Place Names for Babies

The name of a port town in Maine, named after the birthplace of one of its founders Alexander Shapleigh, of Kittery Court, Devon, England.

Written as Genève, it's the authentic name of Switzerland's capital. The English version, Geneva, is more common as a baby name in the US.

Canada is an undiscovered but attractive place-name possibility, up till now a masculine territory.

When Matthew McConaughey and wife Camila Alves chose the old English surname and place name Livingston for their third child, they elevated it from half of a Stanley & Livingston joke to a modern possibility. Kind of. The only other well-known bearer of the name in the contemporary world is singer Livingston Taylor, brother of James, who is called Liv. Given that little Livingston McConaughey's older brother is named Levi, that uplifting nickname may be too close, though his parents apparently like its sound. An original choice.

Mount Sinai is a place sacred to the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions, the mountain on which Moses received the Ten Commandments. Sinai is also the name of the peninsula where Mount Sinai is located.

The unique O-ending makes this name memorable, especially for someone with ties to Texas.

Place name and surname that sounds a tad snooty.

One of several fascinating names used in Charlaine Harris's Midnight, Texas books and the NBC adaptation thereof, Fiji is a pleasingly quirky place name that's been little used for babies. Though it has been used quite a lot for fancy bottled water, we don't think it quite qualifies as a water name.

Detroit, the name of the down-on-its-heels Michigan city, has a so-far-out-it's-gotta-be-cool quality. A handful of boys were named Detroit last year, and if you have ties to the Motor City -- familial or musical -- you may want to consider it, especially as a middle name.

A city and river in Scotland; this is upbeat and cheery, but doesn't seem that appropriate as a name.

An underused place name with a sunny, stylish air, the capital city of Spain could provide a totally unexpected route to favorite nickname Maddie. While the exact origins of the name are unknown, possibilities include that it comes from the Arabic majrā meaning "watercourse, water stream", the Latin matrix meaning "source of a river" or the Celtic magetoritum meaning "ford". Whichever root you choose to follow then, the name has a watery connection.

Like Bethany and Shiloh, a meaningful biblical place-name.

Prideaux is a Cornish place name and surname that is occasionally attested as a girls' first name. It likely stems from the French phrase "pré de eaux", meaning meadow of waters. For fans of Margaux, Prideaux might be a less-common and very pretty alternative.

In the Bible, Elim is an oasis where the Israelites stopped during their Exodus from Egypt. It is a place of plenty representing the natural blessings of God, with twelve springs of fresh water and seventy date palm trees to provide food and shade.

Inventive way to honor a redheaded ancestor, though most people would mispronounce it reeding, making it sound to some kids like a school assignment: Redding is a preferable spelling.

Place names like Memphis, Harlem, Cairo, Vienna, Milan, and Astoria are right on trend at the moment, and Egypt could fit in, thanks to its similarity in sound to the likes of Edith and Eden. Alicia Keys used the name for her son back in 2010, but before that, it was used as a stage name for three famous belly dancers.

Venkata is one of the seven peaks of the Tirumala Hills in India. As a result of the temple on this hill, Venkata is connected to the god Vishnu. Venkata is also the name of the protagonist in the 2009 film Venkata in Senkata as well as Nobel prize winner Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman.

A rarely-used place name (probably because of the last three letters), Essex was the ancient kingdom of the East Saxons and is now a county in England. The singer David Essex used it as his stage surname, and reality TV couple JP and Ashley Rosenbaum used it for their daughter's name, though few have followed suit.

Tribeca was the term created for New York City's TRIangle BElow CAnal Street. Stangely enough--that aside--it almost does sound like a plausible girls' name, nicknamed Becca.

A bold and evocative African place name. The country of Kenya gets its name from Mount Kenya, referred to it as "Kirinyaga" or "Kerenyaga" by the local Kikuyu people, meaning "mountain of whiteness" due to its snow-capped peak.