Uncommon Place Names for Girls

The familiar Irish city and bay is one place-name that seems distinctly masculine.

Unlike its somewhat formal Swiss city namesake, this is a lively and appealing place-name that also has a real history as a female name.

Climbing the charts for boys, and has just begun to cross over for girls, despite the macho "hud" sound followed by the "son" syllable.

Three syllables in only four letters is quite a feat, but that's exactly what you get with Ilia, a versatile, unisex option with various origins. It could derive from the Greek Iliana, which could denote someone from Illium, or it could be a feminine form of Ilian, a form of Elijah. Alternatively, it is a Basque form of Julia, or a Bulgarian feminine form of Ilya, with again links back to Elijah. Currently a gender neutral option in the US, it may be exclusively masculine elsewhere.

Euphonious and long stylish in England, India was one of the fastest-rising names on the 2013 list, after jumping 240 spots back into the Top 1000.

Indiana is one of those place-names (think Camden and Trenton) that sounds cooler than the place that inspired it. Its fashionable -ana ending certainly sounds eminently name-like, and Indie/Indy/Indi is one of the hottest nickname names for girls right now.

This name of a small island off the coast of Scotland is trending upwards along with other I names.

Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin put Ireland on the map when they chose it as a first for their daughter, saying that geographic names were a family tradition. And it seems they were a bit ahead of the curve (or trendsetting)—Ireland has been among the fastest-rising names of recent years. Other Irish place names include Shannon, Kerry, Galway, and Dublin.

Islay is the name of a Hebridian island famous for its whisky. Don't be fooled by the "y" at the end - this name is pronounced exactly like the more well-known Isla.

Why has it taken so long for us to discover Italy? The name, that is.

An established place name, associated with a sunny island in the English Channel, the Garden State in the US, knitted pullovers, reality TV, and a Broadway musical. It peaked in the late 2000s and though it is now in decline, 130 girls and nearly 50 boys received the name in 2023.

-ey meaning "island". Alternative theories suggest it comes from jarl ,meaning "earl" or hjǫr meaning "sword".

Visitors to Hawaii's Garden Isle may want to commemorate the island's beauty with this place-name.

Kenya, a name borrowed from the East African nation and theoretically unisex, is now used mostly for girls. While it's had its ups and downs since entering the US Top 1000 in 1968, it currently ranks lower than spelling variant Kenia.

Kirin is a unisex name by virtue of representing a mythological creature that is part horse and part dragon and combines qualities that are both male and female. This is one Chinese name that translates beautifully to the Western world, where it resembles Kieran for boys, Kyra or Karen for girls.

It's a bear, it's an island, it's (almost) a camera. It's starting to catch some parents' eyes as a wild, adventurous name.

Kyoto is a Japanese city name not yet on the map for babies, but why not?