Eulalia

Meaning: (Sweetly Speaking, Sweetly Spoken, To Talk Well, Eloquent, Well Spoken, Famous bearer; 4th century Spanish martyr St Eulalia. Popular among English speakers in the Middle Ages.)

Origin: (Greek)

Pronunciation: (yoo-LAY-lee-ə, yoo-LAY-lee-AH, YuwLEYLiyah)

Gender: Female

I have used this name in the current novel I am writing as the name of an ancestress of my main character. I stumbled upon this name when looking for rare looking older names for this current novel. I absolutely love the meanings. Also I maid Eulalia’s child Merida *see on list of posts* which has a connection if you google it. Since this has a long history and did become popular amongst English speakers this would do well in many different genres, eras, and for many different reasons.

I have used it in a seemingly historical setting only to show later it really is a science-fantasy novel. So it is up to the author to play around and choose where they want this name to fit, with its look it is very diverse.

Gwenora

Meaning: (White, Fair, Blessed, Holy, Smooth, White Wave, Variant of Guinevere)

Origin: (Welsh, Cornish)

Pronunciation: (GWehN-AOR-aa, GWEN-OR-UH)

Gender: Female

I was looking up names with White and Fair as the meaning and had Gwen in it. I stumbled upon this one. I have decided to use this as the name of an ancestress of the main character in the novel I am currently writing just as I used Eulalia *see on list of posts* as an ancestress name. I love the beautiful meanings. It is a nice alternative to the variant Guinevere. It does look like a unique mash up of Gwen and Nora. It could look made up by some but it really is a name.  

Ora / Orah

Meaning: (Light, Pray, To Pray For, Green, Sallow, possibly respelling of Aura, meaning "gold" or "wind".)

Origin: (Hebrew, Latin, Celtic)

Pronunciation: (OR-ah, OWRaa, OH-rə)

Gender: Female

I have decided to use this as the name of the main characters daughter in the novel I am currently writing. I forget where I saw this but I think I was thinking of another name and it had a similar look or pronunciation and so I looked up Ora and found I really love it. I however have decided to use Orah with an H at the end, because all of main characters kids have 4 letter O names. The meanings are beautiful as is the name in general. It does say it is possibly a respelling of Aura *see on list of posts* which to me seems plausible. Either way Aura and Ora / Orah are beautiful and deserve to be used a bit more. They are rare and unique but so very lovely. 

Aulia

Meaning: (Leader, Spirit, Angel, Friend, The gens Aulia was a Roman family during the period of the Republic, and was probably plebeian. They do not appear to have been particularly numerous, but one member of the gens, Quintus Aulius Cerretanus, obtained the consulship twice during the Second Samnite War, in 323 and 319 BC. The nomen Aulius is a patronymic surname, derived from the praenomen Aulus, just as Sextius was derived from Sextus, Marcius from Marcus, and Quinctius from Quintus. Although there were Aulii at Rome in the 4th century BC, the gens may have been spread throughout Latium, as one of them was prefect of the allies during the Second Punic War.)

Origin:  (Roman, Latin)

Pronunciation: (Aww-lee-uh)

Gender:  Female

I was looking up rare names and came across this one. It has decent strong meanings and a unique history of use. I like the general look and it does seem pretty but not sure if to me it is awfully memorable. It is one of those names you like and love but then forget about it ten minutes later. I have found that is true of so many names I put on this blog. But then again I can’t remember them all as there are over 700 of them, lol! But for this one I still don’t see it being on my mind for a long time but I wouldn’t mind seeing it in a novel but maybe not as a main character the author would want one to remember.

Bianca

Meaning: (White, Pure, Fair, and Variant of Blanche (French). The meek younger daughter in Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew", a courtesan in "Othello", and the subject of a song in a spin-off musical "Kiss Me, Kate". Also made famous by former Rolling Stone wife Bianca Jagger, who was a Nicaraguan fashion model, peace worker, and diplomat. The name is appropriate for a fair-haired baby. Blanca is the Spanish form.)

Origin: (Italian)

Pronunciation: (bee-AHNK-ah, bee-AHN-kə)

Gender: Female

I was watching the show Castles: Secrets and Legends the other day and it had a story about a Italian girl named Bianca in the 1600’s who I don’t remember the whole thing but basically she was supposed to stay hidden by her parents, I think because she was albino. When she leaves and is found with a suitor she is taken back to her castle as she has escaped before. She is taken to a tower hung up by shackles and she is left with a boar and a dog. The room is bricked up and she is left to die. They found evidence of bones of a boar and dog amongst human remains many years later so some believe the story is true. I say if it were how very sad to die alone at the hands of your parents.

The name Bianca I have heard a bit more of lately. It seems a very sophisticated but sometimes preppy name, not a bad thing by any means though unless used by an author to be a mean characters name. The meanings are lovely and the name is a variant of Blanche *see on list of posts* so if you don’t want to use Blanche then Bianca could be a nice alternative. I do really like this name and perhaps will some day use it but would still love to see it used by others more often.

Buffy

Meaning: (Pledged to God, My God is an Oath, Diminutive of Elizabeth, Informal pet form of Elizabeth, based on a child's unsuccessful attempts to pronounce the name.)

Origin: (English)

Pronunciation: (BUH-fee, BUF-ee)

Gender: Female

Okay so I saw this somewhere the other day and no not on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, lol. I looked this up and had no idea it was a diminutive of Elizabeth *see on list of posts*. So to me Buffy has always been a prep school snots name and I am probably not the only one to have that idea about the name. It just seems a funny name to me and it would take a good author and a good novel to get me to really see this name in a different light.

Bode

Meaning: (Sheltered, Messenger, Shelter, Herald, One Who Brings News, In the 16th century, Bodey was an English saint.)

Origin: (Scandinavian, German, French)

Pronunciation: (BOWD, BOH-dee)

Gender: Male

Not sure if it is spelled this way or not but that actress Megan Fox had another boy not long ago and named him Bode. I only heard it and didn’t see how they spelled it and really didn’t google it in case they spelled it crazy. So the meanings are very nice and strong and the name seems a very strong one. Also since it was used in some form since the 16^th Century this could be used in many different eras. It is a short, sweet, to the point kind of name, which I like a lot.

Astrid

Meaning: (Devine Strength, Fair, Beautiful Goddess, Beautiful as a Goddess, Use in the English-speaking world is influenced by 20th-century Queen Astrid of the Belgians.)

Origin: (Old Norse, Scandinavian)

Pronunciation: (AS-trid, AHS-trid (Germany), AHS-tree (Norway), AH-strid (Swedish), AH-stree (Norwegian), AHS-trit (German))

Gender: Female

So I was watching one of those Locked Up prison shows and one of the inmates was named Astrid. Now I have seen Astrid only one other time on the movie Oleander. I think the meanings are beautiful and it has a nice use as well as royal use which might be a good reason for an author to use this name. I however have not been a huge fan of this name. It seems a hippie outer space name to me for some reason. It is lovely and beautiful don’t get me wrong but I don’t think I will use this name, but I never say never and I didn’t set up this blog for me only. I am sure an author will find this name perfect and I would indeed love to read a story where this is a name just to see how it is used.

Egan

Meaning:  (Ardent, Fire, Little Fire, from the Irish Gaelic name Mac Aodhagáin. It is derived from the root 'aedh' meaning little fire and the diminutive 'an' hence 'the little bright-eyed one'. Variations include: Egan, Eagan, Keegan, MacEgan, Kegan and Keagan. Anglicized form of Aogán, from Aodhagán, a diminutive of Aodh. Also a transferred use of the surname. This surname, of Irish origin, is the Anglicized form of the Gaelic "Mac Aodhagain", "Mac" meaning "son of" and "Aodhagain", from Aodha, which is a patronymic from the personal name "Aodh" meaning "fire", originally the name of a pagan god. The surname is really "Mac Egan", though the prefix Mac is rarely used in modern times, falling into disuse with the prefix "O" (male descendant of) during the period of Gaelic submergence, except by the family which claims to be the head of the sept. The Mac Egans were hereditary lawyers, that is, lawyers to ruling families originally a Brehon family of the Ui Maine (an ancient population group comprising mid-Galway and south Roscommon and Offaly (Ormond)). Following the destruction of the Old Gaelic order they held high office in the church, and the name became Anglicized as Keegan in Counties Dublin and Wicklow. Redwood Castle Lorrha, County Tipperary is the setting for clan Mac Egan rallies. One Anne Egan married Thomas Ghest in Dublin in 1582. Between January 1846, and June 1847, fifty-one Egans are known to have arrived in New York as famine immigrants. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Sarah Egan, which was dated 1226, marriage to Thomas Estrange, at Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland, during the reign of King Henry 111, "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.)

Origin: (Irish, Gaelic, Celtic)

Pronunciation: (EE-gan, EE-guhn, Go to this site and run your cursor over the name Egan to hear how it is said: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=egan)

Gender: Male

I forget where I saw this but I think I was looking up names that meant Fire. This name is short and has a nice long history of use and has nice strong meanings. It is a name I don’t see a lot but it may be more popular in Ireland but I do like this name and would like to see it more often. It is a diminutive of Aodh *see on list of posts* but I decided to add them as two different names as I often do because even as diminutives or variants a name can look so very drastically different.

Castor

Meaning:  (Shining, Beaver, From the Greek Καστωρ (Kastor), possibly related to κεκασμαι (kekasmai) "to shine, to excel". In Greek myth Castor was a son of Zeus and the twin brother of Pollux. The constellation Gemini, which represents the two brothers, contains a star by this name. In classical myth, along with Pollux, one of the heavenly twins immortalized in the constellation Gemini. They were considered the patron gods of seafarers, appearing to them in Saint Elmo's fire. In Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux or Polydeuces were twin brothers, together known as the Dioskouri. Their mother was Leda, but Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. Though accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born from an egg, along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra.

In Latin the twins are also known as the Gemini or Castores. When Castor was killed, Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini.)

Origin: (Latin, Greek Mythology (Latinized), Greek, French)

Pronunciation:  (KAS-tər, Go to this site and run your cursor over the name Egan to hear how it is said: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=castor)

Gender: Male, possibly Uni-Sex

This name has a decent meaning but a really cool mythological background. This is a name one could use in relevance to either the myth or the constellations and stars above. It is a nice looking name. This could also be used though in connection to Castor oil. I would love to see this a bit more but not a lot.

Aodh

Meaning: (Fire, Fiery, Spirit, Brightness, Splendor, From the old Irish name Áed, which meant "fire". This was a very popular name in early Ireland, being borne by numerous figures in Irish mythology and several high kings. Modern form of the Old Gaelic name Aed. Mythology: name of the Celtic sun god. It was a common personal name since long ago, and from the later Middle Ages onwards, was commonly anglicized as Hugh and Eugene. This name is the source form of Aidan and McCoy.)

Origin: (Celtic, Irish, Scottish, Gaelic, Irish Mythology)

Pronunciation: (EE, AY, IY)

Gender: Male

It is a diminutive for Egan *see on list of posts* but I decided to add them as two different names as I often do because even as diminutives or variants a name can look so very drastically different. This name has nice strong meanings. It has a nice long use and could be used because of its history, mythology, just the nice look of the name. Or it could be a character name but they use one of the anglicized names when maybe in another country. I don’t however like the pronunciation, it is just two letters. Maybe with the proper accent it might sound alright but to me it doesn’t sound right. But when looking up Fire names I found this and it has been a name I had wanted to add for sometime but forgot about until I was looking up Fire names.