User-created list
By silvertongue · Updated February 2023
Across 3 pages
of 3
Place name
Long more associated with the New York Waldorf- hotel and the neighborhood in Queens than as a baby name, Astoria is finally beginning to emerge from their shadow and find favor with parents looking…
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.
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…
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…
English and Scottish
"treeless hill"
Unless it runs in your family, or Alexander Hamilton is your particular hero, you might consider something less imposing -- and without the teasable nickname Ham. Scottish curler Hamilton McMillan Jr…
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…
Italian place-name
Verona is a scenic place-name with the added attraction of a Shakespearean connection, as in Two Gentlemen of ....
This name of one of the most romantic cities in the world could easily find its way onto an American baby girl's birth certificate.
German
"powerful protector"
Richmond is a place-name — it's the capital of Virginia, US, and a town in London, UK — that makes a fresh way to honor an ancestral Richard.
Native American, Cherokee, place-name
"bend in the river or meeting place"
When playwright Thomas Lanier Williams adopted the pen name of Tennessee, he created a new possibility among American place-names, although it's admittedly a bit bulky in size. Reese Witherspoon…
"where birches grow"
The Brits say BARK-lee, but we pronounce it the same as the name of the California college: either way it's quite pretentious and of another era.
American place name, Algonquin
"wild garlic"
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian have done it again for their third child: Chosen a name that feels iconic yet strangely inevitable. They named North and Saint's younger sister Chicago, after Kanye's…
American place name from Greek
"Atlantic Ocean"
The capital of Georgia is far from the ocean, but got its name from the Western and Atlantic Railroad which ran through the city. Best known as a hub of industry and transport, and for its roles in…
"dugout canoe"
Missouri, the name of a tribe, a state and a river, derives from the Illinois word mihsoori meaning "dugout canoe". It became a somewhat popular American girls' name in the mid-19th century. Missouri…
Place-name
If you want to honor your grandfather Hal but can't work up much enthusiasm for his full name Harold, consider the more stylish (if a bit pretentious) capital of Nova Scotia.
Place name and Spanish from Latin
"flowery"
Lacks the cachet of some newer place-names.
French place-name
Louisiana is a geographic spin on the Louise theme. Pretty, if a bit of a syllable overload. Short form Lou or Lulu lightens it.
