Place Names for Babies

A Californian city name that feels like a natural successor to trendy unisex Oakley and Oaklynn.

Written as Genève, it's the authentic name of Switzerland's capital. The English version, Geneva, is more common as a baby name in the US.

Judea — also spelled Judaea — is a mountainous region in the Middle East historically part of Jerusalem, that is significant in religions like Judaism and Christianity. As Jude and Judah dominate in the charts, and fresh Biblical place names like Jericho and Galilee feel stylish as ever, Judea holds a lot of potential.

From Caeredin, the Welsh name for the Scottish capital, Edinburgh... although many people would see it simply as an alternative spelling of Aiden.

Tupelo, the name of a Mississippi city as well as a tree with soft, light wood that grows in the swamps of the south, attracted some attention as a first name via author Tupelo Hassman. The song Tupelo Honey also brought it some notoriety.

This name of an architecturally glorious Italian city makes a romantic and evocative possibility.

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

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

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.

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

Kiska is a Alaskan volcano island that has the sort of brisk sound to it that makes it fit in with both old names like Saskia and modern names like Pax.

Manhattan is the smallest yet one of the most populous New York City boroughs. The area was historically inhabited by Munsee Lenape and Wappinger tribes of Native Americans, and the name Manhattan is derived from the Munsee Lenape language. Hickory trees that were used to make bows grew on the southern part of Manhattan, which inspired the term manaháhtaan, from the Munsee Lenape words for "gather" and "bow."

Also a dog breed

A pretty town in Scotland, named for its perfect horseshoe-shaped bay.

After Dallas, Austin, and Houston, the new cowboy on the block. Old-school Western nickname: Tex.

Norwegian city name heard much more often as a last name than a first.

Unlike other place names, this one might be tied too tightly to a single locale -- the Maryland suburb of D. C. -- to work as a first name.

Influencer couple Rachel and Jordan Flom put Brisbane on the baby name map when they used it for one of their triplet sons, born in 2024. Australian place names — from Adelaide to Sydney to Victoria — have long been favorites among parents, but Brisbane has a more modern, gender-neutral appeal.

One of several fascinating names used in Charlaine Harris's Midnight, Texas books and the NBC adaptation thereof, Fiji is a pleasingly quirky place name that's been little used for babies. Though it has been used quite a lot for fancy bottled water, we don't think it quite qualifies as a water name.

This legendary Andalusian city, according to myth founded by Hercules, is an undiscovered baby name destination.