Babies = happiness.
Learning that you are going to have a baby, whether it's your first or fifth, is always fraught with emotion. But the moment you realize you'll soon welcome a newborn into your life is a happy one. So it only tracks that you'd want to choose a baby name that means joy or happiness to honor all of those feelings and (hopefully) instill a sense of positivity in your kid way before they ever even see the world.
That might sound silly — that a name can somehow manifest a personality trait or feeling in a human — but when you do your research, you'll find that across cultures and since the beginning of time, people have been naming their kids using the very same words they use to talk about joy and happiness.
You have a lot to do if you're looking up baby names on the internet, so don't worry; we did all of that research for you. Below, there's a list of baby names that mean joy from all over the world to try on for size for your kid.
01
Alaia
This gender-neutral name means “joyful” or “happy” in Basque.
02
Allegra
In Italian, this word literally means “happy,” “joyful,” or upbeat. It’s also great for a musical family since allegro is a musical term meaning “quick, lively tempo.”
03
Aleeza
This name has origins in both Urdu and Hebrew and means “joyful” in both.
04
Beatrice
In Latin, this name means “she who brings happiness.” If you’re a family who loves to read, this could be a great pick as it has strong literary roots — in Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy and Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
05
Bliss
This one needs very little explanation, as bliss is also a synonym for joy.
06
Blythe
This Old English name means “cheerful,” “joyous,” or “pleasant.” Blythe Danner, Gwyneth Paltrow’s mom, is one memorable holder of this moniker.
07
Carol
This English name means a “joyful song,” if you want to bring music into it as well.
08
Dita
A common name in Albania, this name means “happy” and “prosperous.”
09
Eda
This moniker is a diminutive of the Old English name Eadgyth, which means “happiness.” In Turkish, the name also means “happy warfare.”
10
Farrah
This popular Arabic name means “joy,” “happiness,” or “to rejoice.”
11
Freyda
This Yiddish name means “bliss,” “happy,” and “content.”
12
Geila
Another name of Hebrew origin, Geila means “joy.”
13
Giovanna
This Italian name means “happiness” or “grace” and can also mean “gift from God,” if religion is a part of your life
14
Gwyneth
This Welsh name — which is shared by the famous founder of Goop — means “happiness.”
15
Halona
Unique and resonant, this Native American name means “happy fortune.”
16
Hillary
This name (and other versions like Hilaria) is derived from the Latin “hilarius,” which means “cheerful” or “merry.”
17
Joyce
An English name that literally has “joy” in it, Joyce is thought to be derived from the word “rejoice.”
18
Keiko
How charming is this Japanese name? Short and sweet, it means “happy child.”
19
Letitia
This name means “joy” and has Latin origins, which means it has lots of different spellings depending on which language you’re speaking. You can try Letizia (Italian), Leticia (Spanish), Letisya (Turkish), or Letisha (American).
20
Luann
This is a name of Hawaiian origin that comes from the word “enjoyment.”
21
Maeve
In Celtic, this name is given to the “queen of the fairies” and also means the “intoxicating one” — all of which boils down to joyfulness.
22
Mekanna
This name has African origins and means “the happy one.”
23
Naomi
This name of Hebrew origin means “pleasant,” while in Japanese, it is gender-neutral and means “beautiful.”
24
Rena
This name means “joyous” in Hebrew; though, in French, it can mean “graceful” or “of the sea.”
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