World Cities

  1. Valencia
    • Origin:

      Spanish
    • Meaning:

      "brave, strong"
    • Description:

      This lovely orange-scented Spanish place-name would make an inventive namesake for an Aunt Valerie.
  2. Santiago
    • Origin:

      Place-name or Latin
    • Meaning:

      "Saint James"
    • Description:

      Santiago is a spirited Spanish name with great crossover potential. It's a place-name (a city in Chile), a surname, and the name of the patron saint of Spain.
  3. Merida
    • Origin:

      Latin
    • Meaning:

      "one who has achieved a high place of honor"
    • Description:

      You'll probably be hearing more of this name thanks to the newest Pixar film, featuring Princess Merida, the first Pixar princess--a feisty, athletic, independent medieval Scottish girl with wild red hair. Her name, however, is not Scottish, but a Spanish place name found in both Spain and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
  4. Sydney
    • Origin:

      Variation of Sidney, English from French
    • Meaning:

      "Saint Denis"
    • Description:

      The Sydney spelling most popular for girls: it's in the Top 50 on the female side. Cool for a girl, still nerdy for a guy.
  5. Denver
    • Origin:

      English or French place-name and surname
    • Meaning:

      "from Anvers"
    • Description:

      Before there was Aspen, Denver was the Colorado city name of choice, and it reentered the US Top 1000 in 2015 after a 14 year absence as a stylish two-syllable boys’ name with its trendy -er ending. Its decade of greatest use was the 1920s, when it reached as high as Number 422.
  6. Francisco
    • Origin:

      Spanish, Portuguese
    • Meaning:

      "free man"
    • Description:

      Francisco is one of the more popular Spanish names for boys in the US, which is unsurprising given its popularity back in Spain and Portugal as well as Latin America, coupled with its classic status. It also has a cool hipster vibe to it, given the reputation of the city of San Francisco.
  7. Cheyenne
    • Origin:

      Sioux
    • Meaning:

      "people of a different language"
    • Description:

      The name of a courageous tribe, Cheyenne became quite popular in the 1990s, inspiring a wide range of spelling variations—Shyanne is one example that's still on the rise.
  8. Kingston
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "king's town"
    • Description:

      Chosen for their first son by musical couple Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, this Jamaican place and elegant British surname also boasts the more regal yet user-friendly short form, King.
  9. Olympia
    • Origin:

      Greek
    • Meaning:

      "from Mount Olympus"
    • Description:

      With its relation to Mount Olympus, home of the Greek gods, and to the Olympic games, this name has an athletic, goddess-like aura, making it the perfect Olivia substitute.
  10. Siena
    • Origin:

      Italian place-name
    • Description:

      Siena is a soft and delicate Tuscan town name given a big fashion boost by lovely young actress/gossip column staple Sienna Miller. A real up-and-comer.
  11. Geneva
    • Origin:

      Swiss place-name or French
    • Meaning:

      "juniper tree"
    • Description:

      Unlike its somewhat formal Swiss city namesake, this is a lively and appealing place-name that also has a real history as a female name.
  12. Salem
    • Origin:

      Biblical place-name or Arabic
    • Meaning:

      "safe"
    • Description:

      Salem is a Biblical place name in Canaan, believed to be the same as Jerusalem, as well as the Massachusetts town famous for its late 17th century witch trials. Salem is also a popular first name in its own right throughout the Arabic world.
  13. Brooklyn
    • Origin:

      English Place name from Dutch
    • Meaning:

      "marshland"
    • Description:

      Extreme makeover: Brooklyn has gone from jokey Borough Boy name in the 1990s to a leading girls' name starting with B. The status of New York's Brooklyn as hipster heaven is ironic as few bona fide Brooklyn hipsters would choose this name.
  14. Oslo
    • Origin:

      Norwegian place name, Old Norse
    • Meaning:

      "meadow at the foot of a hill"
    • Description:

      Oslo, the capital city of Norway, makes for an intriguing new place name, especially with its bookended O's, as in Otto and leads to cool nickname Ozzie. One Berry has already used it and we predict others will follow; in fact, stats suggest it is used eight times more often than it was a decade ago.
  15. Darwin
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "dear friend"
    • Description:

      Enough parents have found naturalist Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, a worthy hero to keep Darwin relatively consistently in the Top 1000. It has a lovely meaning too—"dear friend."
  16. Paris
    • Origin:

      French place-name
    • Description:

      Paris, a one-time mythical and Shakespearean boys' name, peaked in 2004 at Number 157 at least in part due to the highly publicized Paris Hilton. Michael Jackson used it for his daughter.
  17. London
    • Origin:

      English place-name
    • Meaning:

      "Capital city of England"
    • Description:

      The capital of England makes a solid and attractive twenty-first-century choice in the US where it is currently in the Top 1000. Given to nearly 1000 girls and 200 boys each year, it is a unisex option that has been in slow decline since its peak in 2013. Conjuring up images of Big Ben, red phone boxes, and the London Eye for some, but perhaps the rush hour commute and grey skies for others, London is far less popular in the UK and other English-speaking countries.
  18. Salvador
    • Origin:

      Spanish from Latin Salvator
    • Meaning:

      "savior"
    • Description:

      A common epithet of Christ, frequently heard in the Hispanic community, Salvador could also be a great choice for artistic parents, given the continuing popularity of Dada and Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. (If Monet and Raphael get a look in, why not Salvador?)
  19. Pierre
    • Origin:

      French variation of Peter
    • Meaning:

      "rock, stone"
    • Description:

      One of the most familiar — if not stereotypical — Gallic names. Pierre was a Top 5 name in France from the 19th century through 1940 and is now on a steady decline in its native land. In the US, Pierre was most common in the 1980s but it has never cracked the Top 300.
  20. Wellington
    • Origin:

      English surname from place name
    • Meaning:

      "people living in the hamlet in the cleared area near the temple"
    • Description:

      Wellington is a tony-sounding English surname turned baby name by pregnancy guru Rosie Pope, who calls her son Wells for short. It's also the middle name of one of the Sweet Home sextuplets, Blu Wellington.

The Nameberry App Is Live

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Find your perfect baby name together in our iPhone app, now available on the App Store.
  • Swipe through thousands of names with your partner
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  • Backed by Nameberry's 20 years of data around name preferences.
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