Nature, Place and Word Names
By Pamela Redmond · Updated September 2026
Across 6 pages
of 6
Scottish nature name
"estuary or arm of the sea"
Highly unusual water name -- and actor Colin surname -- with a Scottish burr. Firth derives from the Old Norse word fjord.
Turkish
"sea"
Derya is a unisex name in its native Turkey, though even there it is far more popular for women than for men. It is related to the Persian name Daria, which also means sea.
French
"of the sea"
An undiscovered gem with clunky, buttoned-up appeal and a literary feel thanks to poet Delmore Schwartz.
Greek
"the sea"
A pretty, rarely used Greek name, Thalassa is the ancient personification of the sea, particularly the Mediterranean, who is sometimes considered the mother of Aphrodite. In 1991, a newly discovered…
"dogmatic"
This name of the mythological mother of Achilles might suffer from English speakers making the rhyming association to the word fetus. The traditional Greek pronunciation might alleviate that problem.
Irish and Hindu mythology name; Sanskrit
"rain"
Danu is a name from Irish mythology without many details attached. Some say she's a goddess of agriculture and/or of women, but that does not appear in ancient texts. In Hindu mythology, Danu is a…
English word name
"land by the sea"
A beachy name, similar in feel to Coast, Tide, Bay, and Cove. It has yet to rank in the US stats.
Latin
"little wave"
Mythological water spirit with the more common spelling of Ondine, heroine of an Edith Wharton novel.
Nature name, English word name
"a shore of a body of water"
With the tide coming in on a new wave of word names, this one just might catch on, especially for parents who relish sun, sand, and surf. Forest lovers can spell it Beech, like the tree.
Feminine variation of Zale, invented nickname-name, or short form of Azalea
All baby names can be made more "creative" by putting a Z at the beginning instead of what's conventionally there: B or C or H, for instance. Zaley is an adorable entry in this group, also spelled…
American place-name and Arabic
"peace"
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…
Irish
"sea taboo"
When British rocker Steven Patrick Morrissey decided to use his last name alone, it became a viable option for baby namers, a lot cooler than Morris or Maurice.
Greek; Aboriginial
"sea nymph, mermaid; red waterlily"
This is one of the more unusual examples of a group of Greek names connected to the sea, which makes sense for a nation of coastline and islands. The Nereids or water nymphs were the daughters of sea…
Maori
"reflections on the water"
New Zealand writer Ngaio (born Edith Ngaio) Marsh is the best-known bearer of this Maori nature name, properly pronounced ng (like the end of sing) -EYE-oh. It is the name of a tree indigenous to New…
Irish surname, related to the sea
A merry surname cousin of Kerrigan, could make a lively choice for a happy little girl.
Welsh
Llyr is a name with a great meaning and a lovely sound, but that sound is going to be next to impossible to get non-Welsh speaking people to pronounce (google the double L sound in Welsh). If you are…
Irish mythological name
Lir is the Irish god of the sea, the equivalent of the Welsh Llyr which some equate with Shakespeare's King Lear. This is one of those rare names that is simple and has a deep history with an…
Luo; Japanese
"bending or leaning; little beach"
The surname of the 44th US President has been been adopted as a first, for girls as well as boys, by admiring parents around the world. And the O beginning even makes it fashionable. Though Barack…
Mythological name
"ocean"
Oceanus was the Titan in ancient Greek mythology who rules what they thought was the body of water that surrounded the Earth. Oceanus was, appropriately enough, the name of the baby born on the…
Italian
"wave"
An Italian word name that somehow feels incomplete in itself.
