Names That Mean Sacred

Jerome has a bespectacled, serious, studious image, just like its namesake saint, who was a brilliant scholar. St. Jerome is the patron saint of students, librarians, and archaeologists.

Popular in the 1920s, Eldon is a retro name that's waiting to be rediscovered. It has a similar placename/surname appeal to current Top 1000 names Alden and Holden. Several towns in the US and UK bear the name.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian added this new word name to the lexicon when they chose it for their second son and fourth child. Psalm and Saint certainly make a perfect sibset. A psalm is a hymn or sacred song. The bible contains a Book of Psalms.

The name of a Japanese citrus fruit that is rising among baby girls in the US. The name Kiyomi was given to just under 200 baby girls in 2022.

Commonly heard in Hungary and some Slavic countries, Tibor has a large measure of continental dash. The name derives from the Roman town of Tibur, now called Tivoli. It is a Top 100 pick for baby boys in its native Hungary.

Moria was a nymph, sister of Tylus, who played a role in a very complicated story involving a serpent and a life-giving plant. It sounds like and will often be mistaken for the name Mariah, as in Carey.

This cognate of Jerome (of all things), familiar via the Dutch painter of fantastical scenes, H. Bosch, would appeal only to the most audacious, intrepid, attention-seeking baby namer. It is, however, still used in Germany, especially in Catholic Bavaria and in the north German Rhineland.

Literary Indian choice, best known here via acclaimed writer Ved Mehta, who lost his sight at the age of four.

This name of a showy, lemony plant makes an unusual entry into the name garden.

A name used in Germany and Holland as a form of Jerome, it's the unlikely moniker of fictional detective Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch.

Anyone who remembers the classic novel or film "The Prisoner of Zenda" would find this an odd choice.

Rarely heard outside Italy, could make an interesting import.

Kerani is a lovely Indo-Pakistani name that could be seen as the Karen of the multicultural future.

Sancha of Leon was an 11th century princess who became Queen of Spain after her brother was killed by Ferdinand I, whom she then married. A twisted tale indeed, but Sancha is one of those names that is both historic and extremely rare -- no babies were named Sancha or Sancho in the US in 2021. Sancho Panza was the sidekick of the fictional Don Quixote.

The forerunner of Cynthia is all but unknown these days, but deserving of import and revival.

Olga variant without the Russian spirit.

The name of an absinthe-imitation, Herbsaint is a liqueur created and produced in New Orleans since the 1930s. It literally translates to "sacred herb," in reference to absinthe woodworm, the one absinthe ingredient it doesn't contain.

Alternate spelling of Tibor used in the horror book series Necroscope.

A pagoda, a tiered tower for religious use found in Asia, is admittedly a very unlikely source of inspiration for a baby name. However, Pagoda was used as a character name in Wes Anderson's 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums.