Kenya?

America is a bona fide Spanish/Portuguese female name. The continent was named after Amerigo Vespucci, America is the feminine version of Amerigo. Can't see anything wrong with it, it's like a combination of Amelia or Amanda and Erica.

Moomin Yes it is

I personally wouldn't call my child that but I quite like it

Emma Thompson's daughter is called Gaia.

I don't really like Kenya as a name but only because the only one I ever knew pronounced it Keen-ya, which just sounds horribly colonial to my ears. Also, her real name was Catherine - she just called herself Keen-ya to sound more interesting. Ugh.

Isn't Ugly Betty's real name America?

I met a little girls called America once. That's about as bad as Kenya. Apart from not being particularly recognisable as a person's name I don't think it sounds very attractive. I would not want personally to be called Kenya (or India or America or any other place name for that matter).

No......Just No. Kenya = NO. Like Girliefriend says, Kendra is better (despite it being a Vampire Slayer from Buffy)

I'm not particularly a fan of place names but I like the idea of Kenya as a name. I also know a Kenna which is somewhat similar.

Dakota is an exonym of part of a group of people within the Lakota nation. People within the communities tend to act like Moominsarehippos's friend at the trend of using Native nation names as given names or place names (common joke that Americans like to name such after people and plants that they've at least tried to move from that place - so many oak avenues in places where there are no longer any oaks).

Kenya as a word comes from a British inability to pronounce the original name of a mountain in the indigenous language correctly (which is why its pronunciation has changed over the years). Not sure I'd want that type of meaning attached to me.

Virginia is a roman name (super nerdy )

Paris comes from the earliest inhabitants the Parisii tribe, they were Gaulish so the name may have been 'Romanised' later. Virginia is a reference to Elizabeth I (the "Virgin Queen").

Sorry to be nerdy but I find this sort of thing interesting.

Well, I suppose kids won't get teased so much these days with fashion for 'unusual' names (unless they are called Tom or Mary). I met a little Gaia recently. Not sure about the whole earth theory but the name sounds quite 'hard' to the ear.

Would Kendra be any better?

Think its an American thing when I was working on a summer camp many many years ago there was a craze for names that are countries so I looked after a Kenya, Egypt, America, India etc Infact I once said to someone 'I'm English' and they said 'Hi I am Bill'

I suppose some places are named after, well names (Paris, Virginia...). Some folks just try to go for the extraordinary (the Beckhams?) and it can sound a bit odd.

I haven't met a 'Bristol' but as a child of the Carry On generation, I would make the unfortunate connection. I did come across a little Mali (Mah-lee) recently (girl). I thought that was unusual. Where I work there, I find that the kids with 'unusual' or 'cool/hippy...' names are Brits and American. The other kids (from all over the world) tend to be called the equivalent of Peter and Jane.

I'm not keen on surnames for first names (ok so we do have a lot in scotland that are both anyway) or 'ye olde professions' (fletcher, paige, cooper...).

I wondered that too. When I was little, the country was always pronounced Keen-ya.

Some (if not most) of the placenames mentioned in this thread were named after people, so it's interesting to see which came first. Like the city of Adelaide being named after Queen Adelaide.

Was it Keen-ya, or Ken-yar?

I quite like it and I'm not the biggest place name fan in the world. Certainly no different from India, Sydney, Tyrone, Erin etc.

I know 2 babies called Alba . I always have a slight pang of wistfulness that we didn't try and work in where dd3 was conceived into a middle name.

My sister was born in Africa and my dad wanted to reflect that somewhere in her name, my mum thought it would be too "showy" and her name is a 70s fave, 36 years later my sister still bears a grudge

Chelsea, Chad, Bristol, Paris, Georgia, Venus, Virginia, Charlotte, Sydney, Dakota, Austin, Madison, Savannah...

don't really see why Kenya is worse than any of those.

And may Venus Williams slam your ass down if you dare to label any of them Chav.

If my DS decides to call any prospective grandchild of mine Scotland, Ecosse, Alba or Caledonia, I'll need to disown him!

We jokingly told our friends we were going to name out child London when i was pregnant... After a while it grew on us! We didn't call her London but we both still like the name- just not brave enough to use it lol. Kenya does sound a little bit ummmm... Chavvy... Reminds me a bit of Kendra (you know the ex playboy bunny?)

A boy?

my colleagues grandson is called Kenya but they do have Kenyan ancestry so it makes sense.

Are you sure it was Kenya and not Kenyon? I know a little girl called Kenyon. which is bloody awful.

I know a Keanna maybe it was that?