Wonderful Word Names for Babies

An admirable quality to impart; Pleasant was used by Charles Dickens in Our Mutual Friend and in modern times is known via American Girl dolls creator Pleasant Rowland.

Name that makes a strong philosophical statement -- but might ironically be a lot for a child to carry.

Actress Shannyn Sossamon used this as the middle name for her son Audio; one of the most do-not-try-this-at-home combos we've heard.

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

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.

Remarkable Pettibone was a self-important housekeeper in James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers. Such names were not uncommon in early America, with such choices as Remember and Experience showing up in the records along with Puritan virtue names such as Chastity and Patience.

Your daughter will like this better at twenty than she will at fifty.

Explorer is one occupational name destined to seek and find greater things.

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

Loyal has history as a boy name—most popular in the late 19th century, later falling off the charts in 1948. This was back when loyalty suggested faithfulness to one's country, rather than fidelity to others. Today it would likely be interpreted as the latter.

Modern virtue names are rapidly rising in popularity—could Loyal be the next True?

Maybe if you're planning to have only one child -- and iffy even then.

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.

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.

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

In 2014, six little girls in the US were given the name Starlit. Starlit has a sweeter meaning than the similar Starlet, and a better ring than Starlight.

Why beat around the bush with a name like Elvis or Axl when you can come right out and name your baby Rocker? Your grandma will be scandalized, but teenage Rocker will kiss your feet.

In the Capability Brown vein -- not a choice to be made lightly.

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?

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

Many parents are seeking a strong name--well there's no denying that Strong fits that bill.