Whether you love to travel or just want to give your child an unusual name, here are some great ideas for baby names inspired by travel.
A travel-inspired baby name could be chosen for a number of reasons: to pay homage to your heritage, to acknowledge a place of significance in your life or simply to instill your own wanderlust in the new addition to your family.
Baby names inspired by heritage
If you live in a country different from that of your ancestors, a nice way to give recognition to your heritage is to give your child a name from the country or language of your family. This could be a name that is popular there, a word from the local language that has a significant or sweet meaning or the name of a place there that is special to you.
Popular girl’s names with sweet meanings:
Parvati (Sanskrit, meaning ‘sinless’ or ‘holy’; Elena (Spanish, meaning ‘the bright one’; Tiana (Greek, meaning ‘princess’); Nikiwe (Xhosa, meaning ‘given as a gift’); Valeria (Portuguese, meaning ‘strong’)
Popular boy’s names with sweet meanings:
Akira (Japanese, meaning ‘bright boy’); Lowell (Old French, meaning ‘young wolf’); Baraka (Arabic, meaning ‘blessing’); Adri (Hindi, meaning ‘rock’); Azizi (Swahili, meaning ‘precious’); Liang (Chinese, meaning ‘bright’ or ‘good’)
Baby names inspired by places
Baby names inspired by places and cities around the world are a way of acknowledging a love of travel. Italian cities are popular for doubling as names for girls, such as Florence and Sienna, but you can choose a name based on your own travels or where you’d love to visit. Or you could make like the Beckhams and give a nod to the place of your child’s conception, as with their son Brooklyn.
Popular girl’s names inspired by places:
Adelaide, Georgia, Kenya, Paris, Verona, Zaria, London
Popular boy’s names inspired by places:
Denver, Austin, Cairo, Jordan, Rio, Devon
Read more tips for choosing a baby name >>
Baby names inspired by foreign language
You might not want to name your baby after a specific place but instead choose a name from the language of that place. This could either be a name that locals give their children or simply a beautiful word from the language, of which you also like the meaning.
Popular girl’s names from other countries:
Lola (Spain), Claudine (France), Anja (Germany), Saanvi (India), Isabella (Brazil), Thandi (South Africa), Mika (Japan), Sierra (Spain)
Popular boy’s names from other countries:
Mateo (Spain), Vitaly (Russia), Fabian (Italy), Bastien (France), Garrick (Germany), Alec (Greece), Luka (Russia)
Consider this
If you’re choosing an exotic baby name, be careful not to settle on something that is exceptionally difficult to spell or pronounce — in the years to come your child will not thank you for this!
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Top baby names in England and Wales
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