- Origin: Hmong
- Meaning: “pumpkin; gourd.”
- Gender: Female
- IPA(key): /tau̯˥/
The name comes directly from the Hmong word for a pumpkin or gourd.
Sources
Taub
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Category Archives: Halloween Names
Mairen
- Origin: Manipuri (Meitei) ꯃꯥꯏꯔꯦꯟ
- Meaning: “pumpkin.”
- Variant transcription: Mairel
- Gender: Unisex
The name comes directly from the Manipuri word ꯃꯥꯏꯔꯦꯟ (mairen), meaning “pumpkin.”
Sources
Ayotzin
- Origin: Nahuatl
- Meaning: “pumpkin, gourd, squash; or “turtle, tortoise.”
- Variant: Aiotzin.
- Gender: unisex
From the Nahuatl word ayotli (pumpkin, gourd, squash) or directly from the Nahuatl word, ayotzin (turtle, tortoise).
It was borne by a Chichimec ruler but modern use in Mexico is exclusively feminine.
Sources
- Wood, Stephanie, editor. “Ayotzin.” Online Nahuatl Dictionary, Wired Humanities Projects, College of Education, University of Oregon, 2000–present, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ayotzin. Accessed 23 Nov. 2025.
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ayotzin
Afallach, Avalloc
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: “apple.”
- Gender: Male
- Pron: AH-va-lok
From the Welsh afal, meaning “apple,” Afallach is the name of a male deity in early Welsh mythology. He is described as a god of the Otherworld and of healing—figures sometimes link him to the Isle of Apples (Ynys Afallach), the mythic realm better known to us as Avalon. Through this association, Afallach is regarded as the mythic progenitor of the name Avalon, the legendary paradise of Arthurian lore.
Avalloc is its Anglicized form. Other Anglicized forms includem Evelake, and Aflach.
It has seldom use, if at all, as a given-name in the modern era, but it’s a bold, evocative choice pulled straight from Welsh mythology. It is ideal for those drawn to ancient, nature-infused names with literary and mystical resonance or those who want a pagan inspired name.
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Noctiluca
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: “shining at night.”
- Gender: Female
The name is formed from the Latin nox (“night”) and lucere (“to shine”). It is an obscure Roman epithet but may make the right choice for parents looking for a gothic, romantic and celestial appellation.
Noctiluca served as an epithet of Venus in ancient Rome. According to Ovid (Fasti 4.373–376), the Romans celebrated a festival to Venus Noctiluca (“Venus the Night-Shining”) on the Aventine Hill, where fires were lit in her honor.
The word was later borrowed into natural history as the name of a bioluminescent sea creature—Noctiluca scintillans—whose glowing waters inspired comparisons to stars reflected in the ocean.
Noctiluna is another variation that may be appealing to those who love Luna but want something more unique.
The nicknames Nockti, Nocktie, Nockty or Luca are options.
Sources
Lalage
- Origin: Greek Λαλαγή
- Meaning: “to babble.”
- Gender: Female
- Pronunciation: LAL-ə-jee (English), LAH-lah-geh (Classical Greek)
A poetic rarity, it is from the ancient Greek λαλαγέω (lalageo) meaning “to babble; to prattle.”
The most famous bearer of the name appears in Horace’s Odes (Book I, 22), in which it is the name of the poet’s idealized beloved.
Edgar Allan Poe later used Lalage as a tragic heroine in his 1835 play Politian, reinforcing its Romantic aura.
The name experienced some usage in the 19th-century throughout the English-speaking world. A notable bearer is British educator and feminist, Lalage Brown (b. 1927).
Common short forms are Lallie, Lally and Gigi.
Sources
Evergrim
- Old High German
- Meaning: “bold boar; grim boar.”
- Gender: Male
Poetic, bold and well, grim, it is an obsolete Medievel gem which is composed of the Germanic elements, ebur (boar) and grim (bold; fierce; grim).
Source
- S.L. Uckelman. “Evergrim”. In S.L. Uckelman, ed. The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, Edition 2023, no. 1. http://dmnes.org/2023/1/name/Evergrim.
Craft
- Origin: German
- Meaning: “power; strength.”
- Gender: Male
- (KRAHFT)
Craft is a Latinate form of the German, Kraft (power; strength). It was in use as a male given-name in Medieval Germanic countries but is today obsolete. A variant Latinate form is Crafto.
This may make the perfect name for a Halloween baby.
Sources
- S.L. Uckelman. “Craft”. In S.L. Uckelman, ed. The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, Edition 2023, no. 1. http://dmnes.org/2023/1/name/Craft.
- Socin, Adolf. Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch: Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts. Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1903. Digitized by the Bavarian State Library. Accessed October 29, 2025. https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10931113
- https://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/bahlow/bahlowMasc.html
Elvira
- Origin: Visigothic
- Meaning: Uncertain
- Usage: Albanian, Bashkir, Bosnian, Catalan, Croatian, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Galician, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Portuguese, Provençal, Romanian, Romansch, Russian, Scandinavian, Slovene, Tatar
- Transcription: Эльвира (Russian)
- Gender: Female
- Eng (el-VY-rah); Sp (el-VEE-rah; el-BEE-rah)
A 19th-century gem and late 20th-century vampiric monikor, the name is of uncertain meaning but has its origins in Medieval Spain. It is likely of Visigothic origins, possibly derived from Gailawera or Geloyra, which stem from gails (happy) or (spear); and wers (friendly, agreeable, true).
It should be noted that Elvira (Latin: Iliberri or Iliberis) was an ancient Iberian and later Roman city located near present-day Granada, in Andalusia, southern Spain. However, in this case, it is likely derived from an Iberian source, meaning “new town.”
It was a popular female name among the royal family of Castille & León, producing two queens who bore this name, Elvira of Castile, Queen of León (965–1017) and Elvira of Castile, Queen of Sicily (c. 1100–1135).
It was later used in Mozart’s 1787 opera Don Giovanni (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte), in which Donna Elvira is one of Don Giovanni’s former lovers. This likely popularized the name outside of the Iberian peninsula.
By the turn of the 20th-century, Elvira was not unknown in the United States, though never overly popular, it peaked at #254 in 1914, but fell out the Top 1000 by 1981, the same year Elvira, Mistress of the Dark came on the scene.
The real Halloween link began in 1981, when actress Cassandra Peterson created the camp-horror TV hostess Elvira, Mistress of the Dark for a Los Angeles late-night show (Movie Macabre).
Dressed in a plunging black gown with a beehive of jet hair, Elvira presented old horror movies with sardonic humor — blending Gothic sex appeal, irony, and B-movie kitsch.
The character became a pop-culture icon: Halloween TV specials, films, pinball machines, comic books, and even perfume lines immortalized her as the Queen of Halloween.
Outside the United States, this name does not have such associations. In Sweden, it has been among the top 100 girls’ since 1998 and peaked at #25 in 2014. As of 2024, it came in at #40.
It’s a popular name in the Balkans, even spinning off a male form of Elvir (Bosnian and Albanian).
Other forms include:
- Elbire (Basque)
- Elvíra (Czech/Slovakian)
- Elviira (Estonian, Finnish)
- Elvire (French)
- Elwira (Polish, also an alternate Swedish spelling, Sorbian)
- Elvīra (Latvian)
- Elvyra (Lithuanian)
Obscure Lithuanian male forms are the Lithuanian, Elvyras; the Polish, Elwir(o), and the Italian Elviro.
Name days: August 25 (Austria), July 16 (Croatia), February 10 (Hungary), January 25 (Spain), March 1 (Sweden), November 21 (Slovakia), August 13 (Latvia).
Sources
- Withycombe, E. G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950.
- https://www.behindthename.com/name/elvira
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvira
- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvira_(nombre)
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvire
Ichabod
- Origin: Biblical Hebrew אִי־כָבוֹד
- Meaning: “no glory; without glory.”
- Gender: Male
- Eng (IK-e-BAHD; IK-e-BAWD)
A name forever haunted by legend and scripture, Ichabod carries an aura of solemnity and old-world eeriness. Though seldom used today, its deep Biblical roots and literary afterlife make it a quintessential Halloween name with legitimate historical pedigree.
The name appears in the Old Testament (Hebrew: אִי־כָבוֹד, ’I-Kavod), meaning “no glory” or “the glory has departed.” It is first recorded in 1 Samuel 4:21, where Phinehas’s wife, upon hearing of the Ark of the Covenant’s capture and her husband’s death, names her newborn son Ichabod to mark Israel’s loss of divine favor.
In the English-speaking world, the name came into use in the 17th-century, mainly among Puritan families.
In colonial America, one of the best-known bearers was Reverend Ichabod Wiswall (1637–1700) of Massachusetts.
The name’s haunting reputation was sealed by Washington Irving’s 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Its lanky, superstitious schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, pursued by the Headless Horseman, transformed the Biblical lament into a symbol of American Gothic folklore.
Irving is believed to have drawn the name from a real historical figure, Colonel Ichabod Bennett Crane (1787–1857), an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps whom the author reportedly met while stationed at Fort Pike, New York. The coincidence of name and temperament lent the fictional character an extra layer of realism — and ensured that Ichabod would forever echo through ghostly New England legend.
It is borne by several other famous early American personages,
Traditional short forms in the 18th-19th centuries were Cabe, Bud, and Buddy.
A German form though obsolete is Ikabod.
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