City Names - England and Wales

Brad in a Brooks Brothers suit.

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.

Bristol Palin, the daughter of former Alaska governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, grabbed her own share of headlines by having a baby out of wedlock and then appearing on Dancing With The Stars. She single-handedly propelled her distinctive name, inspired by a city in England, into the Top 1000 and up the charts. Bristol's ascent ended a few years back.

This stuffy English surname and hotel name took on Twilight cool when attached to vampire Carlisle Cullen. Inspired by the character, it's more popular in this spelling than as Carlyle and more widely used for boys than for girls.

Chester is a comfortable, little-used teddy-bear of a name that suddenly sounds both quirky and cuddly.

It's a hat, it's a race, and it's even been known to be a name. In Britain, it would be pronounced darby.

Gentle and southern-inflected, redolent of the North Carolina landscape.

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.

British place-name unlikely to evoke much passion in any baby namer.

Lincoln cracked the Top 50 for boys' names for the first time in 2016, more than 150 years after the death of its most famous bearer. This is especially remarkable because, as crazy as it seems now, Lincoln was deeply out of fashion as recently as the late 90s, consistently hovering near the bottom of the Top 1000.

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.

For sailors or jazz lovers. Or smokers of menthol cigarettes.

High-collared and straightlaced, with the deadly "Ox" nickname.

Britney Spears put this old-fashioned surname name back on the map when she chose it as her son Sean's middle name, which the family uses as his first.

Inventive way to honor a redheaded ancestor, though most people would mispronounce it reeding, making it sound to some kids like a school assignment: Redding is a preferable spelling.

One place-name that doesn't make the cut as a person name, associated with several commercial enterprises. We've seen it used by Chicago Cubs fans — Sheffield is the name of a major street bordering Wrigley Field.

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 State were named after the Duke of York.