User-created list
Some Place Names I Like
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Raleigh
English
"meadow of roe deer"
Attractive North Carolina place-name and surname of explorer Sir Walter Raleigh. Distinctive, classy-but-approachable choice for either sex.
Indio
Spanish
"Indian"
This name of a California desert town, used by Deborah Falconer and Robert Downey, Jr. for their son, makes a much livelier and more individual – not to mention more masculine – improvisation on the…
Camden
Scottish
"winding valley"
Newly popular boys' name could cross over in much the way the related Cameron has.
Chelsea
Place name, English
"landing place for chalk or limestone"
Chelsea for a boy? Yes — and we've got two maleberry Chelseas to prove it (one of whom even wrote a blog for us about his experience)! Boy Chelseas would more likely be named for the British football…
Devon
English place-name
Devon, spelled like the lovely seaside county in Britain that inspired the name, has crashed since its heyday around the Top 100 in the 1990s. Despite its use as a female name, for example for Devon…
Devon
English place-name
This spelling of Devon, as opposed to Devin or Devan, makes it a pretty and popular British place-name, evoking the beautiful county of farmlands and dramatic seascapes and moors in southwest…
Brooklyn
Place-name from Dutch
"marshland"
It may be the hippest of hispter neighborhoods, but as a baby name Brooklyn is now on the decline: down from a peak of 120 births for boys in 1999, and over 7000 births for girls in 2011. The most…
Cairo
Place name, Arabic
"the strong; the conqueror"
On trend for boys but with plenty of unisex appeal too, the place name Cairo was put on the map for girls when model Beverly Peele chose it for her daughter. Given to around 50 girls each year, it…
Kenya
Place name, Kikuyu
"mountain of white"
A bold and evocative African place name. The country of Kenya gets its name from Mount Kenya, referred to it as "Kirinyaga" or "Kerenyaga" by the local Kikuyu people, meaning "mountain of whiteness"…
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…
Madison
English
"son of Matthew"
Madison was at one time a strictly boys' presidential name, reaching as high as Number 311 at the end of the nineteenth century. That all changed in 1985 when it entered the girls' list, zooming up…
Paris
French place-name
The first famous Paris was a mythological prince of incredible beauty. The most recent was media darling Paris Hilton, inspirer of a generation of baby-girl namesakes. But since Pierce Brosnan and…
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. Perseus feels more namelike.
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…
Olympia
Greek
"from Mount Olympus"
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. A well-known art reference…
Valencia
Spanish
"brave, strong"
This lovely orange-scented Spanish place-name would make an inventive namesake for an Aunt Valerie. Last on the popularity list in 1994, Valencia reached a high of Number 633 in 1969-70. The…
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…