Names That Mean Place

Cam and Kam names, led by Camila, are hot right now — time to add Cambria and Kambria to the list of possibilities.

Kambria

As Levi becomes more common, we're noticing parents turn to more creative alternatives and Levitt is one such option. Similar in sound to the aforementioned Biblical name, it may also appeal to those who like Everett, Beckett, and Truett.
 
As an English surname, Levitt is a variation of Leavitt and Livet — surnames that would have identified people who originated from one of several places called Livet in Normandy. It is speculated that Livet may mean "where the yew trees grow." In its Livet form, it would be pronounced as LEE-VEH, though as Levitt, it becomes LEHV-itt.
 
As an Ashkenazi Jewish surname, Levitt is derived from the German, Russian, and Bulgarian Levit, meaning "Levite," a descendant of the biblical figure Levi. It could then borrow Levi's meaning: "joined, attached".
 
A couple of alternative possibilities are that it emerged from the Old English Livith or Leofgyð, meaning "beloved in battle" or as a contracted form of Leverett meaning either "young hare" (from the French leveret) or "beloved counsel" (from the Old English Lefred).
 
The name first entered the US stats back in 2014 and has been used for a small handful of boys every year since.

Levitt

When playwright Thomas Lanier Williams adopted the pen name of Tennessee, he created a new possibility among American place-names, although it's admittedly a bit bulky in size. 

Reese Witherspoon brought it back into the spotlight when she chose it for her son. While Tennessee's two most famous bearers are male, the name can work equally well for a child of any gender.

Tennessee

Lexington is rising as a place name used just about evenly for the genders. For Americans, it's got a patriotic ring, given the importance of Lexington, Massachusetts in the Revolutionary War. Lexington, Kentucky, in horse country, is another famous place with the name.

Lexington

In the Bible, Elim is an oasis where the Israelites stopped during their Exodus from Egypt. It is a place of plenty representing the natural blessings of God, with twelve springs of fresh water and seventy date palm trees to provide food and shade.

As a name, Elim didn't appear on the US list until 1997 (for girls) and 2000 (for boys). It's now given to a dozen or so babies per year of each sex, making it a great underused, gender neutral choice which fits in well with current baby name trends.

Elim

This phonetic spelling variation of Israel was given to 7 baby boys in 2024, but the spellings Israel and even Izrael rank much higher.

Izreal

Despite Thornton Wilder, playwright of the perennial Our Town, only a handful of baby boys receive this name each year.. 

Thornton

Woodsy names for boys are hotter than ever, so we wouldn't be surprised if Woodland gets picked up by unique baby name hunters in the coming years.

Woodland

This Scottish town and river name sounds strong and modern on both boys and girls, similar in style to names like Alden, Aspen, and Arden. ossibly derived from Old English to mean "Æffa's farmstead" or "Æffa's estate", Æffa being an Anglo-Saxon given name, it also coincides with a Swedish word for "evening". 



Afton

Athens is one of the newer place names, used for both baby boys and girls. The Greek city got its name from Athena, goddess of wisdom and courage.

Athens

While many will see this as a alternate version of more popular Alexandria and Alessandra -- and some parents may indeed intend it as such -- it is also the name of a province and city in northwest Italy. Just 12 baby girls in the U.S. were given the name Alessandria in 2016.

Alessandria

Notably borne by Palestinian journalist, activist, and filmmaker Bisan Owda, Bisan is a name of Arabic origin, with a concise look and bright sound. The exact meaning of the name is unknown, however some sources suggest it derives from the root basama meaning "to smile", while others indicate that it comes from basar meaning "vision, sight".
 Alternatively, and perhaps more likely, Bisan is a Palestinian place name, and may be used to honor its memory. This would explain why Bisan is used predominantly in Palestine.
 
Bisan was also given to eight babies in the US and four in the UK in a recent year.

Bisan

This geographical name, which belongs to an English Premier League football club, is popular in soccer-mad Brazil.

Everton

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian have done it again for their third child: Chosen a name that feels iconic yet strangely inevitable. They named North and Saint's younger sister Chicago, after Kanye's hometown. The name Chicago derives from a Native American word for "wild garlic," which once grew plentifully in the Illinois city, the third most populous in the US.
 
Though one of the distinctly <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/519/american-baby-names">American names</a>, Chicago has almost never been used as a first name before. The Social Security Administration reported six baby girls and five baby boys named Chicago in 2018, following the starbaby birth. In the years that have followed, Chicago has always been given to more boys than girls.

Chicago

Considerably more popular for girls, this form of the modern word name has still been appearing in the US stats for boys since 2005. A recent year saw it given to 18 boys compared to around 1400 girls. 

Journee

Kipling calls to mind writer Rudyard (b. Joseph) Kipling, author of the stories familiar to schoolchildren Gunga Din and The Jungle Story. Certainly, Kipling is a friendlier name than Rudyard these days, complete with cute short form Kip.

Kipling

Mount Sinai is a place sacred to the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions, the mountain on which Moses received the Ten Commandments. Sinai is also the name of the peninsula where Mount Sinai is located.

While hatred is one rabbinical interpretation of the meaning of the name, there are many others you might want to investigate if you are considering turning this unusual Biblical place name into a baby name. There were over 100 baby girls plus a handful of boys named Sinai in the US last year.

Sinai

A sharp and distinctive surname-style name, notably associated with Trinidadian-American activist, Kwame Ture — born Stokely Carmichael — known for his role in the civil rights and pan-African movement. 
 
Meaning "place by the clearing" or "place by the woods", it has been appearing in the US charts since 2013, with 19 boys (and 6 girls) receiving the name in a recently year.

Stokely

This would make a startling but likable choice; poet Dylan Thomas used it for a character in his play "Under Milk Wood." 

Utah

Not yet on the place-name map, this name has Shakespearean ties via the Duke Of Albany character in King Lear.