New York Baby Names

Mercer is one fashionable occupational name that can work as well for girls as boys, perhaps because of the soft c or the conventionally feminine nickname Mercy.

A saucy Latin name that also defines a trendy New York area north of Little Italy.

Queen has seen a revival in recent times, reaching its record high in 2018 with 280 births — it has remained steady since then. Previously, Queen saw a peak in the 1920s, but its origins go back even further than that. Queen was a noted name among enslaved people in America, along with other royal choices such as Duke, Squire, and Prince.

Ramon is a common Latin male name, but Ramone would clearly be in tribute to the early punk rock group--each of whose members took on the last name Ramone.

A grassy place with trees is a nice image to attach to a name.

With Brooklyn, Trenton, and Camden on the rise, Harlem can't be far behind. It's already been picked by one celebrity, and it certainly has a strong historical and cultural identity -- not to mention its similarity to other popular choices like Harley and Harper.

This name was consistently in the boys' Top 200 until WW2. It's a name with so many dimensions to it: the hyper-masculine meaning, the surname-as-firstname trendiness, and the softer sound and connotation since homophone Carol was favoured in the 1940s and '50s for daughters. We think it's time for a resurgence of Carrolls amongst the boys.

A noble surname from northern England that has occasionally been used as a first name.

This Irish surname packs a lot of attitude, projecting an image of spunk and sass. The Welsh singer Duffy, born Aimee Anne Duffy, is best known for her songs Mercy and Warwick Avenue.

One of the surname names used more in the last century, à la Milton and Morton.

Minetta is one of those names that's a diminutive of a diminutive -- Minna, a pan-European nickname that can be short for many names beginning or ending in Mina. Minetta may be most famous as Minetta Lane, a charming street in New York's West Village.

This is an outside possibility for opera-lovers, with the additional eco/color factor.

Wharton is a rather stiff banker name that becomes creative as a middle name choice for lovers of the novels of writer Edith.

Lexington is rising as a place name used just about evenly for the genders. For Americans, it's got a patriotic ring, given the importance of Lexington, Massachusetts in the Revolutionary War. Lexington, Kentucky, in horse country, is another famous place with the name.

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.

For theater-loving parents -- an homage to one of our premiere playwrights.

Sounds too much like the name of a hotel.

Tribeca was the term created for New York City's TRIangle BElow CAnal Street. Stangely enough--that aside--it almost does sound like a plausible girls' name, nicknamed Becca.