User-created list
Geographical Baby Names - From North to West
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Alaska
Native American
"great land"
State name Alaska stems from an Aleutian word for the land mass itself. The number of baby girls named Alaska has doubled in the past five years, and is sure to continue increasing as more place…
Arizona
Place-name from Papago Indian
"little springs"
We usually think of place-names as a modern invention, but in fact Arizona ranked on the US Top 1000 from its inception in 1880 until 1911, when it vanished below the surface. It peaked at Number 510…
Asia
Place name
This still attractive place name was one of the first to gain popularity, though it now probably owes some of its favor to the similar Aisha. Asia ranked as high as Number 195 on the US baby names…
Berlin
German
"borderline"
Edgy German capital with definite possibilities as a baby name.
Brighton
English place-name
Out-of-the-way place name (it's an antiquated holiday spot on England's south coast) that might make a brilliant choice. Actor/director Jon Favreau named his daughter Brighton Rose.
Cuba
Place-name
"abundant fertile land; great place"
Soul singer Cuba Gooding and his actor son of the same name put this unexpected geographical name on the map for boys, but it has a longer history of use than you might expect. Deriving from the…
Geneva
Swiss place-name or French
"juniper tree"
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. Geneva was a relatively popular American name at one time: it…
India
Place name, from the River Indus
Euphonious and long stylish in England, India was one of the fastest-rising names on the 2013 list, after jumping 240 spots back into the Top 1000. Gorgeous as it may be, the usage of India as a name…
Indiana
American place-name
"land of the Indians"
Indiana is one of those place-names (think Camden and Trenton) that sounds cooler than the place that inspired it. Its fashionable -ana ending certainly sounds eminently name-like, and…
Ireland
Place name
Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin put Ireland on the map when they chose it as a first for their daughter, saying that geographic names were a family tradition. And it seems they were a bit ahead of the…
Kenya
Place name, Kikuyu
"mountain of white"
Kenya, a name borrowed from the East African nation and theoretically unisex, is now used mostly for girls. While it's had its ups and downs since entering the US Top 1000 in 1968, it currently ranks…
Nevada
Spanish place-name
"covered in snow"
Named for its snowcapped mountains, Nevada is a state name which, unlike Carolina, Montana, and Dakota, has been relatively undiscovered. Warning: today's unvisited place-name could become tomorrow's…
North
Word name
North's image and gender status was irrevocably changed when Kim Kardashian and Kanye West announced it as the name of their newborn daughter. But why not? West is firmly established as a name,…
Persia
Country name
"land of the Parsa"
The name Persia derives from Avestan Parsa , the name of the Indo-European nomadic people who migrated into southern Iran in about 1000 BCE. Persis or Persea, the feminine form of Perseus, feel more…
Sahara
Arabic
"deserts"
A beautiful and evocative place-name that deserves wider use, Sahara brings to mind deserts and heat. Derived from Arabic, it is the name of the world's largest hot desert, located across the North…
Verona
Italian place-name
Verona is a scenic place-name with the added attraction of a Shakespearean connection, as in Two Gentlemen of ....
West
Word name
West is the most fashionable of what you might call the direction names, with North and East (or Easton and Easter) coming up behind, and South not yet on the map. Country singer Randy Houser named…
York
English
"from the yew estate"
Brisk, preppy York is an underused classic with the potential to really shine in the 21st century. It's most familiar as a place name — York is a city in England — and surname. New York City and…