Nameberry's Favorite Celestial Names

  1. Ciel
    • Origin:

      French
    • Meaning:

      "sky"
    • Description:

      This simple yet evocative French word name was chosen for her daughter by model Niki Taylor. While Ciel may be pronounced in French with two syllables, many will pronounce it as "seal" and there may be confusion with Celia and sister Ceil.
  2. Venus
    • Origin:

      Latin
    • Meaning:

      "love, desire"
    • Description:

      The name of a heavenly planet and the Roman goddess of beauty and love was an intimidating no-no until tennis champ Venus Williams put an athletic, modern spin on it.
  3. Cielo
    • Origin:

      Italian
    • Meaning:

      "sky"
    • Description:

      Expansive, sunny Italian word name.
  4. Azure
    • Origin:

      English color name
    • Meaning:

      "sky blue"
    • Description:

      Azure is a colorful gender-neutral choice, currently used equally for baby girls and boys in the US. It refers to a specific shade of blue seen in a cloudless sky. Elon Musk recently revealed Azure to be the name of his daughter with Shivon Zilis, twin sister to Strider. While X and Y didn't stand a chance at greater popularity, parents may be inspired to use the name Azure following this celebrity endorsement.
  5. Aarush
    • Origin:

      Hindi
    • Meaning:

      "first ray of sun"
    • Description:

      A fiery Indian name used enough in the US to make it onto the Top 1000 list in 2010 and 2015.
  6. Storm
    • Origin:

      Word name
    • Description:

      Windswept and dramatic, but perhaps asking for trouble. Quite popular in Denmark and Sweden, where it derives from Stromr, which is a fairly common surname. Storm Thorgerson is a famous bearer of the name - he designed iconic album covers for Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Cranberries, Anthrax, and Pink Floyd.
  7. Castor
    • Origin:

      Greek
    • Meaning:

      "pious one"
    • Description:

      Forget the oil. It's one of the twins that make up the constellation Gemini, and a mythological name on the cutting-edge of fashion; used by Metallica's James Hetfield.
  8. Mercury
    • Origin:

      Latin
    • Meaning:

      "Roman messenger god"
    • Description:

      Adventurous parents are starting to look back to names of ancient gods like Mercury, Zeus, and Apollo. This one is also a planet and a metallic element, and has a friendly nickname, Merc. The Roman god Mercury, which derives from the Latin words for trade or wages, is the patron of tradesmen and travelers and the fastest-moving planet in the solar system. Mercury is the planet associated with the sign of Virgo, so this is one of the prime names for Virgo babies.
  9. Tala
    • Origin:

      Persian, Arabic, Tagalog, Samoan, Scandinavian
    • Meaning:

      "gold; turmeric; star; story; noble"
    • Description:

      Tala is a super multicultural name with roots in many diverse languages and cultures. In Northern Europe, especially in Scandinavia, it is a diminutive derived from Adelheid "noble", long used as a standalone name.
  10. Aire
    • Origin:

      Word name
    • Meaning:

      "air"
    • Description:

      Aire is a bygone spelling of "air", now reserved for poetic uses and in Kylie Jenner's case, baby names. Jenner originally announced her son's name to be Wolf, but quickly changed her mind and left the public in the dark. Weeks before his first birthday, she revealed her son's new name to be Aire.
  11. Lua
    • Origin:

      Portuguese
    • Meaning:

      "moon"
    • Description:

      Properly spelled Luã, this is a light and bright alternative to mega-popular Luna, with the same celestial meaning. Lua is also an attractive choice for tech-heads, with Lua being a popular programming language.
  12. Snow
    • Origin:

      English word name
    • Description:

      There's definitely a cold front of names for winter babies moving in, with Summer, Spring and Autumn giving way to Winter--plus North, January, Frost--and Snow. This name feels brisk, fresh, pure, evocative -- and magical. A haunting middle name choice.
  13. Surya
    • Origin:

      Hindi
    • Meaning:

      "sun god"
    • Description:

      Graceful Indian choice that may sound feminine to the Western ear but is in fact the name of a male god. One form of worship of Surya that may be familiar to Westerners is the sun salutation in yoga.
  14. Ra
    • Origin:

      Egyptian
    • Meaning:

      "sun"
    • Description:

      The name of the sun god of Egyptian mythology could only be used in combination with a longer name.
  15. Solveig
    • Origin:

      Scandinavian
    • Meaning:

      "the strong house or daughter of the sun"
    • Description:

      Common in Scandinavia, this name has rarely come to our shores. The name of the heroine in Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Solveig is currently a widely-used name in Norway. Pronounced authentically, with a silent 'g', it becomes much more appealing.
  16. Sora
    • Origin:

      Japanese or Korean
    • Meaning:

      "sky; conch shell"
    • Description:

      A simple and pretty multicultural name: as a Japanese name, it's unisex and means "sky"; as a Korean name, it's feminine and means "conch shell".
  17. Reyansh
    • Origin:

      Hindi
    • Meaning:

      "ray of light"
    • Description:

      This unusual Indian name, which refers to one of the names of Lord Vishnu, has been one of the fastest-growing boys' names of the last decade. It first managed to climb into the US Top 1000 in 2014. The nickname Rey Americanizes it.
  18. Eclipse
    • Origin:

      English word name
    • Meaning:

      "an obscuring of light when one celestial body passes over another"
    • Description:

      An evocative word name denoting a rare celestial phenomenon when the sun and moon are aligned so that the moon casts a shadow over the Earth (a solar eclipse), or when the moon is right in front of the sun, showing only a ring of light (a lunar eclipse).