Place Names for Babies

Also spelled Leyre and taken from the name of a monastery fortress, the popular and lilting choice in Spain will pose pronunciation problems elsewhere. Among the Top 100 girls' names in Spain, Leire was given to only a handful of baby girls in the US last year.

Penrose – an ancient place-name and surname derived from several villages in Cornwall, Wales, and the Welsh border country of England – would make for an even more unexpected alternative to quirky nature name Primrose. Intuitive nicknames Penny or Rosie make it feel more wearable.

Montserrat is a Catalan name meaning ‘serrated mountain’. That may not be the most appealing meaning, but the exceptional beauty of the Montserrat mountain range near Barcelona, Spain might change your mind. Montserrat is, unsurprisingly, most common among the Spanish community.

The y makes it seem more like a name and less like an animal, but it's still not as appealing as several Leo choices.

Has a lively and swaggering sound, and also some unfortunate associations with Reno, city of gambling and failed marriages.

Politics aside, the Cuban capital is one of the most rhythmic of place-names. The question is: can politics be put aside?

Ephron was the Old Testament son of Zohar who sold his field and cave to Abraham to use as a family burial ground. Ephron is also a Biblical place-name, a mountain range that formed the northern border of the land of Judah.

Ed Sheeran put this continental place name on the map when he used it as the middle name for his daughter Lyra, born in 2020.

A rarely used Biblical place-name with a soft and pleasant sound.

This biblical place-name for the region now known as Yemen started to feel fresh again as the name of the heroine of Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal, played on screen by Cate Blanchett.

Similar in sound to Arlo, Remington, and Arthur, this surname style and place name could make a patriotic choice in the US, with its connections to Arlington National Cemetery. Given to 14 girls and 24 boys in 2023, it is making moves up the charts, albeit small ones.

Most names that start with Cam- are on the upswing, so why not this obscure term for Wales as well as for a prehistoric time period.

Venetia, the name of the region encompassing Venice, has a radiant, picturesque authenticity, as do the related Venezia and Venice.

Sonora may be a more unusual and melodic choice than Sierra, but this Mexican state name may sound too much like Senora to work as a name.

In Israel, Mount Arbel is a mountain in the lower Galilee. Jewish parents have adopted it as a name for their sons and daughters for the mountain's historic and religious significance.

Despite the strong association with the University of California, Berkeley, the more common version of this name omits the second E, Berkley.

Cytherea, a place-name that is the home of Aphrodite, seems stuck in ancient Greece.

Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin's daughter Ireland opened up the map for names like Scotland, and now that it's been chosen by Kourtney Kardashian for her daughter Penelope's middle name -- in honor of daddy Scott Disick -- Scotland is sure to appear on more birth certificates. Can Scotlyn be far behind?

Barbossa (also spelled Barbosa) is derived from the Barbosa palm. It is also a common place name, with towns called Barbossa spread across Latin America. Film buffs might also recall that Barbossa is the name of the captain of the Black Pearl in the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean".

The famous home of Hamlet in Shakespeare's great play is based on Kronborg Castle in eastern Denmark, which guarded the narrow entryway to the Baltic Sea for centuries. (The Danish word for it is Helsingør.) Elsinore may claim a rightful place among the Danish names for girls, vaguely akin to Eleanor, with Elsie a natural nickname, though some may find it a little pretentious. But as a middle name for the lover of Shakespeare or Denmark? Golden.