Names That Mean Name

Although Zircon means "gold-hued," the gem comes in a variety of colors.

Boo as a first name first achieved notoriety as the name of the child-man in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Arthur "Boo" Radley was meant to be frightening, but only in a simple, non-threatening way. More recently, Boo has been used as the middle name of one of chef Jamie Oliver's children and the nickname in the middle of television's Honey Boo Boo. Boo is also the name of the world's cutest dog and of the adorable little girl in Monsters Inc. In a more basic way, Boo is a term of endearment.

Hendrix is an improbably trendy first name rising in honor of guitar great Jimi.

Author Toni Morrison is an acknowledged master of naming, and Sethe, the name of one of the main characters of Beloved, which can be pronounced as Seth or Seth-eh, relates to the male biblical name Seth but is also the name of the Egyptian god of confusion.

Notable Wolfs like Blitzer, Mankowitz, and Kahn give this name a masculine bent, but nature names are inherently unisex, so we see no reason why Wolf can't be used on a baby girl.

Historically Wolf has been more common among German (where it's pronounced Vulf) and Jewish families, occasionally as a nickname for Wolfgang.

The nickname Wolfie softens and feminizes Wolf, while Wolfe turns it into a surname.

Kal-El is Superman's Kryptonian name, invented by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938 as the birth name of the superhero. Some theorize that it relates to Hebrew characters with the meaning "voice of God", while others give the meaning as "son" or "Earth one".

A quirky character name from the Netflix series You, twin brother to the equally quirky Love.

Authentically spelled Luíseach (with Luighsech as a variant), this obscure saint's name is thought to derive from the mythological figure Lugh, perhaps a reflex of an older god. Luíseach is sometimes considered the Irish version of Lucy. In fact, they are historically separate names, but if Lugh derives from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "shining" then they are very distant cousins.

Beautiful meanings no matter which origin you want to go with. But either way, it rhymes with Paris.

Chrysalis is a girls' baby name derived from the state of a butterfly or moth between larva and adult. A chrysalis is a hard-shelled pupa in which the transition of the butterfly or moth takes place. As a baby name, Chrysalis came to the fore as the rumored name of the baby girl of Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott, who reportedly love butterflies. Chrysalis does certainly have potential as a new word name or nature name for babies, with the simple familiar nickname Chrys.

In Pierre Benoit's novel, Antinea is a beautiful and charming queen with a hideous secret: She has a cave wall with 120 niches carved into it, one for each of her lovers. Only 53 have been filled; when all 120 have been filled, Antinea will sit atop a throne in the centre of the cave and rest forever.

Great middle name choice for music lovers or those with Scottish roots, also spelled Fyfe.

The name of the character in Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" whom the poet intended as a representation of Queen Elizabeth I. While it will no doubt thrill your daughter's English professor, the addition of the "Bel" to already great Phoebe is on the fussy side.

Historia originated as a Greek term and is the basis for the word "history" in many languages, including English and Spanish. It is used as a name for the character Historia Reiss in the anime series Attack on Titan.

This down-to-earth Bible name is surprisingly little-used, considering the popularity of other Old Testament names. Shem was Noah's eldest son, and is the origin of the term Semitic (as in the language family).

Parents are beginning to turn away from springtime months like April and June and are moving toward the cooler and crisper three-syllable September, October, November, and December.

Baby girl names ending in lyn seem to become more numerous all the time, and this choice combining the pretty nature suffix Lake with lyn is destined for more widespread use. Lakelyn and her sister spelling Lakelynn both entered the US charts for the first time in 2022, and are sure to continue to rise.

Though this may be thought of as a short form of the legitimate name Jetta, that one's gone to the cars. This sounds more modern if a bit supersonic. In the Netherlands, it's in the Top 100, originating as a short form of -ette ending names such as Henriette and Mariette.

A regal sounding name with a cool, trendy twist, Kaizer is a variation of the title given to the now-defunct German emperor. Deriving from Caesar (with the perhaps less appealing, hairy meaning), the traditional Kaiser spelling is in the US Top 1000. Given to around 330 boys each year, it is more than twice as popular as Kaizer.

Pansy is an early floral name that lost credibility when it became a derogatory slang term for gay people. Better these days: Posy or Poppy.