by Pamela Redmond Satran

　　One of the search terms that sends a lot of people to Nameberry every day is “pretty girl names.”

　　Are they searching for names that are pretty, we wonder, or names that sound as if they belong to pretty girls?  Or maybe what people are after is names that mean pretty or beautiful?

　　Or probably, all of the above.

　　We do have a list called Pretty Girl Names, which is admittedly subjective, a compendium of names that carry the literal meaning as well as those that convey prettiness in our minds.

　　A selection of possibilities:

　　Amara — Amara is a Greek name that means “lovely forever” and is a fresh spin on — or almost a smoosh of — Mara or Amanda.

　　Angelina — The angel association along with the Angelina Jolie namesake makes this name suggest beauty without literally carrying the meaning.  Angelica works too.

　　Aurora — Aurora relates to the Roman goddess of the dawn as well as to Sleeping Beauty and the Northern Lights, all images steeped in beauty.

　　Ava — The gorgeous Ava Gardner undoubtedly does much to beautify the image of this name, and its similarity to the Biblical Eve, mother of all alluring women, helps too.

　　Belle — Belle means beautiful and lends its power to a range of fashionable names, from Isabella to Arabella to Mirabelle to just plain (but not unpretty) Belle and Bella.

　　Callista — Actress Callista Flockhart introduced her Greek name meaning beautiful to the American lexicon.

　　Juliet — The ultimate romantic heroine Juliet has a name that sounds as lovely as its image, qualities that carry over to sister names Juliette, Julietta, and Juliana.

　　Luciana — Elaborate feminine names that carry a lush sound and an exotic image — Luciana along with Liliana, Francesca, Gabriella, Sophia — feel luscious on the tongue.

　　Ramana — A Sanskrit name that means beautiful and would make an unusual choice.

　　Rosalind — The Shakespearean Rosalind has been off the Top 1000 since the 1970s and means pretty rose.

　　Shaina — Shaina or Shana means beautiful in Hebrew and is popular among Jewish families.

　　Venus — The name of the Goddess of Beauty has an athletic spin in the modern world thanks to tennis star Venus Williams.

　　Photo by Georgia Brizuela.

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