Names That Mean Land

Ancient saint's name used for cowardly cartoon lion.

Arlen might be thought of as an update on the midcentury Arlene or as a unisex surname-name. Arlen was given to 22 girls in the US last year vs 57 boys and those numbers may grow with the fashion for n-ending two-syllable surname-names. Another similar possibility for girls: Arden.

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.

Way out.

The most prominent person with this unusual geographical choice might be actor Cuba Gooding Jr., however, Cuba has a far longer history as a feminine name. Deriving from the island in the Caribbean Sea, it had a brief spell of popularity in the US at the end of the 1890s, when Spain lost possession of the island during the Spanish-American War. Used predominantly (though rarely) on girls throughout the last century, it has occasionally been given to a handful of boys too

Courtlandt, 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 Dutch elements cort, meaning "short" or "narrow," and landt, "land."

This rare name is possibly a Romani version of William, or may derive from Old English elements meaning "wife" or "woman" and "land".

Sunny Italian surname name for a little girl. Solari was the name of a character on Xena: Warrior Princess.

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 Dutch elements cort, meaning "short" or "narrow," and landt, "land."

A place and surname turned first name, as in aviator Cortlandt F. Bishop and four-star general Cortlandt V. R. Schuyler. Cortlandt was a village near modern-day Wijk bij Duurstede, Netherlands. Its name was derived from the Dutch elements cort, meaning "short" or "narrow," and landt, "land."

An old-man name that sounds cute when used for a little girl, and is starting to seem cool again for boys too. For girls, it might be associated with Mina Murray (later, Mina Harker) from Bram Stoker's Dracula and its many adaptations.

The name of an English county and noble title, Somerset is also found as a surname and occasionally as a given name. The English writer (William) Somerset Maugham is a notable bearer.

All names ending in ville are in nowheresville.

The name Persia derives from Avestan Parsa, the name of the Indo-European nomadic people who migrated into southern Iran in about 1000 BCE. Perseus feels more namelike.

Also spelled Illtud or Eltut, his was the name of a 6th-century Welsh saint who founded the abbey of Llanilltud in Glamorgan. Illtyd Harrington was a British politician. The Welsh LL is pronounced like a palatalized TH sound in English.

Identical in sound to Lonzo, although the names have different origins. Lanzo is a Germanic root meaning "land," and the source of names such as Lance and Lansing.

Ibiza — a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea — stems from the Arabic word Yabisah, meaning "land".

Familiar-but-new and ultra-rare (for girls anyway), Zealand has a lot going for it with its spunky Z initial and globe-trotting vibes. Sparingly used for boys since the 2000s and even more occasionally used for girls since 2010, YouTube family The Labrants brought this name into the spotlight when they called their son Zealand in 2019.

Although Kyleena has a pleasant sound, it's a baby name best to avoid — Kyleena is the trade name of an IUD.