Names That Mean Land
Across 5 pages
of 5
The names
Brandt
German
"dweller on burnt land"
Less commercial-sounding than Brand.
Lambert
French and German
"land brilliant"
Ancient saint's name used for cowardly cartoon lion.
Columbia
Latin
"land of Columbus"
Columbia is a rarely used name with many associations. From the eighteenth century it has been used as a female personification of the United States, often appearing as a flag-draped patriotic…
Arlen
English surname
"hare land"
Arlen is a surname long used as a first name: It ranked on the US Top 1000 from the late 1920s until the late 1960s. Originally, Arlen was a variation of Harlan which came from Harland, a place-name…
Brent
English
"dweller near the burnt land"
One of several blunt B names just this side of the gender divide. While its short and to-the-point sound may feel modern, it has been declining steadily since the 1980s. David Brent is Ricky…
Melville
Scottish
"settlement on infertile land"
All names ending in ville are in nowheresville.
Ramsey
English, Scottish
"garlic island"
Tough, cool, and rugged, Ramsey is a Scottish and English surname that has plenty of potential as a given name. Similar in style to Murray, Murphy, and Rafferty, it was chosen for around 90 boys and…
Orlo
Short form of Orlando or Roland, German
"famous throughout the land"
Orlo is a name nobody ever heard of until the surprise popularity of the unrelated but similar-sounding Arlo. If Arlo can be a hit, why not Orlo? Why not indeed. Some sources identify Orlo not as a…
Indiana
American place-name
"land of the Indians"
Indiana is one of those place-names (think Camden and Trenton) that sounds cooler than the place that inspired it. Its fashionable -ana ending certainly sounds eminently name-like, and…
Brenton
English
"town near the burnt land"
Name hovering near the bottom of the Top 1000 that may move higher with the fashion for two-syllable surnames. You could do worse...but you probably could also do better.
Courtland
Dutch
"short land"
Courtland, with its added U, is an English form of the Dutch habitational surname Cortlandt. Cortlandt was a village near modern-day Wijk bij Duurstede, Netherlands. Its name was derived from the…
Rollie
Diminutive of Roland, German
"famous throughout the land"
As its parent name Roland comes back into style (yep, it’s happening), could there be an uptick in baby Rollies? Certainly as a pet form.
Ramsay
English
"low-lying land"
A surname occasionally used as a first, as in former attorney general Ramsey Clark. This spelling is now closely associated with the psychopathic Game of Thrones villain Ramsay Snow (later Ramsay…
Portland
English
"land near the port"
There are two lovely Portlands, in Maine and Oregon, but not many babies with their name.
Platt
French
"flat land"
A surname with a lot of "juice," as they say, in Hollywood. In addition to veteran character actor Oliver Platt, there's La La Land producer Marc Platt and his actor son, Ben Platt, who won a Tony…
Newland
English
"new land"
Some will see this as spirited, others stuffy. The protagonist of the Edith Wharton novel The Age of Innocence was a popular and successful lawyer named Newbold Archer.
Nesbit
English
"land or river bend shaped like a nose"
A family name that wouldn't appeal to many parents.
Massai
African tribe; also Italian
"owner of land and farms"
Unusual name chosen for her son by actress Nia Long, who combined it with the even more unusual literary middle name, Zhivago.
Lochlainn
Irish
"land of the Vikings"
Conjures up pleasant images of lakes, but the pronunciation challenge makes the Anglicized Loughlin preferable.
Argyle
Scottish
"an Irishman, from the land of the Gaels"
Nice Scottish sound, but too tied to sweaters and socks.
