Names That Mean 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. But Doon might also stem from the familiar Scottish surname Dunn or Dunne, which means brown or dark, originally used for a dark-haired person.

A jaunty offshoot of Sullivan, Sully will be associated by kids with the beloved character in the Pixar animated film Monsters, Inc. Rare for a girl, but with a cool surnamey style and echoes of midcentury favorite Sally.

Blakeley is one of the many -ley ending surnames that is being adopted as a first name, taking the 80s unisex darling Blake into the new millennium.

This familiar Irish surname, best known as the name of the mononamed Welsh female singer, is extremely rare as a first name in the US but could make an original Irish choice.

Old-man name, soft as a fraying gray cashmere cardigan, that would be even cuter for a girl.

Would you really want to name your child after a Japanese anime movie called Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space.

Blakeley is one of the many -ley ending surnames that is being adopted as a first name, updating the 80s darlings Blake and Ashley.

Featured in several anime series, including Black Clover and To Love-Ru.

This handsome Japanese name has dozens of possible meanings, depending on the kanji characters used.

A decade or two ago, we might have stopped with Blake, but today the surname Blakely or Blakeley sounds more modern as a first name.

A French nickname and surname deriving from Maurice, or possibly from the French word for mulberry tree, mûrier.

Blakesley is the name of a village in England, also sometimes found as a surname along with Blakely and Blakeley, turned into a first name for their daughter by reality stars Trista and Ryan Sutter. Blakesley joins other -ley ending names -- Hadley, Finley -- as one of the most popular forms of unisex names with a girlish spin.

Dugald is a Harry Potter name. In fact, there are not one but two characters name Dugald in the Harry Potter books.

An Irish surname — the Anglicized form of O’Duibhgeannáin — that would make a one-of-a-kind first name, unless you count the character in Wes Anderson's first film, Bottle Rocket. For fans of the auteur, perhaps Dignan is a better name for a pet — it may be extra appropriate to use the nickname Diggy.

A common Irish surname that's seldom heard as a first name, but has an appealing meaning.

The city name Dublin ultimately derived from Irish elements dubh, meaning "dark," and lind, "pool." The dark pool in question was a tidal pool behind Dublin Castle.

This Celtic surname is familiar but barely used at all as a first name.

Nimbus is a new nature name that works for either gender and manages to be both familiar and unique. An evocative and daring nature name for the future.

Lobbing off the final E makes Melanie more modern.

Makes Donna into a cool twenty-first-century unisex Irish surname.