Turtle Names

Putting a C before Albert doesn't make this old occupational name any more contempo.

If you love the venerable Southwestern painter but feel Georgia's gotten too overheated, you might want to go all the way to this Irish surname in the fashionable O' family.

At one time, the surname Poole denoted someone who lived near a pool. Not in the chlorinated sense — pool was another word for pond.

We've heard artists' surnames MONET and MANET used as first names, and so, even though it's a bit of a stretch, the family name of the great post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin (go-GAN) could be a possibility.

This Spanish place name derives from a Basque word meaning "pond".

Turbo debuted on the charts in 2020, when it was given to six baby boys.

Wilbert is one of the new old grandpa names marching -- shuffling? -- back into style, taking the place of names like Gus and Max which now sound totally baby-friendly. Wilbert and cousin Wilbur could take a little longer.

Peanut is a name you might call a baby in the womb, but at least one set of parents put it on the birth certificate too. General Hospital star Ingo Rademacher and his fiance Ehiku named their son Peanut Kai.

Usain Bolt chose Lightning as the middle name for his daughter — Olympia Lightning Bolt. Mainstream parents have taken a liking to Lightning as a boy name — it debuted on the charts in 2021, and was given to five baby boys in 2022.

Short for Waverly or a fresh twist on Navy, Wavy is a quirky and interesting new word name option.

Though it has worthy associations with the Old Master painter and singer-songwriter Van Dyke Parks, this would be tough on a child because of the slang meaning of the second syllable.

You’re unlikely to hear Howardena on a baby girl today, but art lovers may recognize it as the name of Howardena Pindell, an American painter and mixed media artist.

This name belonging to boxer Zelfa Barrett could work on a boy or a girl.

Perky, quirky literary and artistic name tied to the "father of Soviet literature" Maxim and influential Armenian-American painter Arshile.