Mermaid names have made it big in recent years.  There’s Madison, Darryl Hannah’s character from Splash.  Disney christened The Little Mermaid Ariel in 1989, and she and her princess friends are now found on little girls’ gear everywhere you look.

　　Beyond Madison and Ariel: Other Famous Mermaids

　　Coralia – An underwater realm in Flash Gordon, but also a name for a mermaid in a nineteeth-century ballet

　　Deema – From the new Nickelodeon series Bubble Guppies, about a group of preschoolers and their adventures with teacher Mr. Grouper

　　Diana – From 2003 movie Mermaids, about a trio of fish-tailed sisters who set off to avenge the death of their merman father

　　June – From 2003 movie Mermaids

　　Lorelei – From German folktales, now better known as the given name of both Gilmore Girls – though mother and daughter spelled it Lorelai

　　Melody – Ariel’s daughter in the extended Little Mermaid universe

　　Miranda – In a 1948 British comedy, a lonely fisherman catches the mermaid Miranda and the duo set off on a madcap tour of London

　　Molly – Another of the Bubble Guppies

　　Muirgen – An Irish story says that she was brought from the sea and baptized, and in some tellings, became a saint

　　Nixie – Yet another name for a water-dwelling spirit

　　Ondine – A German water sprite who marries a mortal, but never gets her happily ever after.  In 2009, Colin Farrell played a fisherman who makes a surprising catch in the movie Ondine; Audrey Hepburn rose to fame playing Ondine on Broadway in 1954.

　　Oona – Another of the Bubble Guppies

　　Sabrina – The name of a water nymph in John Milton’s Comus, and an ancient Celtic river goddess, too

　　Thessalonike – Sister of Alexander the Great, said to have turned into a mermaid

　　Undine – A variant of Ondine, but perhaps not as wearable

　　Venus – From 2003 movie Mermaids, and known for posing on a shell in the Botticelli painting

　　Names That Would Fit a Mermaid

　　Avalon – A medieval tale tells of three sisters growing up on the lost Isle of Avalon.  The eldest, Melusine, was cursed to spend one day a week as a mermaid.

　　Cleodora – The daughter of a river god and lover of Poseidon

　　Doris – An ocean nymph from Greek myth

　　Ianthe – Another ocean nymph

　　Marina – From the Latin marinus – of the sea

　　Melusina – A slightly more name-like version of melusine, and the name of an illegitimate daughter of England’s King George I

　　Nerissa – Ultimately derived from the Greek word for water, and also used by Shakespeare for a minor character in The Merchant of Venice.

　　Oceane – Pronounced oh SEE ahn, she’s big in the French-speaking world

　　Pearl – The jewel of the ocean

　　Sedna – An Inuit goddess of the sea

　　Tethys – An ancient Greek sea goddess, and mother of thousands of water nymphs

　　Waverly – Not related to the word wave, but the connection is irresistible

　　Ariel’s big sisters in The Little Mermaid

　　Adella

　　Alana

　　Andrina

　　Aquata – Probably the least wearable of the group

　　Arista

　　Attina

　　From the mermaid statues of Norfolk, Virginia

　　Azalea

　　Beatrice

　　Dominique

　　Jewel

　　Lola

　　Meimadeline

　　Memory

　　Ocarina

　　Shellina

　　Sybil

　　Mishell

　　And if you’re expecting a little merman, there’s always Triton.