Place Names for Babies

Volcano name for an active, bubbly child -- but be careful -- volcanoes do erupt.

Athens the city takes its name from Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and courage. If you prefer place names to mythological names and like gender neutral names better than those that are gender distinct, Athens may be a good alternative to Athena.

Soft and alluring, much like the similarly named cloth, but might have political implications.

Place-name mentioned in the New Testament and not yet on the name map. Philadelphia Thursday was the character played by Shirley Temple in John Ford's 1948 "Fort Apache."

Oceania is one of the most elaborate of the trending Ocean-related names. Oceania also refers to the area of the world including Australia and neighboring islands.

Lexington is rising as a place name used just about evenly for the genders. For Americans, it's got a patriotic ring, given the importance of Lexington, Massachusetts in the Revolutionary War. Lexington, Kentucky, in horse country, is another famous place with the name.

A little-used but equally cool alternative to Huxley and Loxley.

An appealing Hawaiian name which belongs to a town, river and bay on Kauaʻi island in Hawaii. The two possible meanings of the name, "crescent bay" or "garland (lei) valley" both describe the beauty of the place.

More a concept than a place -- or a name.

Barra is a Gaelic-speaking island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, that’s been inhabited since the Neolithic era. A male nickname for Finbarr in Ireland, as well as a stand-alone name, Barra was used by George R.R. Martin as a girl’s name. It means ‘fair-haired’.

One five-letter name, a quick suffix away from David, with two very different connotations. It's the name of a posh ski resort in Switzerland that hosts the illustrious World Economic Forum -- attended by tycoons, celebrities and heads of state -- each year. And of a trustworthy, salt-of-the-earth character in Game of Thrones, Davos Seaworth.

Strong, spare, and highly unusual -- there were no babies recorded of either gender receiving this name in one recent year -- place-name referring to the northernmost state in New England. All state names qualify as distinctly American names.

Venkata is one of the seven peaks of the Tirumala Hills in India. As a result of the temple on this hill, Venkata is connected to the god Vishnu. Venkata is also the name of the protagonist in the 2009 film Venkata in Senkata as well as Nobel prize winner Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman.

A spiritually significant name used in honor of the Virgin Mary. In Spanish, her title is Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, meaning "Our Lady the Queen of the Angels."

Leyre is an important name in Navarre, Spain, as it is both the name of a mountain and an ancient monastery. It is derived from the Basque Leire, of uncertain origins. Both spellings currently rank among the Top 100 baby names in Spain.

Anatolian city visited by Paul in the Bible, though risks sounding a tad antiseptic.

Attica has not taken off as a baby name for girls the way Atticus has for boys partly because it's the name of an infamous prison in upstate New York where an deadly riot took place in 1971. Fewer than 5 baby girls were named Attica in the US in 2021, but half a century after the riots and with the rise of brother name Atticus, that well could change.

A distinguished-sounding place name with a cool, positive "win" sound. The original Winchester was the capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex.

Quito is a place-name (it's the capital of Ecuador) with lots of lively energy--as long as it's pronounced correctly.

The capital of Peru makes a rare but attractive girl name.