Place Names

An obscurity, though with the popularity of Abigail and the rise of all names that start with A, may make an attractive choice.

Lisa Loeb used this intriguing name as the middle for her son Emet.

The sidekick in a John Wayne western.

Brixton is a once-tough now-gentrifying-and-cool area of London that has also become one of the hottest boys' names in the US, entering the Top 1000 names list in 2015. Spelling variation Brixten was used for less than 10 percent of the babies given the name,. Names with an x in the middle tend to sound cool and modern even when their roots are anything but. Another reason Brixton and Brixten are hot is its similarity to the increasingly popular Braxton.

A perfect example of what a difference a single letter can make. Add an 'a' to the ho-hum Cathy and you have the old name for China, often used by such poets as Edna St. Vincent Millay and Ezra Pound.

Pilgrimage site in Italy.

Lacks the cachet of some newer place-names.

This name of an old Armenian city, might sound a little too masculine for use here. Variations include the more feminine Garine and Karine.

A Catalan county name used for both girls and boys in its homeland.

Cam and Kam names, led by Camila, are hot right now — time to add Cambria and Kambria to the list of possibilities.

Has much too strong of a Brooklyn accent.

The historic name for the south-west corner of Wales, deriving from the British tribe of the Demetae.

A jaunty nautical-sounding name.

Valletta is the capital city of Malta. It takes on an air of attractiveness via model Amber Valletta and could make an appealing alternative to the somewhat dated Valerie.

This Canadian city name would make a unique but very wearable choice for a son or daughter. Cal is a good nickname — skip Gary.

The name of a port town in Maine, named after the birthplace of one of its founders Alexander Shapleigh, of Kittery Court, Devon, England.

The name of a rural communal area in Zimbabwe. Thandiwe Newton used it as a middle name for her son Booker.

Both Soho and Noho--no-no.

Pronounced my-ORK-a, the name of this lovely Balearic Island, located in the Mediterranean, is one of the prettiest and most feminine of place names. The Spanish spelling is MALLORCA.

Caer Dathyl, whose name is of obscure origin, is a fortress mentioned in the medieval Mabinogi tales, and re-used by Lloyd Alexander in his Welsh-inspired Chronicles of Prydain.