Wonderful Word Names for Babies

Spicy but insubstantial nickname name.

New is a middle name name with meaning: Your baby, after all, is new to the world and you may hope will continue to approach life and experience as if everything is new and exciting.

Pistol is one of the new names that entered the lexicon in the US in 2013, when it was given to nine babies of each gender. Call it an equal-opportunity badass baby name with an unfortunately violent image.

An unassuming virtue, that is also a surname name.

Generally used in conjunction with another name to form a religious phrase -- for instance the daughter of rapper DMX is called Praise Mary Ella.

Fresh and fragrant nature name more apt to be used for a boy.

An elegy is a poem lamenting a deceased person. As a name, it could be used by parents in remembrance of a recently deceased person or as a euphonic and unusual literary name. The original Greek could also work.

Ode could be part of the extended Otto/Otis family, or it might be a literary term, referring to an elaborate lyric poem.

Even if you're hoping for a fiery child, this seems like playing with fire. One celebrity--Steve Vai--was bold enough to use it for his son.

A name with vision.

Ochre is an exceedingly rare name, found only a few times since the nineteenth century, and not showing up in any current data. Yet it means much the same thing as popular Sienna (another clay coloured with iron oxide) and sounds similar to fashionable Oakley. A strong earthy nature name that is both unusual and evocative.

Sister is an old-timey nickname-name for girls, ranking in the Top 1000 as a proper name for girls until the beginning of the 20th century. But more often, Sister was used as a nickname in the truest sense of the word, not a short form ala Kathy but a nickname in the way that Chip and Bud are. Or maybe Junior is a more appropriate name analogy: Sister was sometimes the nickname given to the only girl in a family of boys, so literally a descriptive word name like Junior.

Brace yourself? You're going to hear that one a lot if you choose this word name for your baby son, as a handful of parents in the US did in a recent year. One reason for this word is being used as a name: It rhymes with the popular Jace.

Associated with a vivid red-orange-colored lacquer, would make a more than distinctive color-related choice.

An offbeat word name referring to the speed of a piece of music.

This unusual word name means a song sung to put infants to sleep, from the components lull as in calm and by as in goodbye. While it's not on record as being used for any actual babies in the US, it's a rhythmic choice and one of those unique baby names with more mainstream nicknames such a Lula and Bee.

Did you really mean to name your child Channel, as in the body of water? Like, you know, the English Channel? Or were you going for the last name of the French designer Chanel, with a soft "sh" sound at the beginning and the emphasis on the last syllable? If so, we recommend sticking with the Chanel spelling.

A few boys have adopted fabrics like Denim and Suede; here's a singular one for the girls, with a distinctively silky sheen.

"Girls Gone Child" blogger Rebecca Woolf made Boheme a first name when she gave it to one of her twin daughters (the other one's name is Reverie). La Boheme -- "The Bohemian" -- is a Puccini opera that was transmogrified into the modern play Rent. Boheme means a literary or artistic person who lives outside conventional society.