Mermaid Names: Beyond Madison and Ariel
Mermaid names have made it big in recent years. There’s Madison, Darryl Hannah’s character from Splash. Disney christened The Little Mermaid Ariel in 1989, and she and her princess friends are now found on little girls’ gear everywhere you look.
Beyond Madison and Ariel: Other Famous Mermaids
Coralia – An underwater realm in Flash Gordon, but also a name for a mermaid in a nineteeth-century ballet
Deema – From the new Nickelodeon series Bubble Guppies, about a group of preschoolers and their adventures with teacher Mr. Grouper
Diana – From 2003 movie Mermaids, about a trio of fish-tailed sisters who set off to avenge the death of their merman father
June – From 2003 movie Mermaids
Lorelei – From German folktales, now better known as the given name of both Gilmore Girls – though mother and daughter spelled it Lorelai
Melody – Ariel’s daughter in the extended Little Mermaid universe
Miranda – In a 1948 British comedy, a lonely fisherman catches the mermaid Miranda and the duo set off on a madcap tour of London
Molly – Another of the Bubble Guppies
Muirgen – An Irish story says that she was brought from the sea and baptized, and in some tellings, became a saint
Nixie – Yet another name for a water-dwelling spirit
Ondine – A German water sprite who marries a mortal, but never gets her happily ever after. In 2009, Colin Farrell played a fisherman who makes a surprising catch in the movie Ondine; Audrey Hepburn rose to fame playing Ondine on Broadway in 1954.
Oona – Another of the Bubble Guppies
Sabrina – The name of a water nymph in John Milton’s Comus, and an ancient Celtic river goddess, too
Thessalonike – Sister of Alexander the Great, said to have turned into a mermaid
Undine – A variant of Ondine, but perhaps not as wearable
Venus – From 2003 movie Mermaids, and known for posing on a shell in the Botticelli painting
Names That Would Fit a Mermaid
Avalon – A medieval tale tells of three sisters growing up on the lost Isle of Avalon. The eldest, Melusine, was cursed to spend one day a week as a mermaid.
Cleodora – The daughter of a river god and lover of Poseidon
Doris – An ocean nymph from Greek myth
Ianthe – Another ocean nymph
Marina – From the Latin marinus – of the sea
Melusina – A slightly more name-like version of melusine, and the name of an illegitimate daughter of England’s King George I
Nerissa – Ultimately derived from the Greek word for water, and also used by Shakespeare for a minor character in The Merchant of Venice.
Oceane – Pronounced oh SEE ahn, she’s big in the French-speaking world
Pearl – The jewel of the ocean
Sedna – An Inuit goddess of the sea
Tethys – An ancient Greek sea goddess, and mother of thousands of water nymphs
Waverly – Not related to the word wave, but the connection is irresistible
Ariel’s big sisters in The Little Mermaid
Adella
Alana
Andrina
Aquata – Probably the least wearable of the group
Arista
Attina
From the mermaid statues of Norfolk, Virginia
Azalea
Beatrice
Dominique
Jewel
Lola
Meimadeline
Memory
Ocarina
Shellina
Sybil
Mishell
And if you’re expecting a little merman, there’s always Triton.