Updated November 2023
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Hebrew
"mountain goat"
Variation of Jael.
French
"green mountain"
Place-name waiting to be discovered.
Chinese or Vietnamese
"orchid, elegant, mountain mist"
A unisex Chinese name with a range of meanings, depending on the characters used. As a Chinese female name, "orchid" and "elegant" are two main meanings. In Vietnamese, it means "orchid".
Place name, Kikuyu
"mountain of white"
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"…
"hill, mountain"
Abraham's brother and Caleb's son in the Old Testament, also known as Aran. Haran is one simple and virtually unused Biblical name.
Diminutive of Adrian or Hindi
"stone, mountain"
While Adri is an Indian male name, it is more often heard throughout Europe as a diminutive of Adrian in its many forms. Pronunciation might be ay-dree or ah-dree, depending on the pronunciation of…
Diminutive of Montgomery or French
"mountain"
Monty Burns, on The Simpsons , smashed to pieces any goodwill for his first name leftover from Monty Python . But if you drop the "y," you're left with a distinctly Gallic sounding nickname name. If…
French surname
"free mountain"
Greek
"from the mountain"
A figure in Greek drama who murdered his mother makes for an unconventional choice for a baby name, but it has appeared on the US extended list several dozen times since records began.
Basque surname
"cold mountain"
Mendoza has great potential to move from a surname to a first name for either sex. It is derived from the Basque words mendi , meaning "mountain," and hotz , "cold."
English from German
"mountain home"
A cross-cultural possibility, but a bit heavy and somber.
Salishan, Native American
"snow-covered mountain"
Tahoma was the original name of Mount Ranier, used by the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest.
Swedish
"mountain twig"
Few Scandinavian names make the journey to America...and this one shows you why. Still, names such as Freya and Odin are making an unlikely comeback, so we wouldn't count any of the Scandinavian baby…
Native American
"high mountain"
Has an evocative feel, unusual to the Western ear without being identified with any particular culture.
The Native name of Washington State's Mount Ranier.
Mendoza is a common Basque surname derived from the words mendi , meaning "mountain," and hotz , "cold." As a given name, it could easily be worn on a girl or a boy. Notable people who have carried…
Scottish surname
Evocative of the sand dunes at the beach, Doone is a relatively rare surname found in Scotland, Ireland and England. It was recently used with this spelling by Olympic medalist Amanda Beard;…
Cornish
"village on a mountain"
The original Cornish name for the town better known today as Tintagel. With its Arthurian heritage, this makes a good choice for those fond of the legends of Lancelot, Guinevere and King Arthur.