Have you ever wondered why its okay for some words to be names and not for others? Daisy is okay, but Bluebell isn’t. Summer is fine, but no to Spring. April, May, June, and August are acceptable, but absolutely not to February or October. Animal names are okay like Robin or Wren, but Bear or Cougar, are you crazy? No way to food names, except for Olive and Clementine, and maybe some spices like Basil or Sage.
My rules (yes, I have my own set of baby name rules) for using word names are the following . . .
1. The word must be positive. No naming babies things like Hate, Idiot, Bad, Trouble and so on. (No, I haven’t seen any of those.)
2. Don’t be cute. No Stormy Sea Waters. No True Angel. No Sincere Leigh. (Yes, I have seen all of those.)
3. Only one word name per child. If Alicia Silverstone had named her son, Bear Christopher or Bear Alexander, I don’t think she would have gotten nearly as much flack as she did. Bear Blu sounds like a Care Bear.
Of course, there are those parents out there, who think no name, no word is off limits, and that is what makes things interesting. It’s why I love to search birth announcements, because you never know what you are going to find. And although, I don’t love all their choices, I appreciate their boldness.
Atlas Russel
Blaze Bradley
Bluestar Lynn
Chisel Martin
Denim Jaide (g)
Echo Rayne
Elm Elizabeth
Falcon Smith
Famous (boy) *No middle name given.
Fate Marie
Fox Jane
Gracious Faith
Honey Billie Jean
Mystery Lane (girl)
Pepper Makenna
Promise Anne
Queen Fauntrie Allie
Radiance Rayne
Rebel Faith: They have faith that she won’t be a Rebel.
Rock Eli
Sailor Rain: She better love the water.
Sassy Alex: *Careful what you wish for.
Serenity Divine
September Autumn *These parents have a love of all things Fall.
Serene Annalou
Set Alexander
Seven Trey
Silver Cora
Sparrow Rae
SunDash Kills Big Buffalo
Sugar-Magnolia Sunshine *Super sweet name.
Tiger Michael
Truth Alea
Wake Jacob
Wave Robert
Wolf James
* What is your favorite word name? Or craziest word name you’ve ever heard.
FOR REAL BABY NAMES 
Crazy sibling set in Orange County, CA (all with adult criminal records!):
Twilight Dawn
Sundown Donny
Thunder Shadrach
Twister Shaudy
Whoa! That is some sibling set. Thanks for sharing, Claire!
You have to love the over-the-top names, like Serenity Divine and Gracious Faith (which sounds like a mild expletive: “My gracious faith, what have you kids been up to?”)
I didn’t actually take Set as a vocabulary name – I thought it was the name of the Egyptian god.
I quite like Wolf James …
One of the craziest word names I heard is on my blog: it’s Fully Hectik Sik, which was registered in New South Wales in 2010. No idea if it’s a boy or a girl. Another one (not on the blog) was Star Dazzle Twinkle Bright Lily. I just loved the fact they stuck a Top 10 name at the end, like now it’s normal. (That’s one’s a girl). Her six siblings had equally exuberant names.
Fully Hectik Sik is crazy. My guess would be boy, but who knows. And Star Dazzle Twinkle Bright Lily is fantastic for Rainbow Brite’s sister. 🙂
I didn’t realize Set was an Egyptian god. I thought his name was Seth.
Thanks for sharing!
I think you’re right and Fully Hektik Sik is more likely a boy.
Seth is an alternative spelling, but Set more correct/accepted I think.
I came across my favorite word name ever the other day while searching for relatives in the 1930 census. This man’s name was Goode Lord.
haha
That may be the best name I’ve ever seen. 🙂
The two weirdest word names I’ve ever seen were a birth announcement for a little girl named Fig (middle name Ava), and the other was one my grandma just told me today, the new grandson of a lady knows: Box. No middle name. My grandma said her friend hated it and was always embarrassed to tell people her new grandson’s name. My grandma also told me she was in the supermarket one time when she heard a woman call out to her two sons, Fox and Cougar.
Other unusual word names I’ve come across (these are all kids I know):
Rocket (girl)
Spring (girl)
Mercury (boy)
Bear and Lotus Blossom (brother and sister)
Honey (girl)
Tiger (girl)
Wednesday (girl)
Stormy and Haily (twin girls)
Cinnamon (girl)
Ochre Blue and Alchemy (brother and sister)
Flame (girl)
Raven (boy)
Breezy (girl)
Ember (girl)
Domino Royal (boy)
I remember Fig Ava. 🙂 And I wonder what the inspiration was for Box. I’ve never seen that one before.
Great list! Thanks for sharing!
Box could possibly be inspired by all the Knox/Max/Pax/Jax boys’ names…Jolie-Pitt style ha. Poor kid, he doesn’t even have a middle name or nickname to fall back on!
Poor thing. Maybe he could go by Bo.
I kinda like Fig! But then I love Plum and Olive too. So either I like food names or maybe I’m just hungry! 🙂
Haha. I kinda like those too. 🙂
Oh and my favourites are Axel for a boy and Iris for a girl.
A subject very close to my heart! I love ‘word names’ — all names almost certainly began as such. I love the fact that an increasing number of people are ready to move away from that traditional body of names that have become established (though it’s never been as fixed as many would like to think!) over time and return to the ‘grass roots’, as it were of naming, to give their child a name with obvious meaning in their own language — still common in many countries around the world today anyway.
I agree with what you say about positive meanings — although in some cultures there is a belief that if you give a child a name with an awful meaning, you are actually protecting it from evil spirits; it is believed that if the spirits think the child is worthless, they’ll leave it alone, and take someone else’s child with a name which implies that it is greatly cherished instead!
I think I’d still stick with positive meanings in English though!
I didn’t know that. That’s interesting. I’d still stick with positive meaning names too.
We have 7 children, going on #8 and have used word names for all of our kids. We love them. It brings a smile to our faces and hearts when we hear there names in random conversations and even better the Bible.
Taylor Rose
Willow Payton
Raven Kennedy
Ryker Woods
Quest Zaiden
Favor Bleu
Nation Hawke
#8 unknown
Great names! Let me know what you decide for number 8.
Thanks for sharing!
We have the same philosphy towards naming 😉
Cool! Do you have a blog?
My son’s names are
Riley Cougar Star (goes by cougar)
River Alan Fox (goes by river)
They love their names
I like the name Cayenne for a girl
Great names!
If you are interested in doing a name story for Matilda Magazine, let me know. We would love to know how you came up with/decided on their names.
Email me at info@matildamag.com if interested.