Beyond Mary, Sarah, and the matriarch-and-prophetess names that dominate modern Christian naming, the New Testament names a handful of women in the early church whose roles were substantive and whose names have stayed in quiet use ever since. None of them shows up in every other classroom or playground. Each one carries a specific moment in the foundational decades of the church, when Paul was writing letters to congregations that were still figuring out what they were. These four less common names are picks for parents who want a biblical girl’s name that hasn’t been worn smooth by overuse.
Junia (Greek Iounia, possibly from Latin Junia, “youthful” or “belonging to Juno”). Named by Paul in Romans 16:7 as outstanding among the apostles, together with her likely husband Andronicus. Paul says she was a fellow Jew, that she had been imprisoned with him at some earlier point, and that she was in Christ before he was, meaning she had been a Christian longer than the apostle to the Gentiles himself. For most of church history her name was incorrectly transliterated as the masculine Junias to avoid the implication that Paul was calling a woman an apostle. Modern textual scholarship has settled the question in favor of the feminine reading: Junia is the only woman explicitly named as an apostle in the New Testament. Naming a daughter Junia today is naming her for that quiet recovery and for the role itself. Outside the SSA Top 1000 in 2025 (rank #1998), but rising over the past five years from a long historical low.
Priscilla (Latin Priscilla, a diminutive of Prisca meaning “ancient” or “venerable”). One half of the missionary couple Priscilla and Aquila who appear in Acts 18, Romans 16:3, 1 Corinthians 16:19, and 2 Timothy 4:19. Tentmakers by trade, the couple worked alongside Paul in Corinth, then moved to Ephesus, where they corrected the eloquent but partial understanding of the Alexandrian preacher Apollos (Acts 18:26). Priscilla is named first in four of the six New Testament passages mentioning the couple, an unusual reversal of standard naming order in the first century that has been read as signaling her leadership in the partnership. The name reads classical, gentle, and serious, and remains in modest steady use as a Christian girls’ name across multiple traditions. Ranked #544 in 2025, down from a 1940 peak of #127.
Lydia (Greek Lydia, “from Lydia,” the region of western Asia Minor; the place-name became a personal name in Greek usage). The dealer in purple cloth from Thyatira who hosted Paul and Silas in Philippi (Acts 16:14-15, 40). After hearing Paul preach by the riverside on the Sabbath, she was baptized along with her household, becoming the first recorded European convert to Christianity. Her house became the early meeting place of the Philippian church, the same church that later received what is generally read as Paul’s most affectionate letter. She had the capital to host the missionary team and the social position to lend the new movement legitimacy in a Roman colony. The name reads short, classical, and quietly substantial. Ranked #92 in 2025, near its 1883 peak of #75.
Chloe (Greek Chloē, “green shoot” or “young verdure,” used as a poetic epithet for the goddess Demeter in classical Greek). Named in 1 Corinthians 1:11 as the source whose household had reported divisions in the Corinthian church to Paul. The fact that her household was named, rather than her husband’s or father’s, suggests she was likely a businesswoman in her own right, perhaps a widow heading the household, whose servants or associates had carried the news to Paul. The mention is brief in the text but consequential: Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in response to what Chloe’s people had reported. The name has remained in continuous if uncommon Christian use, with a Greek-classical resonance that pairs naturally with longer biblical girl names. Ranked #23 in US baby names in 2025; held #9 in 2009.
Other early Christian women appear in the New Testament narrative without yet having dedicated entries on this site: Eunice and Lois who raised Timothy in the faith (2 Timothy 1:5), Damaris who heard Paul at the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17:34), Rhoda the servant who answered the door at Mary’s house when Peter was miraculously released from prison (Acts 12:13-15), and Euodia and Syntyche, two women in the Philippian church Paul gently urged to reconcile (Philippians 4:2-3). Their names sit less commonly in modern Christian naming but their stories are part of the same first-generation picture.
Two further names with strong Christian-naming presence sit just outside the strictly biblical scope of this article: Lucia, the 4th-century Syracusan martyr whose feast day became a winter-light celebration across Northern Europe, and Clare, the 13th-century founder of the Poor Clares whose life shaped Franciscan spirituality. Both are early-and-later church figures rather than biblical figures, and they belong with the broader saints’ names tradition rather than here.
Beyond these figures, the other four girls cluster articles cover the more frequently chosen biblical girl names by figure and by meaning. The matriarchs of Genesis anchor the family tree from Sarah through Leah. The Old Testament women beyond the matriarchs cover Miriam, Ruth, Esther, and the rest. The New Testament women include Mary, Martha, Elizabeth, and the women around Jesus’ ministry. Strong biblical girl names with deep meanings curates cross-cutting picks by meaning rather than by figure. For the complete list, see New Testament names or Biblical girl names.
Names from the early church before it had a name
The figures in this article all show up in the seams of the New Testament, in passages that read like Paul cleaning up after a long day: closing greetings, brief mentions, problem reports. They are not the heroes of any Gospel. But they were the people without whom the early church did not function. Junia was an apostle. Priscilla taught. Lydia hosted. Chloe reported.
A child named for one of them is named for someone whose role made the first decades of Christianity possible without that role being formalized into a title most people know. The names have stayed in quiet use for two thousand years because the work they describe never stopped being necessary.
Junia was an apostle. Priscilla taught. Lydia hosted. Chloe reported.
Sources
- Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. University of Chicago Press.
- Hanks, Hardcastle, and Hodges. A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press.
- Farmer, David Hugh. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford University Press.
- Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/