New York Baby Names

Presidential surname adopted as a first by numbers of midcentury African-American parents.

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.

Lennox is one of the hottest unisex names of recent years, and this spelling retains the appealing surname vibe and cool -x ending.

Known as a British royal family line as well as a style of architecture, this name has a forbidding solemnity; schoolmates might also confuse it with tutor.

Seems to stand at attention and salute.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Norwegian city name heard much more often as a last name than a first.

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.

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

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.

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.