American Place Names

Athens the city takes its name from Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and courage. If you prefer place names to mythological names and like gender neutral names better than those that are gender distinct, Athens may be a good alternative to Athena.

Kauai is known as the Garden Isle of Hawaii. Ironically, it qualifies as a baby name based on spelling variation and homonym Kawhi, as in basketball star Kawhi Leonard.

When Kim Kardashian and Kanye West named their daughter Chicago — after West's hometown — we expected it to rise for baby girls. But American parents have taken to Chicago as a boy name. It's been given to more boys than girls every year since 2018.

Place-name mentioned in the New Testament and not yet on the name map. Philadelphia Thursday was the character played by Shirley Temple in John Ford's 1948 "Fort Apache."

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.

An appealing Hawaiian name which belongs to a town, river and bay on Kauaʻi island in Hawaii. The two possible meanings of the name, "crescent bay" or "garland (lei) valley" both describe the beauty of the place.

Strong, spare, and highly unusual -- there were no babies recorded of either gender receiving this name in one recent year -- place-name referring to the northernmost state in New England. All state names qualify as distinctly American names.

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.

A unique natural-wonder option, conjuring up the beauty of the lake between California and Nevada that has become a popular tourist destination.

Lansing is perhaps best known as the state capital of Michigan, which was named after the town of Lansing, New York. The original Lansing was named in honor of John Lansing Jr., a Chancellor of New York and mayor of Albany. He was of Dutch parentage.

Manhattan is the smallest yet one of the most populous New York City boroughs. The area was historically inhabited by Munsee Lenape and Wappinger tribes of Native Americans, and the name Manhattan is derived from the Munsee Lenape language. Hickory trees that were used to make bows grew on the southern part of Manhattan, which inspired the term manaháhtaan, from the Munsee Lenape words for "gather" and "bow."

After Dallas, Austin, and Houston, the new cowboy on the block. Old-school Western nickname: Tex.

More unusual than Dakota or Austin, Colorado conjures images of majestic mountains and windswept wilderness. Some will prefer the more preppy Aspen, but Colorado feels like the true explorer.

The state capital of Tennessee — and the capital of country music — has seen some use for boys in recent years, now that more parents are daring to use meaningful place names. While not as popular as Memphis, Nashville has a cool, laid-back charm... and has the option of Nash as a nickname.

Long synonymous with the American outlaw Harry Longabaugh, aka The Sundance Kid, who got his nickname from the town of Sundance, Wyoming, where he was incarcerated as a teenager. The place name Sundance was taken from the sun dance ceremony practiced by local Native American tribes.

Alaska's second most populous city makes a baby name with a preppy, even aristocratic, flavor.

Daytona Beach is a city in Florida named after founder Matthias Day in 1870. It is well-known as the home of NASCAR's Daytona International Speedway, the racetrack which hosts the Daytona 500.

Miami -- or Florida, for that matter -- hasn't achieved the place-name stardom of southern sisters like Savannah and Georgia. Quincy Jones used it as his daughter KENYA's middle name.

Moab is a Biblical name and an ancient place name. In the Old Testament, Moab was the son of Lot. The Kingdom of Moab, in modern-day Jordan, was Biblically significant for often being in conflict with Israel.