Names based on places

[gsm]

As me and my wife are avid travelers and are dead set on trying to find a unique name for our baby boy we bounced around the idea of naming him after something geographic as a nod to our passion. I realize this can be an extremely slippery slope as we this can easily become a bit tacky (i.e. Alabama Smith), trendy (i.e. Bronx Johnson) or just a little 'out there' (Amsterdam Jones). Sometimes it works out well though, I've know somebody who named his daughter India and i thought it a beautiful name. Even Cuba Gooding Jr. and Paris Hilton made their unusual names work well for them.

Would love to hear some suggestions on great yet somewhat functional "place" names for a baby boy.

Few we had bounced around (although not really sold on):

England Matthews
Cyprus Matthews
Hudson Matthews
Eden Matthews
Cairo Matthews

... better ideas?

[annedr0id]

Just some random ones off the top of my head...

Cayman
Dresden
Everest
Jericho
Washington
Berlin
Israel

Are there any particular places you've been or that are special to you? Might help to narrow the search.

[louisa]

A favourite of mine has long been Oslo - it fits nicely into the Arlo/Harlow/Milo/anything ending in o trend, and has the killer nn Oz without having to us Oscar (which i detest). Oslo is also a wonderful city!

Oslo Matthews?

Or another one i'm in love with is Albion, an old name for England.

If you liked Cairo, what about Nile? It has the benefit of sounding like the Irish name Niall - Nile Matthews, thats a pretty cool name!

[gsm]

My boy will be half Chinese so anything relevant to China is of course special (or Canada). Special place's we've been including China, Egypt, Russia, Mongolia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, SE Asia, UK, USA, various Caribbean, Canada, France, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.

Not sure if this helps much.

It is a bit tricky finding a name that doesn't instantly connect to a specific nationality/ethnicity/religeon. I suspect Oslo may feel a bit awkward on somebody not Scandinavian.

I'd add as maybe's the suggestions of Jericho Matthews and Everest Matthews. I don't know if Nile is bad nickname proof ("Vile" Nile. "Bile" Nile, "Dung Pile" Nile)