Names That Mean Name

One five-letter name, a quick suffix away from David, with two very different connotations. It's the name of a posh ski resort in Switzerland that hosts the illustrious World Economic Forum -- attended by tycoons, celebrities and heads of state -- each year. And of a trustworthy, salt-of-the-earth character in Game of Thrones, Davos Seaworth.

Familiar-but-new and ultra-rare (for girls anyway), Zealand has a lot going for it with its spunky Z initial and globe-trotting vibes. Sparingly used for boys since the 2000s and even more occasionally used for girls since 2010, YouTube family The Labrants brought this name into the spotlight when they called their son Zealand in 2019.

Ptarmigan is the common English name for the genus Lagopus, in the grouse family of birds. The name is derived from the Scottish word for the bird, tàrmachan (meaning unknown), with the initial P- added by erroneous association with the Greek pteron ("wing").

Bridges is one of the new last names as first names ending in S that are so fashionable right now, joining Brooks, Wells, and Banks.

This Scottish surname and Scottish and Australian place name has a pleasant airy and breezy sound to it. Camden mayor Lara Symkowiak chose the name for her daughter born in 2016.

Sweet-smelling Honeysuckle is the ultimate quirky floral name, so called because of its tubular flowers full of sweet nectar. Honeysuckle Weeks is a British actress whose siblings, also actors, have equally eye-catching names: Perdita and Rollo.

The capital of Peru makes a rare but attractive girl name.

A unisex French name that ranks in the Top 200 for boys and the Top 500 for girls there, inspired by a character with the surname Swann in Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. As a given name, it was popularized by the 1984 film Un amour de Swann ("Swann in Love"), directed by Volker Schlöndorff.

This name derives from the name Varuna, who in the Hindi faith was the god of water. Varun is, therefore, somewhat analogous to Neptune or Poseidon.

Mosley has seen a handful of uses — mostly among baby girls — since 2012, the year after Peyton Manning gave it to his daughter. It's much more familiar as a surname, such as that of novelist Walter Mosley.

One of several fascinating names used in Charlaine Harris's Midnight, Texas books and the NBC adaptation thereof, Fiji is a pleasingly quirky place name that's been little used for babies. Though it has been used quite a lot for fancy bottled water, we don't think it quite qualifies as a water name.

The campion is a pretty woodland plant with pink or red flowers, whose common name derives from Old French champion "champion". The plant is so called because in classical times, the rose campion was fitted in garlands used to crown victors.

A hardwood tree native to Africa, India and other tropical regions, which bears sweet pod-shaped fruits which are used as a flavoring in many world cuisines, including Indian and Filipino. A rare and intriguing nature name which could honor an ancestral Tammy or Tamar.

If Story and Poet and Sonnet can be names that work as well for girls as for boys, why not Ode?

Similar to the Turkish name Bilge (Bil-jeh), which has the same meaning.

This unusual English botanical name belongs to a minty-smelling, flowering herb (also called bishopwort), which has been used since medieval times to treat various ailments.
In the language of flowers, Betony signifies surprise, so this might make for a meaningful choice for an unexpected pregnancy.
Variant spelling Bettany (as in actor Paul Bettany, or English historian Bettany Hughes), could take this name into trendy surname-as-first-name territory.

A surname that could become a first, an alternate to the already-taken REGIS.

Made famous by Quvenzhané Wallis, the actress.