City Names for Babies

City Names for Babies

City names are a special breed among place names used for babies: hip, sophisticated, street smart. Of course, city-bred kids can be named anything at all, but we collected these downtown-related names to provide inspiration for urban parents in search of names with a city theme.

Along with Madison and Brooklyn, other city names in the Top 1000 include Savannah, Vienna, Denver, Paris, Santiago, London, Kingston, and Trenton. One-of-a-kind city names connected to international locales include Genoa, Kyoto, Quebec, and Tangier.

Many city names — Orlando, Charlotte, Adelaide — started out as person names, so it all gets a bit meta. But the connection is what makes the names of towns and neighborhoods work so well for babies.

Here, city names that have become baby names, ordered by their current popularity on Nameberry.

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Unique Names

Gender Neutral Names

  1. CharlotteHeart
    • Origin:

      French, feminine diminutive of Charles
    • Meaning:

      "free man"
    • Description:

      Charlotte, the name of the young Princess of Cambridge, is the latest classic name to join Sophia, Emma, Olivia, and Isabella at the top of the popularity list. It is now among the most popular girl names in many English-speaking and European countries.
  2. AdelaideHeart
    • Origin:

      Variant of Adelheidis, German
    • Meaning:

      "noble, nobility"
    • Description:

      Adelaide is now heading straight uphill on the coattails of such newly popular sisters as Ava, Ada, and Audrey, and in the company of Adeline and Amelia. It was chosen by actress Katherine Heigl for the name of her second daughter.
  3. FlorenceHeart
    • Origin:

      Latin
    • Meaning:

      "flourishing, prosperous"
    • Description:

      Florence is back, returning to the US Top 1000 girl names in 2017 after a nearly 40 year absence. Other English-speaking countries have been quicker to welcome Florence back into fashion.
  4. SofiaHeart
    • Origin:

      Greek
    • Meaning:

      "wisdom"
    • Description:

      Sofia is a variation of the Greek name Sophia, which was derived directly from sophia, the Greek word for wisdom. It was the name of a Roman saint—the mother of Faith, Hope, and Charity—and queens of Russia and Spain.
  5. JacksonHeart
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "son of Jack"
    • Description:

      Jackson is one of those names that's much more popular than you think, coming in near the top of our annual Playground Analysis, which ranks names by grouping all their spellings together. There were nearly 17,000 baby boys named Jackson -- along Jaxon, Jaxson, Jaxxon, Jaxen, Jaxyn, Jaxsen, and Jaxsyn -- which counted together makes it the Number 3 boys' name.
  6. AustinHeart
    • Origin:

      English, shortened form of Augustine, Latin
    • Meaning:

      "great, magnificent"
    • Description:

      Austin is one of the most attractive city names for babies, with an appealing southwestern feel and place-name panache.
  7. ViennaHeart
    • Origin:

      Place-name: the capital of Austria
    • Description:

      Vienna is one of the more popular of the European place-names, with a particularly pleasant sound, evoking elegant images of the Blue Danube, of castles and cafes, sweets and sausages and Strauss waltzes—and Sigmund Freud. It could be a possible substitute for the popular Sienna.
  8. SavannahHeart
    • Origin:

      Spanish
    • Meaning:

      "flat tropical grassland"
    • Description:

      A place name with a deep Southern accent, the once-obscure Savannah shot to fame, with others of its genre, on the heels of the best seller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was set in the mossy Georgia city of Savannah. Originally a substitute for the overused Samantha, Savannah is now becoming overused itself, long among the top girls' names starting with S.
  9. CamdenHeart
    • Origin:

      Scottish
    • Meaning:

      "winding valley"
    • Description:

      Camden is a surprise hit, probably as a result of some star baby cred: it has been chosen by no less than four celebrity parents since 2012. Camden is a Jersey Boy name, along with equally popular Trenton -- these are two cases where the names are more attractive than the places that inspired them.
  10. GreyHeart
    • Origin:

      Color name
    • Description:

      The girls have Violet and Scarlet and Ruby and Rose, but for the boys there's a much more limited palette of color names. Grey/Gray is one exception, which could make for a soft and evocative—if slightly somber—choice, especially in the middle. Kaitlin Olson and Rob McElhenney named their son Leo Grey.
  11. OdessaHeart
    • Origin:

      Ukrainian place-name
    • Description:

      Odessa, a Ukrainian port city, was given its name by Catherine the Great, who was inspired by Homer's Odyssey. It would make an original and intriguing choice.
  12. SantiagoHeart
    • Origin:

      Place-name or Latin
    • Meaning:

      "Saint James"
    • Description:

      Santiago is a spirited Spanish name with great crossover potential: a place-name (it's a city in Chile), a surname, and the patron saint of Spain. It's a name on the rise in the charts.
  13. AspenHeart
    • Origin:

      Nature and place-name
    • Description:

      Aspen is part of two groups of stylish and unique baby names: nature names and place-names. The name of a graceful tree in the poplar family with heart-shaped leaves so delicate they quiver in the gentlest breeze, Aspen is also the name of a trendy Colorado ski resort. Aspen started as a unisex name possibility but now is much more frequently worn by girls.
  14. SamaraHeart
    • Origin:

      Hebrew, Arabic
    • Meaning:

      "under God's rule, companion in night conversation"
    • Description:

      Alluring and lovely — and much more distinctive now than Samantha or Tamara. Samara is a city in western Russia, a winged seed like the whirlygigs that fall from maple trees, as well as a bona fide first name that could make a more unusual update on Samantha or Mara. It can also be a variant spelling of the Arabic name Samira or Sameera.
  15. SydneyHeart
    • Origin:

      French
    • Meaning:

      "Saint Denis"
    • Description:

      Sydney was a hot girls' name in the 1990s, but she's arguably still cool. One of the original old man names adopted for baby girls, Sydney's popularity may be down but she's not out.
  16. OlympiaHeart
    • Origin:

      Greek
    • Meaning:

      "from Mount Olympus"
    • Description:

      With its relation to Mount Olympus, home of the Greek gods, and to the Olympic games, this name has an athletic, goddess-like aura, making it the perfect Olivia substitute.
  17. OrlandoHeart
    • Origin:

      Italian variation of Roland
    • Meaning:

      "famous throughout the land"
    • Description:

      Orlando, the ornate Italianate twist on the dated Roland, with a literary heritage stretching back to Shakespeare and before, has appealing book-ended o's, and is open to combination with almost any last name, a la British actor, Orlando Bloom.
  18. AlexandriaHeart
    • Origin:

      Variation of Alexandra, Greek
    • Meaning:

      "defending men"
    • Description:

      Alexandria turns Alexandra into a more distinctive place-name, in both Egypt and Virginia.
  19. MontgomeryHeart
    • Origin:

      Norman
    • Meaning:

      "man power"
    • Description:

      This image of this distinguished Anglo-Scottish surname, drawn from the French place name of the ancient castle of Saint Foi de Montgomery, is rapidly shifting from fusty and formal to cool. And dashing short form Monty (or Monte) nudges it to cute.
  20. DenverHeart
    • Origin:

      English or French place-name and surname
    • Meaning:

      "from Anvers"
    • Description:

      Before there was Aspen, Denver was the Colorado city name of choice, and it reentered the US Top 1000 in 2015 after a 14 year absence as a stylish two-syllable boys’ name with its trendy -er ending. Its decade of greatest use was the 1920s, when it reached as high as Number 422.