Science and Technology Names

Seventeenth-century German polymath Johannes Kepler discovered the laws of planetary notion, along with the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. A handful of parents use his last name for their sons every year -- with good reason. It's a solid-feeling but unique name with a great, aspirational namesake.

Nine is not a numerical name, but rather a Dutch nickname for Katherine. It's identical in sound to Nina, although the two are etymologically unrelated.

This cosmological name has a zippy feel that might work well for the galactic parent looking for the perfect name for their own little star.

Among the first wave of word names used in the hippie era, it actually is a legitimate girl's name with a lot of luster.

Men may be from Mars as the saying goes, and the name may derive from the Latin maris meaning male, but soul singer Erykah Badu and Workaholics star Blake Anderson have given it potential as a unisex name after they both used it for their daughters.

Pronounced like Sunny, Suni is the nickname of astronaut Sunita Williams. Suni is also the nickname of US Olympic gymnast Suni Lee, whose full name is Sunisa.

Brother for Biff and Bud. McFly rocker Tom Fletcher transformed this from midcentury short form to modern cool name when he used it for his newborn son.

Most familiar as the name of the titular character in The Life of Pi, in which it was short for Piscine Molitor Patel.

The name of Sarah Palin's youngest son might also be good for the child of a mathematician. Trig Palin's middle name is Paxson, after a popular snowmobiling area in Alaska.

The astronomical Polaris is better known as the North Star, the brightest star in the Ursa Minor constellation. It's also the name of a character in the Marvel Universe, the daughter of Magneto.

While this may be the Dutch version of Cooper, English-speaking parents are likely to choose this with reference to the Kuiper Belt, a band of small space rocks near Neptune thought to be where many comets come from. With Kai or Ky as potential cool nicknames, this is one underused name with a lot to offer.

Isambard is derived from Old German Isanbert, meaning "bright iron" or "famous iron". Its most famous bearer, rather fittingly, is the 19th century British civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, noted as one of the driving forces of the Industrial Revolution.

Infinity is a name that could have a long, bright future ahead of it, with its bold meaning and fashionable sound. It's an awful lot of name to pull off, but if Destiny can do it...

The final n makes this choice infinitely more modern than Gail.

Ohm, chosen by actress Hilary Swank for her son, twin of sister Aya, is a unit of electrical resistance named for 19th-century physicist Georg Ohm.

These days, it's more likely you'd call your daughter the popular Belle or Bella.

Like Silver, a shimmering metallic color name, almost too dazzling for an ordinary boy.

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

The cosmos is another name for the universe in English, giving this name a spacier, more scientific feel than the near-identical Cosmo.

Dark.