Updated November 2023
Across 17 pages
of 17
Feminine variation of Nigel; botanical name from Latin
"black"
A name that sounded unthinkably priggish until it became attached to Domestic Goddess British TV chef Nigella Lawson (named for her father), who gave it a big dollop of glamour.
Plant name from Greek
"rosary pea"
Scottish
"place name"
This Scottish surname and Scottish and Australian place name has a pleasant airy and breezy sound to it. Camden mayor Lara Symkowiak chose the name for her daughter born in 2016.
Occupational name from French
"specialist maker"
English word name from Latin
"northern"
This English word name derives from the name of the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas, by way of Latin borealis "northern". A fictional bearer is Lord Boreal from Philip Pullman's His Dark…
Word name or nickname
Boo may have started out as a nickname for the male character Arthur "Boo" Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird and these days may be closely associated with another male Boo, the "world's cutest dog" or…
Boo as a first name first achieved notoriety as the name of the child-man in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Arthur "Boo" Radley was meant to be frightening, but only in a simple, non-threatening…
Botanical name and French
"reddish brown"
Sorrel is a gentle, amber-hued herbal and autumnal name that's used most often to describe the color of a horse. Sorrell is a variant spelling. Both make excellent names for autumn babies and can be…
"warden"
English
"plant name"
A fresh, green, rising nature name for girls that would make a cool possibility for a baby boy as well. It has ranked in the US Top 1000 for boys a handful of times since naming records began.
Spelling variation of word name Dune or Scottish surname
"brown or dark"
Photographer Diane Arbus named her daughter Doon, inspired by the sand dunes she walked among when pregnant. Used this way, Doon might be considered a nature name, a refashioning of the word dune.…
"dragon herb"
"street name"
Inspired by the Beatles song "Penny Lane", about the sights and sounds of a typical street in Liverpool, England, this quirky smoosh name has charted regularly in the US since 2008.
Literary name and Old Norse
"gravel bank river"
This lovely name is best-known as the surname of eponymous Bronte heroine, Jane Eyre, and would make an appealing and distinctive middle name for the child of fans of that book. While the surname…
English word name
"month name"
Parents are beginning to turn away from springtime months like April and June and are moving toward the cooler and crisper three-syllable September, October, November, and December.
Spanish feminine form of Roman family name Tullius, meaning unknown
Tulia, rhyming with Julia, is one of several offshoots of the noble Roman family name Tullius, best known as the middle name of the philosopher Cicero. While the single L is considered the Spanish…
Welsh
"sun born"
Said to be the name of the most learned man in ancient Wales, in this country it would be open to mispronunciation, making it rhyme with Julien.
English month name, Latin
"doorway"
Cooler than the older month names like April and May, and a highly unusual and eye-catching choice. The most famous real-life January is female – January Jones – but the month is named for the Roman…
Spanish place name and surname
The haunting Lorca is a place name from the Spanish province of Navarre, but far more famous as the surname of the eminent Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, who was the direct…
Mineral and word name
Though this may be thought of as a short form of the legitimate name Jetta, that one's gone to the cars. This sounds more modern if a bit supersonic. In the Netherlands, it's in the Top 100,…