Wonderful Word Names for Babies

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

Alternative to Prince, Duke, King, or Earl, but not an improvement on them.

A lyrical choice.

One of the simplest, most down-to-earth yet evocative of the word names, which could work — especially as a middle.

This nature name hasn't escaped the hippie dippy air of others like River or Sky.

One of the new literalist religious names, like Blessing, Heavenly and Neveah. More male than female, but essentially unisex.

The French word for "twin," often used to refer to items found in pairs. Its plural form, jumelles, is the word for binoculars.

Sabbath is a faith-inspired word name, like Sunday or Faith, that is attracting some notice since heavy metal musician Zakk Wylde chose it for his son. But then there's the band Black Sabbath, which gives the name a more devilish twist. While there's nothing intrinsically male or female about Sabbath as a first name, it squeaked onto the Social Security roster for five boys in 2012, but was not recorded for girls. Sabbath comes from the word for "day of rest" in many ancient cultures.

Winner is a positive word name that entered the lexicon thanks to rapper Nya Lee, who chose it for her baby girl. But this name is a unisex winner with the cute nicknames Winnie or Win.

Rein, along with Reign, have taken over from Rain as a trendy word name. Should you rein it in or let it rein? Okay, bad puns we know, but that's the downside of word names. This is a true unisex name, given to ten girls and eight boys in the US in one recent year.

Anyone who's seen "The Book of Mormon" or visited Utah knows this as the title taken by male Mormon missionaries during their term of service. We'd advise anyone who lives somewhere with any significant Mormon population to avoid it for that reason.

Spiritually resonant, but will definitely raise grandparents' eyebrows.

Honesty is one of the modern virtue names, which along with Justice and Destiny are picking up where Faith, Hope, and Charity left off. Is Honesty the most appealing name ever? No, and it's also sure to spark lots of tiresome jokes. Still, Honesty is a positive quality and a lot more appealing than negative word names such as Pistol and Rehab (which both, yes, were given to five baby girls in the US last year).

It's a beautiful burnished metal -- but also slang for policeman.

The name of the teenaged son on the dear departed television show "Huff."

Doctor is an honorific used as a name, somewhat like names such as Bishop, King, and Princess. Banned in New Zealand, Doctor can lead to the kind of confusion you may feel would be only positive for your child -- a bona fide Doctor before he even gets to kindergarten. At its zenith in 1884, Doctor was used for 12 boys, but last year it didn't even clear the five-baby minimum to make it onto the Social Security extended list.

Once you get past thinking of it as a red-painted building where they keep cows and hay, has a nice plainspoken country-like feel and may make a cooler diminutive than the still-purple Barney.

Actor French Stewart introduced this one to the lexicon. French is part word name, part place name, and part surname-name, reminiscent of celebrity baby names that reference a nationality rather than simply a place, such as Moroccan.

Alternative to Princess or Queenie.