Place Names for Babies

Transferred from the geographical name, Jerusalem is a sacred city in many religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is given to around a dozen babies of each sex per year in the US.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus appears to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus after his death, burial and resurrection.

This name's connection to the Caribbean Cayman Islands gives it a nice resortish feel, while still feeling like an in-tune-with-style boy's name.

The name Lamorna belongs to a village, valley and cove in an area of outstanding natural beauty in West Cornwall, and to a popular Cornish folk song referencing the area. The name possibly derives from nans "valley" + mor "sea", or from lann "area around a church" + morlanow "high tide".

One of the major American city names that's very unlikely to catch on as a baby name, although a small number of children are given the name each year.

We've seen babies with Texas city names like Austin, Houston and Dallas--, why not the unexplored Laredo, which has a lot of cowboy charisma? Laredo might make for a more modern and creative namesake for an Uncle Lawrence/Larry--as could the related Laramie.

Ravello is an Italian town on the Amalfi Coast. It's a popular travel destination and was a favorite spot for many notable creatives, including Virginia Woolf, Greta Garbo, and Tennessee Williams.

A Hebrew name also used for girls, with many variations to choose from. Hadara is another version. The name is associated with the holiday of Sukkot.

The name of a beautiful village on the Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall, Veryan actually derives from a series of misunderstandings: Sen Veryan ("Saint Veryan") is a Cornish corruption of Severian, which is itself a corrupted form of the saint’s name Symphorian, to whom the village church at Veryan is dedicated.

This geographic name has lots of Gallic elan. France Nuyen is a French-Vietnamese actress who starred in the Broadway hit The World of Suzie Wong.

Mount Sinai is a place sacred to the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions, the mountain on which Moses received the Ten Commandments. Sinai is also the name of the peninsula where Mount Sinai is located.

Louisiana is a geographic spin on the Louise theme. Pretty, if a bit of a syllable overload. Short form Lou or Lulu lightens it.

British place-name unlikely to evoke much passion in any baby namer.

The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in the city of Mecca, now known as the holiest city in Islam. Officially called Makkah al-Mukarramah, or Makkah, it is located in modern-day Saudi Arabia. Millions of Muslims from across the world make a pilgrimage there each year, while Non-Muslims are understandably not allowed inside the city.

Soul singer Cuba Gooding and his actor son of the same name put this unexpected geographical name on the map for boys, but it has a longer history of use than you might expect. Deriving from the island in the Caribbean Sea, it had a brief spell of popularity in the US at the end of the 1890s when Spain lost possession of the island during the Spanish-American War. Used predominantly (though rarely) on girls throughout the last century, it has occasionally be given to a handful of boys too.

This name of one of the most romantic cities in the world could easily find its way onto an American baby girl's birth certificate.

Rochester was Jack Benny's famous valet and sidekick, played by early African-American comic Eddie Anderson.

Evokes picture-postcard image of colorful Indonesia. Bali Barret is a Paris fashion insider who oversees women's style for Hermes. Bali rhymes with tally or galley.

Similar to but distinct from Samara, this pretty name was chosen for his daughter by rapper LL Cool J.

This is a big name, both in heritage and sound. On the right child, this could be inspired, but others may shrink from all the connotations. While your preferred nickname for this option might be Col (or Kit if you're connecting it to Christopher Columbus), you may end up with the slightly more cumbersome "Bus" as the short-form.