Cute Boy and Girl City and location Names

While many will see this as a alternate version of more popular Alexandria and Alessandra -- and some parents may indeed intend it as such -- it is also the name of a province and city in northwest Italy. Just 12 baby girls in the U.S. were given the name Alessandria in 2016.

Cairo is an exciting place name possibility with upbeat o ending. It debuted in the US Top 1000 in 2015 and keeps heading upward.

This Mediterranean island name would be a plausible choice for parents with a Greek or Turkish heritage.

Dallas is a cowhand name that perhaps surprisingly has always ranked among the Top 1000 names for boys in the US, since records began in 1880, but has only been a Top 1000 girl name for the past decade (along with brief periods in the 1990s and in 1910).

Sad tinge to the name of the beautiful German city firebombed during World War II. Its name derives from Sorbian drezga, meaning "forest".

With Galway and Ireland in play as names (not to mention Shannon and Kerry), there's no reason this one can't work, too.

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.

Many things to many peoples: a flower name, also spelled Hanae, to the Japanese; a Czech and Polish short form of Johana; and an alternate form of the biblical name Hannah in the US. It also means "craft, work" in Hawaiian and "glow" in Maori.

Holland is one of the coolest geographical names, unadorned and elegant, evocative of fine Rembrandt portraits and fields of pink and yellow tulips. It first entered the US Top 1000 in 2014.

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 curve (or trendsetting)—Ireland has been among the fastest-rising names of recent years. Other Irish place names include Shannon, Kerry, Galway, and Dublin.

Lucca first entered the US Top 1000 in 2012 and has been trending upwards.

In many Slavic and other European countries, Milan is purely a boys’ name, but in the US, it's also popular for girls – no doubt inspired by the fashionable Italian city. It entered the Top 1000 for boys in 2013, while for girls it has been in the Top 1000 since 2009.

A strong Greek name with pan-European charm, Petra is a relatively recent feminization of Peter, though it relates back to an incredible ancient city in Jordan that was rediscovered in the early nineteenth century.

An attractive North Carolina unisex place name, Raleigh's soft sound is particularly appropriate for a girl.

Alluring and lovely — and much more distinctive now than Samantha or Tamara. Samara is a city in western Russia, a winged seed like the whirlygigs that fall from maple trees, as well as a bona fide first name that could make a more unusual update on Samantha or Mara. It can also be a variant spelling of the Arabic name Samira or Sameera.