State Capital Baby Names

Nickname sometimes heard on its own, sort of an updated Sally and playmate of Hallie.

An attractive North Carolina unisex place name, Raleigh's soft sound is particularly appropriate for a girl.

Lovers of the languid South Carolina city might be attracted to this rich-sounding name. Could make an interesting update on Charles -- and can certainly work for a girl too. Actor Joey Lawrence used it for his daughter.

A Puritanical virtue name and also a place name, belonging to the state capital of Rhode Island and several other towns and cities in the US.

Juneau could go either way as a name. The newfound fame of the movie heroine Juno knocks this unrelated though identical-sounding Alaskan name out of consideration for boys, for the moment. Though (male) writer Junot Diaz may put the sound-alike name back in the running for boys.

Richmond is a place-name — it's the capital of Virginia — that makes a fresh way to honor an ancestral Richard.

This is a big name, both in heritage and sound. On the right child, this could be inspired, but others may shrink from all the connotations. While your preferred nickname for this option might be Col (or Kit if you're connecting it to Christopher Columbus), you may end up with the slightly more cumbersome "Bus" as the short-form.

Charleston is one of those baby names that may become more popular thanks to its nickname Charlie, now used about equally for boys and girls. If you want to call your daughter Charlie but believe she needs a more formal name, you might try Charleston instead of Charlotte. And Charleston is a lovely city in South Carolina.

Relatively popular in Spain until the middle of the 20th century, this sweet and lively Spanish virtue name is also a Marian name, short for María de Fe. In Galician, it is sometimes also short for Fernanda, meaning "brave voyager".

A capital place-name possibility.

Not yet on the place-name map, this name has Shakespearean ties via the Duke Of Albany character in King Lear.

Saint went quickly from word to celebrity baby name to accepted baby boy name and now to baby girl name. And there's nothing historically or etymologically gendered about Saint, so why not?

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 figure. And as such it's inspired a plethora of place and company names, from the District of Columbia to Columbia University to Columbia Records, and songs like "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean." A character called Columbia appears in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The name of the capital city of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County, which is thought to come from a Kansa word meaning "good place to grow potatoes".