Best, worst and most passable place names.

[Lizadork]

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?

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?

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

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

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

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.

I know a Khyro 🙄

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

Boy/girl twins called Tennessee and Alabama

And then an extra girl, Miss Mississippi?

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.

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

@ErrolTheDragon they'd have to be triplets!

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

Grimsby.

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

I like Phoenix and Dakota.

Juneau could work for an alt spelling

Worst would be Scunthorpe or Twatt

Grimsby

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

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

Florence
Sienna
Adelaide
Arizona
Victoria
Charlotte

Not sure I like any for boys though

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.

My dd (23) is Florence.

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

@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.

Lots of Scottish islands are used as names:
Iona
Skye
Lewis
Harris
Isla
Arran

More than just islands too in Scotland, Nairn, Ross, Moray, Kyle etc etc.

To be honest most of the ones people are ok with above were people names before places which is why they work better.

My DS2 went to school with an Alabama and I used to know a Dallas.

I saw a baby girl Bristol on Facebook and really liked it. Also have a friend with a girl London. Both American.

I have Indiana and Iona on my list. And Florence actually but I think of that as name first rather than place. Generally I tend to really dislike this practice, just personal taste. Think I’m alone with Indiana though so of the few I do like, I seem to like one of the more contentious ones. I just think it sounds beautiful... the Diana ending means it sound like a girls name to me.