Category: Nature, Place and Word Names
Looking for a name that sounds worldly and sophisticated? You might want to try looking at a map or atlas. More parents than ever are picking finding baby name inspiration from mountains, countries and, especially, cities.
Here’s how popular city names have become: There are now more girls under the age of 18 named Madison in the U.S. than there are people living in the city of Madison, Wisconsin. That’s over 250,000 Madisons!
It’s never been clear, though, which cities have gotten the most love in the baby name arena — until now. Nameberry pored over baby name popularity data from the Social Security Administration to find the 51 city names that were given to the most babies in the year 2016, the most recent available.
Because many of these names are inherently unisex, we haven’t broken down the list by gender. But we did indicate names that were given almost exclusively to one gender by the color of the letters — pink is girls, blue is boys and orange is the truly unisex.
We had to make some tricky judgment calls on which names did or did not count — we excluded Petra, for instance, because it’s not a functioning city today, even though it was at one time. And we do realize that many parents who pick, say, Alexandria or Kobe, aren’t thinking of the cities. But if you think we missed something crucial, tell us in the comments! (Note: This blog was posted very briefly in April, before most of you got a chance to see it.)
By Linda Rosenkrantz
Primrose, Magnolia, Lilith, Hawthorne, Eben, Zeke Iron. And sibsets Juniper Rae and Indigo Rue, and Callum Rogers, Waverly Ren and Morwenna Jubilee. What’s this? Just another glorious month in the land of berrybaby names.
Here’s the full list of forum postings for April, including girl twins Rowan Violet and Indie Lola
As I’m writing this, there’s been no news of the royal baby’s name yet. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of other name news this week, including huge families, surfing- and clothing-inspired names, and well-matched celebrity siblings.
She’s a boy again
Naming 14 boys sounds like an elaborate game from the Nameberry forums, but it’s reality for Jay and Kateri Schwandt. They already had 13 sons called (deep breath) Tyler, Zach, Drew, Brandon, Tommy, Vinny, Calvin, Gabe, Wesley, Charlie, Luke, Tucker, and Francisco, and they’ve just welcomed their fourteenth son, Finley Sheboygan.
By Linda Rosenkrantz
With Arbor Day arriving this week, our thoughts naturally turn to trees and their names. I was quite surprised to find that this holiday has very deep international roots: the first recorded celebratory plantation dates back to 1594, in the Spanish village of Mondoñedo, where lime and horse-chestnut trees are still planted annually. Modern Arbor Day was launched in another Spanish village in 1805, celebrated with festivals and feasts. The initial American commemoration took place in Nebraska in 1872, when an estimated one million trees were planted.
But I digress.
Looking at tree names and seeing the usual suspects that have started to be transplanted onto baby birth certificates—Maple, Ash, Aspen, Cedar, Magnolia, Juniper, Willow, Olive, etc., I got intrigued by some of their scientific names, and found, yes, a forest of lovely, undiscovered new possibilities. Here are some of the most usable—forming yet another category of secret nature names.
On April 22nd, we observe Earth Day, celebrating—and fighting for the protection of—our wild and wonderful world. Nature has, no doubt, inspired many a majestic name, like Maple, River, or Meadow. But other potential baby names are less obvious, hiding nature in their roots. Here’s a mix from sea to sky and A to Z:
