Names That Mean Place

A streamlined spelling of the classical British Thackeray — no wonder this is the more common variation in the US. Thackery makes a preppier, more unusual alternative to Zachary.

The name of the resort city on Spain's Costa del Sol is pronounced mar-BAY-a, setting it apart from the bella-name competition -- though many English speakers won't realize that.

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

Calloway is more popular among boys, while Callaway takes the title for girls. Perhaps it's the built-in floral nickname Calla.

If Dayton, like Trenton and Camden, is finding favor with parents, it's more because of its popular two-syllable surname feel and -on ending than the industrial city in Ohio.

A unisex cultural crossover that has seen a little use from the 1990s onwards. In Japanese mythology, Inari is an androgynous deity associated with rice, tea and foxes. In Finland, it is the name of a region, lake and village which is a center of Sami culture.

A unisex cultural crossover that has seen a little use from the 1990s onwards. In Japanese mythology, Inari is an androgynous deity associated with rice, tea and foxes. In Finland, it is the name of a region, lake and village which is a center of Sami culture.

A name with something for everyone: for romantics, it's a beautiful Indonesian island; for teckies, it's a computer programming language.

Well, parents are naming their children Eden and Heaven...so why not?

No matter how much you love the novels of Papa H., don't saddle your son with this unwieldy appellation.

This Cornish place name is possibly named after a female saint, Senara. However, it can work just as well on a boy and would make a very interesting choice for those of Cornish descent or who love Cornwall.

Mosley, former best known as the surname of author Walter, has been put in play as a first name for girls by football great Peyton Manning, who used the name for his twin daughter, sister of Marshall. Alternate spellings are Moseley and Mosely and the first syllable rhymes with Rose.

The name of an extremely civilized, wealthy city in the north of Italy merits more notice as a first name, a la Verona and Milan. It was used as one in the Canadian sci-fi series Killjoys.

A mash-up of popular name trends, French is all at once a place name, word name, and surname name. It's evocative of a favorite celebrity baby name fad of using nationalities as names as opposed to places, as in Mariah Carey's Moroccan.

Name of the French town where a vision of the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared, this name, virtually unknown elsewhere, is in the Spanish Top 100.

Wellington is a tony-sounding English surname turned baby name by pregnancy guru Rosie Pope, who calls her son Wells for short. It's also the middle name of one of the Sweet Home sextuplets, Blu Wellington.

Equally strong, dramatic and romantic, this name of an old kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and a modern Spanish community as well, would give a boy an instant pedigree.

Nazareth, an important place in the New Testament as the hometown of Jesus, is on the rise as a name for both girls and boys. It's one of a handful of Biblical place names, along with Galilee and Jericho, stylish among contemporary Christians.

Dacia was an ancient region comprised of what is modern Romania and Moldova and smaller parts of other Eastern European countries. Its inhabitants were called the Dacians, and the Dacian Kingdom flourished around the time of Christ until it was toppled by the Romans. Daciana is the female version sometimes used in Romania.

Despite Thornton Wilder, playwright of the perennial Our Town, only a handful of baby boys receive this name each year..