Nature, Place and Word Names · Unisex Baby Names
By Pamela Redmond · Updated September 2026
Across 37 pages
of 37
Place-name
Fargo as a baby name? Though we haven't heard of any babies named for this frigid North Dakota city, it's certainly on the map of possibilities.
This name of the North Dakota city has been used for at least one female (we know, because she wrote to us) but it doesn't meet the Social Security's five-baby threshold to ever make it onto the…
Arabic
"Palestine"
The Arabic word for Palestine made the US charts for the first time in 2021. It makes a unique first or middle name choice to honor Palestinian heritage.
American place-name and Arabic
"peace"
Zuma is a name that can appeal to almost anyone — just pick your association! There's former South African president Jacob Zuma, the Malibu beach, video game, and more. Children will associate it…
Zuma was entered in the American name lexicon when musicians Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale chose it for their son. Californians will recognize Zuma as the name of a beautiful beach in Malibu, and…
French and Belgium place and surname
Originally used as a surname for someone from Verlaine in the Liege province of Belgium, its use as a given name was inspired by the 19th century French poet, Paul Verlaine. Predominantly used as a…
Welsh, place name
"Irish people, band of warriors; white, fair, blessed"
Back in the 5th century, Gwynedd was a kingdom in northern Wales, though in modern times, it is both an unusual, unisex name and a Welsh county. For girls, it is more familiar in its modern form,…
English place name and surname
"children's settlement"
A quirky habitational surname, Kilby is a town in Leicestershire in England. Derived from Old English and Old Norse, it could mean "child's settlement" from the elements cilda and by . Though it is…
Place name, Latin
"slab"
An unusual place, Lausanne is a hilly city on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Its name comes from the Latin Lausanna, ultimately from a Proto Celtic word meaning "slab" though other sources…
Basque, Spanish
"old stone"
Itziar is the name of a Basque village, notable for its shrine to the Virgin Mary, inside its 8th century temple, The sanctuary of Santa María de Itziar. The name possibly translates to "ancient…
German place name, Spanish short form or surname
"from Nebra; white shadow; fog"
Nebra is the name of a town in Germany, notable for the Nebra Sky Disc, a Bronze Aged disc inlaid with gold symbols of the sun, the moon and stars, significant in revealing the astronomical knowledge…
Cornish place name
"accompany, bring together"
The name of a beautiful village on the Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall, Veryan actually derives from a series of misunderstandings: Sen Veryan ("Saint Veryan") is a Cornish corruption of Severian,…
Italian place-name
Volcano name for an active, bubbly child -- but be careful -- volcanoes do erupt.
This name of an architecturally glorious Italian city makes a romantic and evocative possibility.
Italian surname name
An unusual name with some real high-low appeal: It was the first name of a bully on The Fosters and the last name of the great Enlightenment philosopher Giambattista Vico. It has many of the merits…
English
"blond"
If this name makes you think of Victorian novels, it's because Fairfax was part of Mr Rochester's name in Jane Eyre , and the surname of a minor character in Jane Austen's Emma . It has a distinctly…
Latin
"village or street"
Vicus, an unusual ancient Roman place-name, is used for modern-day boys in Africa.
Place name and surname that sounds a tad snooty.
"bank along the pathway"
Alaska's second most populous city makes a baby name with a preppy, even aristocratic, flavor.
