Wacky Word Names

There's a whole quarry of rocky names parents are now considering: Slate, Flint, etc. , but this one is particularly hard-edged and problematic.

You can call your baby "babe," but don't name her that.

Do everyone a favor and spell it Coco, an up-and-coming choice.

Ron Burgundy was Will Ferrell's fictional helmet-haired newsman, but this color name is much more suited to a girl.

This one's cutting right to the chase, but with such names as Justice and Peace on the rise, why not? And we guarantee your seven-year-old son will love it, though your 17-year-old, maybe not so much. Could be used as a middle name, as Talisa Soto and Benjamin Bratt did.

Could be a sister to Trinity, Genesis, or Heaven.

This evocative term for a stone or shell carved in relief could make a striking first name for a girl, though she would have a starring role in her story, rather than a cameo.

An offbeat word name referring to the speed of a piece of music.

Has too many slangy connotations to be considered.

One of the simplest, most down-to-earth yet evocative of the word names, which could work — especially as a middle.

North and West are easier on the ear, but this works fine if it has some significance for your family. Could be lengthened to Easton.

Strictly for the girls.

Not only did rocker John Mellencamp name his son Speck, but he appended the middle name Wildhorse to it.

Along with Shem and Japheth, a son of Noah with a name that's almost never used -- for more obvious reasons than those of his brothers.

Peaceful and melodic, but a bit pretentious.

A bold word name choice for the intrepid baby namer who hopes her son will face the world with a sense of discovery.

Illumination is a many-syllabled entrant in the new-fashioned virtue name group, but doesn't stand much chance of rivaling shorter choices like Hope and Faith.

Once unique to the Zappa family, now you can have your own little prima donna.

A name that's unusual in that changing the i to a y -- as in Byrd -- makes it more masculine.

While nature names, even those of fierce animals and mountain peaks, are used for children these days, architectural features like this somehow seem a bit cold.