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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Best, worst and most passable place names.

71 replies

Lizadork · 23/05/2020 20:27

What are the best, worst and most passable place names for children you have come across?

I hate Rio because I cannot stop linking it mentally to Las Vegas.
I love Alaska because it just rolls off the tongue so beautifully.
Brooklyn is passable though seems a bit bland.

Where do you stand on place names?

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Crabbo · 23/05/2020 23:08

@itssquidstella

Yes I love Tennessee! I also really like Texas which I know is objectively kind of horrible but I still like it. I’d use either of them but my husband is from Texas haha so he’s fully vetoed both.

RuthW · 23/05/2020 22:57

My dd (23) is Florence.

When she was in yr3. Her table consisted of her, Georgia, Paris and Devon.

Ellmau · 23/05/2020 22:42

Alaska would make me think of the pudding.

Not generally a fan of places names as first names. Although I've always wanted to read a novel in which the characters were called some of the double barrelled place names, eg Stanford Dingley, who I imagine as a 1920s detective, with a basset hound named Charney.

SleepingStandingUp · 23/05/2020 22:40

Florence
Sienna
Adelaide
Arizona
Victoria
Charlotte

Not sure I like any for boys though

BeMorePacific · 23/05/2020 22:35

Adelaide & India.
I find Kendall funny, as I grew up very close to Kendal and it isn’t remotely glamorous.
I don’t really like any others x x

ErrolTheDragon · 23/05/2020 22:30

Grimsby

Surely no one has ever actually contemplated calling their child Grimsby, let alone done so?

adelaya · 23/05/2020 21:56

Juneau could work for an alt spelling

Worst would be Scunthorpe or Twatt

Hotwaterbottlelove · 23/05/2020 21:36

I like Phoenix and Dakota.

glitterbiscuits · 23/05/2020 21:36

I've taught a Preston. Don't think his mum would have been able to point at Preston on a map.

draughtycatflap · 23/05/2020 21:32

Grimsby.

itssquidstella · 23/05/2020 21:29

@ErrolTheDragon they'd have to be triplets!

TBF quite a few state names would just about work as human names too...

clairethewitch70 · 23/05/2020 21:28

Just as well my boys have grown up with normal names as if I was having them now they would be Kemet & Tor.
Kemet is the Ancient Egyptian name for Egypt and Tor after Glastonbury

june2007 · 23/05/2020 21:26

Judah, I like for a boy. (But it was named after the person Judah,,)
Indiana I like for a boy.
I knew a girl with a name Nevada which is different.

ErrolTheDragon · 23/05/2020 21:26

Boy/girl twins called Tennessee and Alabama

And then an extra girl, Miss Mississippi?

ErrolTheDragon · 23/05/2020 21:25

Paris was a name long before it was a place, though presumably the modern usage for girls is oblivious of that.

whichteaareyou · 23/05/2020 21:24

I know a Khyro 🙄

BikeRunSki · 23/05/2020 21:24

DD avd I both have middle names of places significant to our parents. DD’s middle name is Hope, after the Derbyshire Hope Valley.

I’ve met several Jordans (all male), a Paris, a Harris, many Lewises, a family of Ailsa, Arran and Iona, several Brooklyns and Victorias. I think many place names were named after people, like Alice Springs, Lake Louise, Georgia and Carolina.

I live near a village called Shelley, but I’m pretty certain my colleague Shelley want wasn’t named after it.

ErrolTheDragon · 23/05/2020 21:23

Someone on a baby names thread last week was wondering about Corby ... she was dissuaded.Grin

itssquidstella · 23/05/2020 21:23

Part of me would secretly love to name my son Tennessee (as I believe Reese Witherspoon did), but I'm not sure I could bring myself to in real life.

Boy/girl twins called Tennessee and Alabama Grin

potatowedges · 23/05/2020 21:23

I'm a Carolina. I wasn't named after a place though and didn't really know it was considered as one, I've always thought of it as just a name really as opposed to more place sounding names such as London or Paris. I do get asked occasionally if I was named after North/South Carolina or if I'm originally from there.

I have no relation to those places and I was not named after the place Sad

ErrolTheDragon · 23/05/2020 21:22

I’m a bit sorry that Accrington hasn’t caught on as a boy’s name!

Would you be thinking of Stanley for the middle name by any chance?Grin

IAmWineWineIsMe · 23/05/2020 21:12

There is a place called Twatt in Orkney. Seems to be a pretty popular name for some... Wink

AdaColeman · 23/05/2020 21:07

Adelaide was named for Queen Adelaide, and Carolina for King Charles, so they are sort of the other way round. Victoria was a Roman Goddess and later the name became popular in Germany, Queen Victoria was named after her own mother.

Rudyard Kipling was named after a Derbyshire lake where his parents used to go for fun & games.

I’m a bit sorry that Accrington hasn’t caught on as a boy’s name! Wink

MerlinMoo · 23/05/2020 20:59

I know a little boy called Thai. Apparently his mum got it from a little girl called Thai

FthisS · 23/05/2020 20:58

I met an Arizona once she was in her 40s. My son has an american place name but it's also the surname of a singer, a certain song came on just after he was born and I had to name him that.