I’m sure it is due to the “Van Helsing” movie. Now, there is a very old Germanic name Alira, which might explain those in the 19th/20th centuries due to the passion for ancient names.
The Aleera in the movie: could it be a variant of Alera? Aleras are a type of South American butterfly, and this is used sometimes as a girl’s name in South America. The movie-makers may have stuck an extra E in the name to make the pronunciation more obvious to English-speakers. I know it doesn’t make sense on a Slavic woman, but this is a movie! Or else maybe they did go with the ‘allergy” or “dung” meanings! haha Awful to think all these wee girls are being named dung …
Mekai: I think you must be right, although I can’t find anything authenticating Mekai as a true Hawaiian name, rather than a modern one based on the Polynesian Kai. It’s unfortunate it means “hell” in another language, I think.
Where have you found Alira as an Old Germanic name? Even if there was one, it’s unlikely to be responsible for examples prior to the late 20th C (when I think the most likely explanation is simply creativity!). I’ve found no verifiable examples before the 19th C (and I’m not convinced about the ones I’ve found then either!). *alira is a proto-Germanic word meaning ‘other’, but I haven’t found it attested as a name. Where the film-maker’s got their inspiration is anyone’s guess; it might be the character from the Greek myth, the butterfly, or just out of their head! I doubt the ‘e’ was added to help pronunciation — after all, the name only appears written down in the credits, so most people would only have heard it spoken anyway. It might have acquired it, though, for the actors learning their scripts!
As for Mekai, most ‘Hawaiian names’ currently in use are modern inventions; traditionally, each name was unique anyway, so there isn’t really such a thing as a ‘true Hawaiian name’!
I agree about ‘hell’, but it’s the nature of names that a great many have unsavoury meanings in other languages of one kind or another! Mostly people go through their lives blissfully aware of them!
(PS — sorry about accidentally posting my first comment twice!)
Claire and Alexandra are both pretty, classic names – lovely to see!
Yes I’m afraid Chace is spelled like that.
I know a Swede named Annica and maybe prefer that spelling to Anika.
Harvey on a girl is a bit surprising. I suppose because it ends in -ey 🙂
Claire and Alexandra although quite common names are two girl names that I really like a lot.
As for the boys I don’t like the spelling of Kooper with a K. And is Chace really spelled with a c in the middle?