Wonderful Word Names for Babies

Spaniards use Pax and Paz, Hebrew speakers Shalom, for Greeks it's Irene, so why can't we make the English word Peace a name? Peace Adzo Medie is the author of the novel His Only Wife.

Yes, there are lots of kids out there named Princess, Duke, Earl, and King – but you don't necessarily want yours to be one of them.

Gruff is a name that gets used on a handful of boys each year, in both the US and the UK.

Feather, though it was used for a character in a Walter Mosley novel, seems too light and fluttery for a real-life girl.

Legacy is proof that any attractive-sounding word can be turned into a name, and this one has the added attractions of an inspirational meaning and a cool creative namesake -- hot young artist Legacy Russell.

Moroccan is a name newly minted by Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon for their newborn twin son. Meaning a person who lives in Morocco, Moroccan was used by the couple as a nod to the Moroccan Room in Carey's Manhattan apartment, where Cannon proposed to the singer. Place-name Morocco is another choice for either sex, as is music name Maraca.

Far-fetched, but friends can always call him Phil.

Wildly optimistic -- and unrealistic -- choice.

A sixties-style name that might work best as a middle.

Wishful thinking.

Eleven didn't feel more namelike than any other number...until the (female) "Stranger Things" character came along. Now it seems like a possibility - albeit a rare one - for both sexes. Other associations include the number of players in a football team, and Apollo 11, the spacecraft of the first moon landing.

Loyalty is one of the Modern Virtue Nameson the rise for both genders, but in this case mainly girls. About 85 percent of the babies named Loyalty are female and 15 percent male, but there's no reason this upstanding name can't work equally well for both.

Cool and casual, a la humorist Ring (born Ringgold. ) Lardner.

Gives the message that you want your daughter to keep her eye on the prize.

If Fable, Story and Saga are getting a look in, why not Allegory? Allegory offers the cute nickname Ally.

A word that's been used, very infrequently, as a name for hundreds of years. Interesting sound and meaning.

Lyric is a name given to over 1000 boys and girls each year in the US. Could the more feminine Lyrical (given to only 20 girls each year) become more popular as parents look to find less common alternatives to this musical name?

Cool, musical modern choice, especially as a middle name.

Blunt. Stick to Hunter.

But what happens when Jeune grows vieille.