Nature, Place and Word Names · Baby Name Meanings
By Sophie Kihm · Updated September 2026
Across 13 pages
of 13
Hindu God of water and the ocean
This Indian name would make the perfect choice for those looking for a strong water-based name. A variation which may seem more immediately masculine to the English-speaking ear is Varun. The…
Turkish
"sea"
Derya is a unisex name in its native Turkey, though even there it is far more popular for women than for men. It is related to the Persian name Daria, which also means sea.
Nature name, English word name
"a shore of a body of water"
With the tide coming in on a new wave of word names, this one just might catch on, especially for parents who relish sun, sand, and surf. Forest lovers can spell it Beech, like the tree.
Welsh spelling of Alan; river in Wales
This name of a river in Wales represents a vowel change from Alan, which makes the name somewhat more intriguing, but still possibly not intriguing enough. Bonus points if you're a surfer, sailor, or…
Irish
"sea tide"
Hurley is a possibility as a unisex surname-name ending with the "lee" sound. It is perhaps most associated with British actress Elizabeth Hurley, and is much rarer than Harley, because the "ur"…
Basque
"mill at the riverbank"
Revolutionary choice.
English
"at the wide river"
Most parents would prefer BRADLEY or BRADFORD to get to eternally cool nickname BRAD--unless they wanted to honor cricket legend Donald Bradman, considered the greatest batsman of all time.
"dweller near the Brosna River"
Actor Pierce made both his first and last name appealing.
"riverbank where burrs grow"
Beautiful downtown Burbank -- about as glamorous a place-name as Akron...or Detroit.
River name
Some parents are turning to rivers and other bodies of water in the search for undiscovered place-names, and this has the feel of a Viennese waltz.
Irish and Hindu mythology name; Sanskrit
"rain"
Danu is a name from Irish mythology without many details attached. Some say she's a goddess of agriculture and/or of women, but that does not appear in ancient texts. In Hindu mythology, Danu is a…
Irish mythological name
Lir is the Irish god of the sea, the equivalent of the Welsh Llyr which some equate with Shakespeare's King Lear. This is one of those rare names that is simple and has a deep history with an…
Greek
"the sea"
A pretty, rarely used Greek name, Thalassa is the ancient personification of the sea, particularly the Mediterranean, who is sometimes considered the mother of Aphrodite. In 1991, a newly discovered…
"dogmatic"
This name of the mythological mother of Achilles might suffer from English speakers making the rhyming association to the word fetus. The traditional Greek pronunciation might alleviate that problem.
French
"of Evreux; riverbank"
Swashbuckling name worthy of a hero in a romance novel. Deveraux or Devereaux is drawn from the town of Evreux in France and combined with the prefix de- denoting it likely referred to a noble of…
Manx variation of Douglas
"black river"
Doolish (known as Douglas in English) is the largest town in the Isle of Man. The name is though to derive from a Celtic word "Duboglassio" which means "black river".
Hungarian river name or Icelandic
"eiderdown"
Duna refers the Hungarian word for the Danube River or to the Icelandic term for the down of a duck. Duna also bears a resemblance to both Dune and Djuna. In this era of word names and invented…
"riverside"
Eaton's similarity to Eton gives it an upscale Old School feel, though in the U.S. a name that sound like eatin' could have teasin' potential. Eaton could also sound like the much-more-familiar Ethan…
Literary name and Old Norse
"gravel bank river"
This lovely name is best-known as the surname of eponymous Bronte heroine, Jane Eyre, and would make an appealing and distinctive middle name for the child of fans of that book. While the surname…
Japanese
"dweller near the river where wisteria grows"
To honor the majestic mountain.
