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Place Names for Babies

Pamela Redmond
By Pamela Redmond
Updated Sun Jun 15 2025
Place Names for Babies

Places names for babies come from all over the globe and can include city names, state names, country names, even mountain and ocean names.

Place names have become so widely used that popular place names make a category of baby names all on their own. Most place names can be used for either baby girls or baby boys, and many can be considered true gender neutral names.

Along with Top 10 Charlotte, which in fairness was a person name before it was a city name, place names ranking among the most popular baby names USA for baby girls include Madison, Savannah, Brooklyn, London, Sienna, Dakota, and Aspen.

Hudson is the top place name on the boys' side, with Austin, Kingston, Camden, Zion, Israel, and Phoenix also ranking in the Top 300.

Baby names inspired by places are less widely-used for babies in other countries than they are in the US. Florence and Georgia rank in Britain's Top 100, but those place names have both been used as baby names for centuries. In the Netherlands, Milan ranks among the top boy names. But many other European and English-speaking countries don't rank any place names at all among their top names for babies.

Here, the most popular place names used for both girls and boys, ordered by their current popularity on Nameberry.

RELATED:

Place Names Off The Map

Gender Neutral Names

  1. Charlotte

    • 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. Florence

    • 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.
  3. Caspian

    • Origin:

      Place name

    • Meaning:

      "white"

    • Description:

      One of the most romantic of appellations, Caspian is a geographical name referring to the large salty sea between Asia and Europe. It's also the name of the hero of C.S. Lewis's beloved Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian.
  4. Sienna

    • Origin:

      Italian color name

    • Meaning:

      "orange red"

    • Description:

      Sienna has been a Top 100 choice in England & Wales since 2005, the year after Sienna Miller's acting breakthrough in the hit movies Alfie and Layer Cake. In the US, it also got a big boost in the early noughties, before dropping slightly then rebounding to reach an all-time high in 2022.
  5. Leon

    • Origin:

      Greek variation of Leo

    • Meaning:

      "lion"

    • Description:

      Currently overshadowed by the bright and lively Leo, Leon feels a slightly more serious, more quietly confident than its short and trending counterpart.
  6. Helena

    • Origin:

      Latinate form of Helen, Greek

    • Meaning:

      "torch; shining light"

    • Description:

      Helena is one of those classic names that just misses making the US Top 1000 girl names for its entire history, falling off for a single year in 1992. Since then it's been drifting lazily up the charts, and makes a perfect choice if you want a name that both fits in and stands out.
  7. Hudson

    • Origin:

      English place-name and surname

    • Meaning:

      "Hugh's son"

    • Description:

      Hudson has risen quickly up the charts over the past 30 years, getting a lot of its style value from New York's Hudson River. That makes it a nature name and a place name that's also got the fashion gloss of New York City.
  8. Vienna

    • Origin:

      Place-name: the capital of Austria

    • Meaning:

      "forest stream; white foundation"

    • 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 or Vivienne, though it has been climbing the charts itself.
  9. Adelaide

    • 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.
  10. Rhodes

    • Origin:

      Greek

    • Meaning:

      "where roses grow"

    • Description:

      This is a name we've seen the potential of for some time now — A Greek island and a prestigious scholarship make for a preppy first name with the uber-stylish S ending. Needless to say we were not surprised that Rhodes cracked the Top 1000 in 2022, and we expect it to keep rising. Rhodes was recently chosen by actress Emma Roberts for her son, born in 2020.
  11. Emilia

    • Origin:

      Feminine variation of Emil, Latin

    • Meaning:

      "rival"

    • Description:

      Emilia is the feminine form of the Roman clan name Aemilius, which derived from the Latin aemulus, meaning "rival." In Shakespeare’s Othello, Emilia is the wife of Iago and confidante of Desdemona. Amelia, although homonymous, has a different root and meaning.
  12. Eden

    • Origin:

      Hebrew

    • Meaning:

      "place of pleasure, delight"

    • Description:

      Eden is an attractive, serene name with obvious intimations of Paradise, one of several place names drawn from the Bible by the Puritans in the 17th century.
  13. Lucia

    • Origin:

      Italian and Spanish variation of Lucius, Latin

    • Meaning:

      "light"

    • Description:

      Lucia is a lush, rich Latinate equivalent of Lucy, popular in Spain and throughout Latin America and also a cross-cultural favorite. You might be surprised to know that Lucia has ALWAYS ranked among the Top 1000 girl names in the US, though she's really taken off only since the turn of this century.
  14. Nancy

    • Origin:

      English diminutive of Ann or Agnes, Hebrew; Greek

    • Meaning:

      "grace; pure"

    • Description:

      To some, Nancy is a sweet, sparkly, vintage choice with plenty of energy and style. For it strays too much into '"old-lady" territory to be cool again yet. It's out of fashion in France, New Zealand, and Canada; it lingers towards to bottom of the US charts. In the UK however, Nancy has been a Top 100 name for nearly a decade where it fits right in with Evie, Mabel, and Pippa.
  15. Georgia

    • Origin:

      English, feminine variation of George

    • Meaning:

      "farmer"

    • Description:

      Georgia is so rich, lush and luscious, it's almost irresistible. Georgia's now a rising star among the feminizations of George, helped by associations with the southern state (named for British King George II) and painter Georgia O'Keeffe, with the Ray Charles song "Georgia On My Mind" or maybe "Sweet Georgia Brown" playing in the background.
  16. Austin

    • 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.
  17. Alba

    • Origin:

      Latin

    • Meaning:

      "white"

    • Description:

      Alba is quietly making a behind-the-scenes comeback, perhaps thanks to actress turned baby-product mogul Jessica Alba. Last on the Top 1000 a century ago, the name was given to nearly 200 baby girls in the US last year. Alba might be tomorrow's successor to Ava and Ella. In Spain, Alba ranks among the Top 20 girls' names. Alba is the name of a character in The Time Traveler's Wife.
  18. Sofia

    • Origin:

      Greek

    • Meaning:

      "wisdom"

    • Description:

      Sofia is a refined 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.
  19. Lincoln

    • Origin:

      English

    • Meaning:

      "town by the pool"

    • Description:

      Lincoln cracked the Top 50 for boys' names for the first time in 2016, more than 150 years after the death of its most famous bearer. This is especially remarkable because, as crazy as it seems now, Lincoln was deeply out of fashion as recently as the late 90s, consistently hovering near the bottom of the Top 1000.
  20. Jackson

    • 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. Last year, more than 13,000 baby boys were named Jackson -- along Jaxon, Jaxson, Jaxxon, Jaxen, Jaxyn, Jaxsen, and Jaxsyn -- which counted together makes it the Number 5 boys' name.