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Belle


Belle, as we're all aware thanks to Beauty and the Beast, is French for "beautiful." It's an underused, simple-yet-elegant name that is easily pronounced in our culture and abroad. It can be a good alternative to Isabelle, which is seeing extreme popularity, and can be a nickname for any number of names starting or ending in -belle, such as Rosabelle, Claribel, Bluebell, Bellerose, Amabel, Belphoebe or Arabella. She can be a Southern Belle or "Belle of the Ball." She is close to Bella, yet miles away. The name ages well and gets rave reviews.

One real-life namesake was Confederate spy Belle Boyd, but there was also a World War II bomber plane called the Memphis Belle, and a character from Gone with the Wind. And here's a fun tidbit: Belle was Mr. Scrooge's fiance in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Belle had not ranked in the past decade, but because of the new Disney live-action, it ranked #933 in 2016. Back in 2010 there were only 154 baby girls named Belle and in 2013 there were just 187. I see a lot of people passing this name up because of Isabella, thinking Belle is more popular than it is. Maybe they're getting it confused with Bella, which was #60 in 2011. Belle was most popular just before 1920 and least popular in the 80's. While there were just 8 girls given the name in 1991 as if it was about to disappear forever, it spiked up rapidly and by the 2000's was given to hundreds of girls.
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