As someone whose two main interests are geography and names, I thought I’d make a post to combine the two! Three or more babies were given these names between 1996 and 2019.
Disclaimer: this is by no means a complete list and is just based on the statistics I could readily find. I am including full country names only (e.g. [name_m]Costa[/name_m] and [name_f]Rica[/name_f] have both been given names in this period of time, but as the country is [name_m]Costa[/name_m] [name_f]Rica[/name_f], I am not including them).
Countries
[name_m]Chad[/name_m]
[name_u]Cuba[/name_u]
[name_u]Israel[/name_u]
[name_u]Jordan[/name_u]
[name_f]Mali[/name_f]
[name_u]Morocco[/name_u]
Oman
Are you surprised by any of these names? I sure was!
BONUS QUESTION: would you name a child any of these names, and if so, which one(s)? can you think of any combos including any of these names that you’d consider?
Interesting! I’m surprised by Benin and [name_f]Aruba[/name_f] (which I actually like a lot!), and I haven’t heard [name_m]Aland[/name_m] as a name before.
Aside from the already well-established names (Chad, [name_u]Jordan[/name_u], Georgia), I would be open to using [name_f]Oceania[/name_f], [name_f]Mali[/name_f] (g), [name_u]Israel[/name_u] (b), and [name_u]Morocco[/name_u] for a child. [name_f]Mali[/name_f] [name_f]Oceania[/name_f] would be cute. I also like [name_f]Asia[/name_f], [name_f]Dominica[/name_f], [name_u]Egypt[/name_u], [name_u]Ireland[/name_u], and [name_f]Martinique[/name_f].
This is interesting - I think the ones that surprise me as names are [name_u]Egypt[/name_u], [name_u]Cuba[/name_u] and [name_m]Aland[/name_m] - possibly because I’ve never come across them as names or they don’t sound as ‘name-y’ as some of the others?
Not sure I’d personally use any of them - I quite like the sounds of [name_u]Jordan[/name_u], [name_f]Mali[/name_f], [name_u]Morocco[/name_u], [name_u]Cyprus[/name_u] and [name_u]Jersey[/name_u], though I have no connection to and have never been to any of those places - so I guess [name_f]Mali[/name_f] and [name_u]Jordan[/name_u] would be my choices as they feel established as names?
@Greyblue you’ve made me realise that I’ve never been to any of the countries/dependencies listed!
(although I have been to [name_f]Asia[/name_f] and live in Oceania!)
I’m kind of surprised nobody was ever named [name_u]Britain[/name_u] or [name_u]England[/name_u]. But I guess place names often seem more appealing when the place is geographically distant from the parents.
[name_f]My[/name_f] favourite is the classic [name_f]Georgia[/name_f]. I also kind of like [name_f]Dominica[/name_f] since I’ve met a few Polish women named [name_f]Dominika[/name_f] (pronounced dom-i-NEE-ka) and I always found that to be a pretty name.
Oh, great topic! I love geography too, as well as names.
I’ve always thought Martinique would be an interesting name. I quite like Oman, too.
I wonder what the breakdown with Jordan and Georgia is - how many (if any) parents chose the name with the country in mind? I doubt it would be many. Dominica and Chad too, but I assume they’re not as common as the other two.
Edited to add: unlike @namelover55 I have been to a handful of the countries listed: China, Ireland, and Malaysia; plus Asia and Oceania for continents.
interesting!! while i wouldn’t use any of them (i’m not big on place names without having a significant connection to them) i’ll say that martinique has a very sweet sound as a name!
place names are so interesting! i actually used to know a girl named kenya which i’ve always thought was so unique. i have a relative named israel, and I’ve always thought having an india would be sweet.
@hellobanjo Honestly I can only picture American people giving these names.
Except [name_u]Jordan[/name_u] and [name_f]Georgia[/name_f] but they’re established as a name and people don’t think of the countries much (I think a lot of Americans aren’t even aware that [name_f]Georgia[/name_f] is a country).
I wouldn’t give these names because to me these are place names and not person’s names and it feels weird.
