Word place nature names!

The Scarlet spelling makes it less a name, less Gone With The Wind and Scarlett Johansson, and more the bright red color that inspired it in the first place.

Dune is a name of several layers. It's a modern nature name, like Ocean, Bay and Reef, although rarer, conjuring up images of breezy sand dunes on summer beach days.

The original oddball celebrity baby name, via Frank Zappa's daughter Moon Unit, who claims she's always liked it.

With the likes of Wren and Lark highly fashionable right now, Kestrel could make for a fun — and fierce — alternative for either gender.

Tempest is one of those names that could go either way. Cool, evocative modern word name? Or asking for trouble? Your call, but if you decide the former image is dominant, be warned that some people will see it as the latter.

Associated with poetry, pop music, and the Greek lyre, Lyric has a light and zippy sound to it and joins the likes of Melody, Harmony, Cadence, and Aria as musical names that have become baby names. A unisex name, it is currently three times more popular for girls in the US where it sits in the Top 600. It has declined in use since its 2014 peak, but was still given to around 560 girls in a recent year.

With other bird names such as Lark and Phoenix on the rise, why not chirpy Sparrow? Nicole Richie and Joel Madden named their son, born in 2009, Sparrow James Midnight.

Undiscovered musical form melodious enough to be a hit on the name charts.

True has become an accepted first and middle name; Truth makes an even stronger statement. And with nearly 150 baby boys named Truth in the US in the most recent year counted, as many as were named Ross, the word name is edging up on the Top 1000.

Rose and Briar are popular, and Hawthorn is cool – so why not the equally prickly Thorn? Add an E to give it a surnamey spin.

A word name with fashionable o-ending that has associations with both the homespun fabric and the mottled cat. Alice Cooper named his daughter Calico decades ago.

From Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, the story of a boy named Kafka -- crow in Czech.

Hard and shiny, Steel projects an image that's smooth, macho...and cold to the touch.

An inspirational and aspirational word name that evokes ideas of loyalty, faith, honesty, and accuracy, True is a unisex name, which is just slightly more popular for boys. Like an updated form of Trudy and Prue and with the virtuous feel of Grace, Faith, and Hope, True was given to around 200 girls in 2024 (and about 225 boys).

Clove is one of a whole tantalizing genre of spice names that might work for a boy. Clovis could be considered a long form.

The nature boy version of the Scandinavian Leif, which actually means "heir". In the creative-naming Phoenix family, Leaf is the former name of the actor we know as Joaquin.

The list of occupational boys' names continues to expand, and this is one of the latest to ride onto the range. With a hint of cowboy and Western, a sprinkle of preppy surname, an outdoorsy, nature-connected vibe, and a soft-but-strong sound, Ranger has a lot going for it. More than doubling in use over the last decade, it was given to 115 boys in 2024.

The version with the e at the end relates to novelist Nathaniel, so that may be the one most parents attracted to this unusual name would choose. Hawthorn nudges it toward the nature category: Hawthorn is a type of hedge.

Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie put this name of a geographical feature on the baby name map when she chose it for her newborn daughter, Vale Guthrie Feldman. Vale might be considered part nature name, part place name: A vale is a kind of valley, often used in poetry. This truly unique choice doesn't even register on the US extended list of names given to five babies or more, but we expect Vale to register as parents are inspired by Guthrie and husband Mike Feldman's creative choice. More prosaicly, Vale might be a short form of Valerie or Valentina.