Baby names with meanings and origins
A browsable list of 197 baby names drawn from eighteen naming traditions, each recorded with the language or culture it comes from and its literal meaning where one is known. It is deliberately not a popularity chart: how common a name is depends entirely on which country and which year you ask about, and a single ranking that ignores both is worse than none. Filter by origin or by gender, search by meaning as well as by name, and take the meanings as the common reading rather than the only one.
What people use it for
Searching by meaning rather than by name
The search matches meanings and origins as well as names, so "light", "peace" or "star" returns the names that carry those senses across several different traditions at once — which is usually a more interesting way in than an alphabet.
Staying within one naming tradition
The origin filter narrows to a single tradition — Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Yoruba, Irish and fourteen others — for families who already know the culture they are choosing within.
Settling what a name actually means
Plenty of names carry a meaning people half-remember and often get wrong. Each entry states the literal sense in its language of origin, so at least the argument starts from the same place.
How it works
- Search, or filter by gender — The chips cover boys, girls and unisex; search matches name, origin and meaning together.
- Narrow by origin — Eighteen traditions, each listed separately, so a search can stay inside one.
- Sort the way you want to read it — A to Z, Z to A, or grouped by origin. All three are real orderings, and the state lives in the URL.
- Share the view — The address bar carries the search, the filters and the sort, so a shortlist can be sent to somebody exactly as you were looking at it.
Questions
Why is there no popularity ranking?
Because there is no honest single answer. Popularity depends entirely on country and year, and the previous version of this page carried a 0-to-100 score with no source behind it at all. Removing it is the only version of this page that can be true.
Where do the meanings come from?
Public-domain reference works on naming traditions. Names travel between languages and often pick up a different sense in each, so a meaning here is the common reading in the named origin rather than a claim that it is the only one.
How many names are there, and from where?
One hundred and ninety-seven, across eighteen origins — Arabic, African, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Persian, Scandinavian, Spanish and Turkish.
Can I save a shortlist?
The filters and search live in the URL, so bookmarking or sending the address preserves exactly the view you were looking at. Saved shortlists tied to an account are not part of this page today.
What does “unisex” mean here?
That the name is commonly used for any gender in its own tradition. Usage varies between cultures, so it is a description of how the name is used rather than a rule about how it should be.
Tips
- Search a meaning rather than a letter — it crosses traditions and turns up names you would not have looked for.
- The origin filter and the search combine; both are in the URL, so the view can be shared.
- Say a shortlisted name out loud with your surname before deciding anything.
By Ahsan Mahmood · updated 2026-07-30
Open Baby names with meanings and origins on LifeWell