- Origin: English – Nigerian
- Gender: Male
The name is a newly invented name, mainly used in Nigeria, coined out of the English words, prince and well.
Princewell
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Tag Archives: English Names
Rockwell
- Origin: English
- Meaning: “rook wood.”
- Gender: Male
- First Est. 19th-century
From an English place-name and surname, it is composed of the Anglo-Saxon elements, hrōc (rook) and holt (wood).
As a given-name, it came into rare use in the mid 19th-century. An early notable bearer was American artist and sculptor, Rockwell Kent (1882-1971).
Norman Rockwell, iconic American painter and illustrator, gives the name a wholesome, Americana vibe.
There is also: Rockwell (stage name of Kennedy Gordy), Motown singer of “Somebody’s Watching Me” (1984).
Solid and modern, with the fashionable -well ending, if you love Maxwell but find it too common, then this might be the right choice for you. It is rugged yet refined — equally at home in an art gallery or on a hiking trail.
A fun short form is Rock or Rocky.
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Rocket
- Origin: English
- Gender: Unisex
- First Est. 2000s
Rocket comes directly from the English word for the projectile or spacecraft. The word itself traces back to the Italian rocchetto (“bobbin, spool”), referencing the shape of early rockets.
Its use as a given-name is established though rare and very recent. It has been used interchangeably among males and females by several celebrities, including Pharrell Williams who bestowed this name on his son in 2008.
The perfect sibling name for: Cannon.
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Harper
- Origin: English
- Meaning: “harp player; harp maker.
- Gender: Unisex
- First Est. 1698
From the transferred use of the occupational surname, ultimately from the Anglo-Saxon, harpeare (harper), it originally referred to someone who made harps, and occasionally, it could also refer to a person who played harps.
Its earliest use as a male given-name I could find was for a Harper (or Harperus) Hobbins (1699-1701) of Warwickshire, England.
For females, it starts to appear mainly as a middle name, starting in the early 1800s in England. There is a marriage record from 1863 I could find for a woman named Harper Richards in Cornwall, England. Other than that, it remained very rare as a female first name until the 2000s.
A well-known early female bearer of this name was American author, Harper Lee (1926-2016 (though this was her middle name). In her case, she was named in honour of the family pediatrician who saved her younger sister, Louise.
However, its sudden rise in popularity for females in the Anglophone world was influenced by a combination of different factors likely not related to the author. Mainly:
- It was the name of Harper Finkle on the Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2012).
- Victoria and David Beckham chose this for their daughter, Harper Seven Beckham (b. 2011)
- Its similarity to other trendy unisex surname-turned-first names, such as Taylor, Piper and Avery.
Harper entered the U.S. Top 1000 in 2004, then skyrocketed. Since 2011, it has consistently ranked in the Top 20 for girls, making it one of the most successful modern surname-names. As of 2024, it is the 12th most popular female name in the United States. For males, it has not appeared in the U.S. Top 1000 since 2018.
Harper as a feminine given-name is now in circulation in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K.
Its ranking in other countries are as follows:
- #7 (Australia, 2024)
- #8 (New Zealand, 2024)
- #21 (Scotland, 2024)
- #23 (England & Wales, 2024)
- #31 (Canada, 2023)
- #51 (Northern Ireland, 2023)
- #63 (Ireland, 2024)
- #479 (the Netherlands, 2024)
It’s a crisp name with musical appeal, not too frilly, but also oddly feminine. However, it is at risk at dating itself to the mid to late 2000s. If you want something that is decidedly more feminine, and absolutely rare, you can try the Icelandic female name, Harpa, and Latvians have lettonized this to Harpera.
For fun, this is Harper’s translations in other languages. These are not used as actual names but are interesting hypothetical variations and perhaps inspiration as more unusual alternatives:
Female
- Azifa (Arabic)
- Kinara (Assyrian) – Legitimate name
- Telennorez (Breton)
- Qín 琴 (Chinese, pron: CHEEN) – Legitimate name
- Xianzi 弦子 (Chinese, SHEN-zih) – Legitimate name
- Telynyores (Cornish)
- Harppuri (Finnish)
- Kineret (Hebrew) – Legitimate name
- Cláirseoir (Irish-Gaelic, KLAHR-shur)
- Arpista (Italian, Spanish)
- Koto 琴 (Japanese)
- Arfininkė (Lithuanian)
- Hafiarka (Polish)
- Telynores (Welsh)
Male
- Azif (Arabic)
- Telennor (Breton)
- Qín 琴 (Chinese, see above) – Legitimate name
- Telynnyer (Cornish)
- Cláirseoir (Irish-Gaelic, see above for pronunciation)
- Harpeur (French)
- Hafiarz (Polish)
- Telynor (Welsh)
- Kinubi (Swahili) – Legitimate name
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Samavia
- Origin: literary invention
- Gender: Female
- First Use: Late 1990s
The best-known appearance of this name is in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1915 novel The Lost Prince, where Samavia is the name of a fictional European kingdom.
Burnett probably coined it for its romantic, vaguely Eastern-European sound, combining familiar Slavic-sounding syllables (Sam-, -avia).
In Pakistan and parts of India you will occasionally see Samavia given to girls as a modern Muslim name, likely inspired by the pleasant sound of Burnett’s word or by similar Arabic-Persian names.
Parents often interpret it as a variant of Arabic names such as Samaviya/Samawiya, which can be linked to samāʾ (سَماء) “sky, heaven.”
Because this is a modern adaptation, meanings offered on baby-name sites—“heavenly,” “from the sky,” “sublime”—are interpretive rather than historically established.
It may also be related to a Prakrit word that means “accomplished, finished.”
It is not a traditional Arabic Muslim name nor is it a traditional name in India, it has only come into use the last 20 years.
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Truce
- Origin: English
- First Use: 1830 as a male name; 1886 as a female name
- Gender: Unisex
- Pron: TROOS
From the English word, meaning a temporary agreement to stop a war or a ceasefire, it has been in use as male name starting in the 1830s, and as a feminine given-name starting in the late 1800s. It appeared in the U.S. Top 1000 male names in 2024, coming in as the 991st most popular male name.
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Sophelia
- Origin: English
- Gender: Female
- First Use: 1857
- Pron: (so-FEE-lee-ah)
This poetic beauty seems to have first occurred in British records in the mid 19th-century, there is a birth record for an Emily Sophelia Jefferis in Somerset, England from 1857. There are several records for English women who have this as a first name from the late 1800s onwards.
It is probably just an elaborate form of Sophia or perhaps a combination of Sophia and Ophelia. It has experienced very rare use in the U.K., about 5 baby girls were given this name in 2024.
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Vaila
- Origin: Scottish
- Gender: Female
- First Appearance: 1855
- Pron: Vay-lah
From the transferred use of the place-name, Vaila is the name of an island in Shetland, Scotland. It has experienced use as a female name on the Shetland, Islands since the mid-18th-century.
The name itself is derived from the Old Norse, Valey, the later half meaning “island,” but the first part of its meaning is unknown.
Vaila has also been in rare use in Sweden and Norway, but in this case, it may have been a phonetic spelling of the English pronunciation of the name Viola (“violet,” Lat).
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Willoughby
- Origin: English
- Meaning: “willow farm.”
- Gender: unisex
From the transferred use of the English place and surname, it is from the Anglo-Norse elements, welig (willow) and býr (farm, settlement).
It is the name of several towns in England, U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
By the 16th-century, there were already records of its use as a male name in England. By the 18th-century, it is already being used on females, especially in Norfolk.
Among males, it was born by three Aston Baronets, the first being Sir Willoughby Aston (1640-1702). It was born by American architect, Willoughby James Edbrooke (1843–1896), and English actor, Willoughby Gray (1996-1993).
Janiyah
- Origin: none
- Gender: feminine
- Meaning: none
- Usage: English
- Pron: juh-NYE-uh
The name is a relatively recent creation and became somewhat common in the African-American community, it is most likely inspired by similar sounding trendy names such as Shania and Aaliyah. It has been in the U.S. Top 1000 since 2003, peaked at #333 in 2009, and currently ranks in at #893 (2022).
Another form is Janiya.
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