Wonderful Word Names for Babies

Cooler than April, May, or June, but also a tad icy.

Spiritual word names are becoming more and more popular – think Peace, Bodhi, Zen and Psalm – and Spirit is among the rarer options, given to a couple dozen baby girls each year in the US. It's the name of the horse in the kids' TV show Spirit.

There are many fire-related names, from Aidan to Fiammetta, but the Flame isn't one that's often found on birth certificates. It's a highly symbolic word: flames can represent faith, passion and cleansing, for example, as well as straightforward heat and light.

Evocative word name that's refreshingly straightforward. Overtones of Christianity and penalty. More subtle option: Cruz.

March has never been popular as a month name, possibly because of its slightly abrupt sound. But with all kinds of month (and season, day, and holiday) names, from January to December, Sunday to Easter, Winter to Midnight, coming to the fore, March is beginning to seem eminently baby-ready.

Whimsy is a new entry to the ever-expanding word name lexicon, sister for Pixie and Bliss. While it has an undeniable offbeat English aristocratic charm (maybe we're thinking of Dorothy Sayers' fictional detective Lord Peter Wimsey, whose middle name was Death?), we see this as more fitting for a middle than a first name.

Mason with a French accent. It first entered the US Top 1000 in 2012, and it will likely hang on for as long as its brother-in-spelling-variations, Mayson.

Intriguing, when seen as a water name a la River and Ocean, but too close to cultural appropriate if used as a reference to the Creek tribe of Native Americans. Another downside is its resemblance to creak, as in creaky bones or floorboards, and to unappealing words like creep and creak.

Revere is a word name (meaning to admire or esteem) whose meaning alone has enough to recommend it. In the USA, however, Revere attracts further connotation as the surname of Paul Revere, one of the celebrated patriots of the American Revolution.

Page, Poet, and Story all get used as names, so why not Verse? Teen Mom's Kailyn Lowry used it as a name for one of her sons.

For a boy, Dash is usually short for Dashiell, but as a girl's name it just stands for energetic--and also the stores run by the Kardashian sisters..

For basketball fans, in honor of Magic Johnson. Or anyone who believes in magic.

Glimmer is shimmery but a little too showy, as is Glitter, a character on a TV sitcom-- while Glimmer appears in The Hunger Games.

Spacey.

Sabbath is a faith-inspired word name, like Sunday or Faith, that is attracting some notice since heavy metal musician Zakk Wylde chose it for his son. But then there's the band Black Sabbath, which gives the name a more devilish twist. While there's nothing intrinsically male or female about Sabbath as a first name, it squeaked onto the Social Security roster for five boys in 2012, but was not recorded for girls. Sabbath comes from the word for "day of rest" in many ancient cultures.

Otherworldly.

Another meaningful word name that actually dates back to pre-Emancipation days.

You can call your daughter Sugar, but only as a term of endearment. Her real name has to be something, almost anything, else.

One of the boastful, ultra-modern word names soaring in popularity right now. Though it's a bit more popular for girls than boys -- the "cy" ending reads a little feminine -- it's solidly unisex, with over 100 baby boys being named Legacy in 2017. This is one of the many uplifting words that make unique unisex names.

Cedric the Entertainer chose this for his daughter, but most other parents would find it, though optimistic, not exactly substantial.