Nameberry commemorates Earth Day with this guest blog contributed by Elisabeth Wilborn, creator of one of our favorite blogs, You Can’t Call It “It” . Elisabeth, a writer, artist, and mom, lives in Brooklyn, New York
Milkvetch. Wallflower. Toothwart.
Yes, the Earth is indeed a wellspring for baby names.
Actually I skipped those. Here are a few favorites culled– believe it or not– from endangered species lists. Morbid as that may seem, I promise they’re quite nice! Famous conservationists and a few other notables help bring it back down to Earth. I’d love to see Audubon or Fossey as firsts or to meet an all-American infant Sigurd.
Truly though, the names are of minor importance. Gasp! The most we can hope for is that our children do better than we did.
FAMOUS CONSERVATIONISTS
John James Audubon
Rachel Carson
Jeff Corwin
Jacques Cousteau
Dian Fossey
Buckminster Fuller
Jane Goodall
Steve Irwin
Aldo Leopold
Chico Mendes
John Muir
Frederick Law Olmstead
EMBLEMS OF THE EARTH
GIRLS
Anona- Roman goddess of the harvest
Avani- Sanskrit, “earth”
Ceres- Ancient Roman, “to grow”, Roman goddess of agriculture
Demeter- Greek, “earth mother”, Greek goddess of agriculture
Flora- Roman goddess of flowers
Francis- Italian saint reknowned for his connection to animals
Gaia- Greek, “earth”, and the goddess of the earth
Georgia, Georgina, Georgianna- Greek, “farmer”
Kun- Chinese, “earth”
Luna- Roman goddess of the moon
Perpetua- Latin, “continuous”
Terra- Latin, “earth”
Zoe- Greek, “life”
BOYS
Adam- Hebrew, debated meaning; man formed from the Earth
Asa- Hebrew, “healer”
Chayim- Hebrew, “life”
Enki- Sumerian, “lord of the earth”, god of water and wisdom
George- Greek, “farmer, earthworker”
Pax- Latin, “peace”
Vitus- Ancient Roman, from the latin for “life”
Zephyr- Greek god of the west wind
ANIMAL
Akialoa
Bison
Caribou
Cheetah
Condor
Eider
Nightengale
Ocelot
Warbler
VEGETABLE
Buttercup
Crocus
Hyssop
Maple
Phlox
Sedge
Thistle
MINERAL
Obsidian
Solstice
…and finally Montana… much to the chagrin of Pam and Linda I’m sure.
Tags: animal names, Earth Day names, flower names, mineral names, nature names
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized, animal names, boys' names, flower names, girls' names, guest bloggers, name ideas, nature names . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 am
Yes! You left out Eartha- thank you. That one’s too, well, earthy for me. Thanks, I really enjoyed the post.