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Ever notice how most girls’ names end in “a” or the “long e” sound? Toddlers are named Emily, Natalie or Lily; Isabella or Brianna. Their grandmothers are Lisa, Maria, Patty and Debbie. Today we’re taking a look at names that end in O.

Hollywood has a way of popularizing names, be they of stars, actors’ children, movie and TV characters. Shiloh is of Hebrew origin and is now considered unisex. Jean Harlow was a 30s star; Nicole Richie picked this name for her daughter. Cameo can be a piece of jewelry or a brief appearance on camera. Cleo is short for Cleopatra and children can tell you that Lilo is a cartoon character.

Jo was the most independent sister in the book Little Women. You could use it alone, as a nickname for Josephine, or as half of a two-part name like Mary Jo. Flo could be short for Florence, Flora or other names starting with “Flo”. The classic Elizabeth has a French “ends in ‘o’ variant”: Isabeau.

One of Margaret’s claims to fame is its versatility. It has a lot of nicknames and variant spellings in multiple languages. A few that end in O or the “o” sound are: Marlo, Mago, Margalo, Margo, Margot and Margaux.

Several girls’ names that end in O come to us through Greek mythology: Callisto, Calypso, Clio, Echo, Melantho and the two-letter, two-syllable Io (EYE-o). Roman myths gave us Juno.

Spanish gives us virtue names Amparo (protection), Refugio (refuge), and Consuelo along with its nickname Chelo, meaning “consolation”. One nickname for Socorro (help or aid) is Coco, as in Chanel. Besides sounding like cocoa, “coco” also means “coconut”. A couple of religious terms: Rosario and its nicknames Chayo and Charo mean “rosary”. The rarely used Sagrario means “tabernacle” or “sanctuary”.

Nature names in Spanish include Cielo, which means both “heaven” and “sky”; Lucero, a poetic version of “star”; and Rocío, meaning “dew” or “dew drops”. Meadow, Snow and Willow continue the nature theme. Indigo is a color in the rainbow.

The Japanese language offers a lot of choices for parents wanting to bestow a name ending in O on their daughter with many of them being nature or virtue names. A few choices, with meanings from Nameberry: Aneko “older sister”, Ishiko “stone”, Keiko “happy child”, Kimiko “righteous”, Umeko “plum-blossom child, patient”, Yoriko “reliable” and of course, Yoko.

Expectant parents often say they are looking for a name that is “unique”, or “not too common” or one “that not everybody else has”. It might be as simple as looking for an O at the end.

A link to Japanese girls names: http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/search.php?p=asearch&s_gender2=...

A post that deals with boys and girls names that begin and end with O http://chanara.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/o/

Try your search on Nameberry: http://nameberry.com/search