Nature, Place and Word Names
By Pamela Redmond · Updated September 2026
Across 7 pages
of 7
English
"place name"
One of several fascinating names used in Charlaine Harris's Midnight, Texas books and the NBC adaptation thereof, Fiji is a pleasingly quirky place name that's been little used for babies. Though it…
Place-name
Associated with the poet and novelist Galway Kinnell, this name of an Irish city, county, and bay would make an evocative choice. For further literary cred, writers Liam O'Flaherty and Frank Harris…
Italian place-name
One of the newer geographical site names, it has the advantage of sounding like a real girl's name because of its jen beginning and feminine a ending.
Scottish place-name
An undiscovered place-name with an appealing o-sound ending.
The name of an island in the English Channel that might make an attractive first name, but would work better for a boy.
The vowel ending tilts this sharply toward the feminine, and at this point Havana still has some political implications as well.
Place name
Iberia, the name of the Spanish-Portuguese peninsula, makes an attractive, unusual first name.
Spanish
"Indian"
This name of a California desert town, used by Deborah Falconer and Robert Downey, Jr. for their son, makes a much livelier and more individual – not to mention more masculine – improvisation on the…
Jakarta, the name of the capital and largest city of Indonesia, is located on the island of Java. Both Jakarta and Java could make interesting and unusual choices for a girl.
Anglicization of Indonesian Jawa; place name
A name with something for everyone: for romantics, it's a beautiful Indonesian island; for teckies, it's a computer programming language.
Japanese city name not yet on the map for babies, but why not?
French place-name
Louisiana is a geographic spin on the Louise theme. Pretty, if a bit of a syllable overload. Short form Lou or Lulu lightens it.
Spanish place name
Pronounced my-ORK-a, the name of this lovely Balearic Island, located in the Mediterranean, is one of the prettiest and most feminine of place names. The Spanish spelling is MALLORCA.
An archipelago near the center of the Mediterranean, the name derives from the Greek word for honey. Malta has been heard as a girl’s name in the past and was used as a character name by both Dickens…
The name of the capital city of the Philippines is just conceivable as a baby name, giving off the faint scent of vanilla.
