From Wonderland onward, Alice has been an iconic name, symbolizing everything from psychedelic rabbit holes to key figures in contemporary literature. In addition to Lewis Carroll's heroine, there's novelist Alice Walker of The Color Purple fame, as well as Alice B. Toklas, partner of iconic poet Gertrude Stein. To say nothing of rocker Alice Cooper and groundbreaking grunge band Alice in Chains, if that's more your speed.

Technically, Alice is actually a nickname in itself, and one with interestingly mixed roots. Though it hails from the German Adelaide, which also appears on this list, it's an anglicized derivative of the French name Aalis.

Alice was the number 25 female name on the Nameberry site as of 2017. Though its own contemporary derivatives like Alyssa and Alicia are far more popular, Alice is rapidly coming back into the mainstream. Actress and writer Tina Fey and musician Jeff Richmondchose it as a name for their daughter, as didactor Tom Cavanagh and his wife, Sports Illustrated photo editorMaureen Grise.

The name is both a classic choice and a unique choice, and if you're choosing it for its Lewis Carrollian associations, you can at least rest assured that there's no chance your baby is going to turn into a pig, like the babe that the fictional Alice was tasked with caring for.

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Vintage baby names that need to make a comeback