Place Girl Names

Names taken from somewhere on a map. The place usually got its own name from a person, a landscape feature or a language nobody there speaks any more, so the meaning is two removes away.

Rankings for

47 names, most popular first in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Kimberly Kimberly is a girl's name that reached America by way of a South African diamond town, which was itself named after a British colonial secretary.
English #302 in US
Harlow Harlow is a unisex name from an Essex place name meaning "army hill," most likely a mound where a Saxon assembly met rather than a battlefield.
English #309 in US
Sabrina Sabrina is the Latin name of the River Severn, and the legend behind it is a drowning — a princess thrown into the river became its spirit.
Latin #321 in US
Sydney Sydney is a name from a French place name — Saint-Denis, contracted by English speakers — and the Australian city was named after a man who bore it.
English #348 in US
Londyn Londyn is a girl's name, a respelling of the city of London.
English #388 in US
Carolina Carolina means free man, and two American states carry it — both Carolinas are named for Charles I in Latin, so a Germanic word for a peasant ended up on the map through a king.
Latin #405 in US
Alexandria Alexandria is the city before it is the name — Alexander founded it in 331 BC, and the feminine given name was formed from the place rather than directly from Alexandra, which took a different route.
Greek #474 in US
Virginia Virginia is a girl's name from a Roman family name, and the American state was named before the name became common in America — both honoring Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.
Latin #525 in US
Skye Skye is a girl's name taken from the Hebridean island, whose own name is disputed between a Gaelic root meaning "winged" and a Norse one meaning "cloud."
Scottish #531 in US
Cali Cali is a girl's name with several possible sources.
Greek, American #575 in US
Paris Paris has two unrelated sources — the Trojan prince and the French city — and France barely uses it, ranking the name 7,188th while the United States has it at 592nd and 80 percent female.
Greek #592 in US
Shelby Shelby is a girl's name from an English place name of Norse formation meaning a willow farm.
English #649 in US
Bethany Bethany is a village outside Jerusalem, and its meaning is contested — house of figs and house of the poor are both proposed.
Hebrew #751 in US
Kelsey Kelsey is a girl's name from an English place name, and its two proposed meanings — ship's victory and Cenel's island — have nothing in common.
English #815 in US
Tara Tara is a girl's name from the hill in County Meath where the High Kings were inaugurated, and its meaning is a place of assembly.
Irish #844 in US
Chelsea Chelsea is a girl's name from a London district whose name means chalk landing place — a wharf where chalk was unloaded from boats on the Thames.
English #852 in US
Haley Haley means hay meadow, from an English place name.
English #861 in US
Cheyenne Cheyenne is not the Cheyenne people's own name for themselves — it is a Sioux word meaning red speakers, applied from outside.
Native American #921 in US
Brittany Brittany is a girl's name taken from the French region, which is named for British settlers who crossed the Channel in late antiquity.
English #928 in US
Beverly Beverly is a name from an English town meaning beaver stream, and it began as a boys' name before crossing decisively to girls.
English #1,020 in US
Whitney Whitney was already climbing before Whitney Houston, and the debut album accelerated it rather than starting it — 1,632 births in 1982, 2,488 by 1984, then 4,068 in 1985 and 9,781 in 1986.
English #1,044 in US
Lorraine Lorraine is a girl's name from the French region, whose own name means the kingdom of Lothair — a Frankish king's realm that was carved out of Charlemagne's empire and slowly disappeared.
French #1,045 in US
Sharon Sharon is a girl's name taken from a place rather than a person — the fertile coastal plain of Sharon in Israel, known from the rose of Sharon in the Song of Songs.
Hebrew #1,252 in US
Hayley Hayley is a girl's name from an English place name meaning "hay clearing," and it became a girl's name because of one child actress.
English #1,257 in US
Lorena Lorena is a place before it is a person — Lorraine is the land of Lothar, a Frankish king whose kingdom was carved out of Charlemagne's empire and named after him directly.
Spanish #1,293 in US
Lindsey Lindsey is a girl's name from a district of Lincolnshire, and it originally meant an island — Lindsey was cut off by marsh and river, so the wetland reading and the island reading describe the same place.
English #1,371 in US
Shirley Shirley is a girl's name from an English place name meaning bright clearing, and it was a boys' name until Charlotte Brontë used it for a heroine in 1849.
English #1,583 in US
Dixie Dixie names the American South and nobody knows why — the leading account is a French ten-dollar note printed dix in Louisiana, and the rival is the Mason-Dixon line.
American #1,605 in US
Geneva Geneva is not named after the Swiss city — it is a form of Genevieve, whose own meaning is unsettled, and the city's name comes from a Celtic word for a bend or estuary entirely separately.
English #1,660 in US
Iona Iona is a girl's name taken from the Hebridean island where Columba founded his monastery — and the island's name exists because a medieval scribe misread a letter.
Scottish #2,684 in US
Rochelle Rochelle means little rock, and it is a place rather than a person — La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast was a Huguenot stronghold, and the name reached English through the town rather than any saint.
French #4,578 in US
Lesley Lesley is the Scottish spelling and Scotland proves it — a peak of 341 births there in 1974, far above what the country's size would predict against an American high of 981.
Scottish #4,654 in US
Brittney Brittney means from Brittany, and Brittany means from Britain — so the name records Britons who fled to France, making it a British name that came home by way of Normandy and a respelling.
American #5,145 in US
Shelly Shelly means a clearing on a ledge, from an English place name — and it has nothing to do with shells, which is the reading most people assume and no source supports.
English #5,831 in US
Kimberley Kimberley is named for a woman — the English place name behind it is Cyneburg's clearing, and Cyneburg was a seventh-century Mercian princess, so the name reaches modern use through her land rather than a man's.
English #5,868 in US
Rhonda Rhonda is a girl's name from a Welsh river valley, and the great spear reading usually given for it is wrong — the Rhondda is named for its own noisiness, not for a weapon.
Welsh #6,125 in US
Chantal Chantal is a girl's name from an Occitan word for a stone or boulder, taken from a French place name — the singing reading everyone gives it comes from the French chanter and is wrong.
French #6,227 in US
Shelley Shelley means a clearing on a ledge, and it has nothing to do with shells — the poet's surname records a patch of high ground in Suffolk or Sussex, not anything from a beach.
English #8,135 in US
Alberta Alberta means noble and bright, and a Canadian province carries it — Alberta was named for Queen Victoria's fourth daughter, whose full name was Louise Caroline Alberta.
Germanic #10,069 in US
Clodagh Clodagh is a girl's name of Irish origin taken from the River Clodiagh in County Tipperary.
Irish #10,345 in US
Lydie Lydie names a kingdom, and that kingdom invented money — Lydia struck the world's first coins in the seventh century BC, and its last king Croesus is still a byword for wealth.
French #12,128 in US
Ailsa Ailsa is a girl's name from Ailsa Craig, the volcanic island in the Firth of Clyde that supplies the granite for nearly every curling stone in the world.
Scottish 3,110 births
Eireann Eireann is a girl's name taken from Ireland's own name — and specifically from its genitive case, so it means "of Ireland" rather than Ireland.
Irish 613 births
Eirinn Eirinn is a girl's name taken from the dative case of Ireland's Irish name, so grammatically it means "to Ireland" rather than Ireland itself.
Irish 595 births
Mattingly Mattingly is an English surname used occasionally as a first name, mainly for American girls.
English 362 births
Laragh Laragh is an Irish girl's name taken from a place name, most famously the village of Laragh in County Wicklow.
Irish 200 births
Lerryn Lerryn is a rare girl's name from Cornwall, taken from the River Lerryn and the village beside it.
Cornish 58 births

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