Child Development: Baby Names

Baby Names from Place Names

Topend Kids > Development > Baby Names > Place Names

Naming a child after the name of a place, town, city, state or country is a common strategy. In some cases, the name comes from the place that the baby was conceived or where it was born.

Examples of place names that are commonly used for naming children are: Sienna / Siena (Siena is a city in Tuscany), London, Paris, Dallas, India. Some place names have been named originally after a person, so it seems like there are actually more examples of these (e.g. Victoria, a state in Australia named after Queen Victoria).

Madison Avenue Example

One of the more interesting beginnings of a name is the evolution of Madison. The name was originally a quite uncommon name for a male in the early 1900s. In the 1980s, it was made up for a character in a movie, and it has not looked back since. When actress Darryl Hannah, playing the part of a mermaid, came out of the water in the movie Splash, the first thing she saw was the street sign for Madison Avenue, so this is what she called herself. The name has taken off since in popularity.

Celebrity Examples

Celebrities have been known to use this method for naming their children.

• Paris Hilton is not the name of a hotel in France, but the famous daughter of the Hilton family.
• Another well known Paris is the daughter of entertainer Michael Jackson: Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. His other children are Prince Michael and Prince Michael II (also known as Blanket).
• David and Victoria have a boy named Brooklyn Beckham, named after a New York borough of the same name where he was conceived. They also have a child named Romeo, which I suspect was also named for a similar reason after the Italian capital Rome.
• Actor couple Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin have a daughter called Ireland.
• Others include Summer Phoenix and Casey Affleck: Baby son Indiana August, and Drea de Matteo and Shooter Jennings: Baby daughter Alabama Gypsy Rose.

Related Pages

• baby name article index
• celebrity baby names
• guide to choosing a baby name
• Baby Names Bookstore
• Baby names from common words
• Unusual baby name
• Place names as first names
• Positive names
• Unisex Names