Ocean names carry a mood before they carry a meaning: steady, wide open, a little wild. This list runs to 100 of them for boys and girls, each with its origin, meaning, pronunciation and where it currently sits in United States birth records.
Water names show that pull toward the natural world: use of River for boys is up about 290 percent on the previous decade, and Ocean itself is up about 300 percent (1).
The range here runs from top-100 staples like Dylan and Maya to names the federal data has never once recorded. Both kinds are below, so you can choose by sound, by meaning, or by how many other children in the class will share it.
Popularity at a Glance
The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: Dylan, Maya, Adrian, Kai and River.
- Dylan
- Maya
- Adrian
- Kai
- River
100 Cute Ocean Names for Boys and Girls
The 100 names below are listed alphabetically, and every entry gives the gender, origin, meaning, pronunciation, its standing in U.S. birth records and a short note on where the name comes from.
Aalto
Finnish has a specific word for the swell rolling in off the Baltic, and that word is aalto. Most people meet it as a Finnish surname rather than a first name, carried by the architect Alvar Aalto. As a given name it is almost unknown outside Finland, which is exactly what makes it usable here, and the doubled A gives a long, open first syllable that sits well against a short surname.
- Origin: Finnish
- Meaning: Wave
- Pronunciation: AHL-toh
- Popularity: Aalto has never surfaced in United States birth records. The federal data only counts a name once at least five babies receive it in a year, so Aalto sits below even that floor.
Adrian
Adrian comes from the Latin Hadrianus, meaning a person from Hadria, the northern Italian town that also lent its name to the Adriatic Sea (2). Six popes have used it, among them Adrian IV, the only English pope, and it has been in English use since the Middle Ages. None of that weight shows in the sound, which stays light across its three easy syllables. Adrian is one of only four names on this list still inside the U.S. top 100. Fiction likes it too, including the detective in Monk. Ade and Dray both work as everyday short forms. It sits comfortably on a birth certificate in Spanish, Polish and English alike.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: From the Adriatic Sea
- Pronunciation: AY-dree-un
- Namesakes: Adrian Peterson, an American football player. Adrian Grenier, an American actor, best known for the television show Entourage.
- Popularity: Adrian ranked #74 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 4,464 babies given the name, or about one boy in 383. It is down roughly 19 percent on the previous decade, after its best showing at #56 in 2008.
Amphitrite
Amphitrite probably means the surrounding sea, from the Greek amphis, around or between, joined to a root shared with the name Triton. In ancient Greek myth she is the goddess of salt water, wife of Poseidon and mother of Triton, and sailors prayed to her before a crossing. Four syllables is a lot to hand a kindergartner. Amphi, Phi and Rita all cut it down to something a classroom can manage. Parents who want the sea without any of the soft seaside vocabulary the rest of this list runs on will find it here.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: The surrounding sea
- Pronunciation: am-fih-TRY-tee
- Popularity: Amphitrite has never appeared in United States birth data, so there is no ranking to quote for it.
Ariel
Ariel is Hebrew for lion of God, so its sea career is entirely borrowed. Shakespeare gave the name to the air spirit bound to Prospero in The Tempest, and Disney later handed it to a mermaid. The mermaid won: the American peak for girls came in 1991. The name still reads as real rather than as a costume. That is largely because it never stopped going to boys, 533 of whom received it in 2025.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Lion of God
- Pronunciation: AIR-ee-el
- Namesakes: Ariel Winter, an American actress known for her role on Modern Family.
- Popularity: Ariel ranked #356 for girls in the U.S. in 2025 with 851 births, and #558 for boys with 533, about three girls for every two boys. Its best girls’ year was 1991, at #66.
Asherah
Asherah was the mother goddess of the Canaanite world, worshipped across the Levant and, as the Hebrew Bible concedes, by Israelites too before monotheism took hold. Her name is perhaps built from Semitic roots meaning she who walks in the sea, which is what lands her on an ocean list rather than a fertility one. She is not Sumerian, a mix-up that follows the name around online. Archaeologists still argue over what her carved wooden poles were for, so the name arrives with a genuinely open question attached. Ash and Ashee soften it for daily use, and it belongs with the strong girl names rather than the pretty ones.
- Origin: Semitic
- Meaning: She who walks in the sea
- Pronunciation: Ash-err-ah
- Popularity: Asherah ranked #12,066 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 7 babies given the name, and it is rising, up about 42 percent on the previous decade. Its best rank on record is #8,022, in 2024.
Aukai
Aukai is Hawaiian for seafarer, the person who goes out rather than the water itself, and that distinction is worth something on a list this crowded with waves. The German musician Markus Sieber records under the name, which is most Americans’ only encounter with it. Kai falls out of it naturally, linking the name to the far more common standalone, and the three vowels in a row look harder than they sound.
- Origin: Hawaiian
- Meaning: Seafarer
- Pronunciation: Au-kai
- Namesakes: Markus Sieber, a German musical artist who uses the stage name Aukai.
- Popularity: Aukai reached its best rank yet in 2025, #7,729 for boys, with 10 babies given the name. That is the highest annual total in a record starting in 1997.
Avisa
Avisa means ocean in Sanskrit. There is a royal echo behind it as well: the House of Aviz once ruled Portugal. Avi and Vee both work as short forms. The practical note for American parents is that almost nobody will have met it. That cuts both ways, since no baggage also means a lifetime of spelling it out.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: Ocean
- Pronunciation: ah-vees-uh
- Popularity: Avisa has no United States birth record at all, so no American ranking exists for it.
Beryl
Beryl is the mineral family that gives us emerald and aquamarine, and it is the pale blue-green stone that earns the name its place on an ocean list. The English word brilliant may come from the same stone. It peaked in 1920 and fell hard enough that it now reads as an old-fashioned name rather than a rare one, which is a different and more solvable problem. The actress Beryl Reid carried it through the sixties and seventies. If Pearl and Opal are coming back, Beryl has a case.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Sea green jewel
- Pronunciation: Beh-ruhl
- Namesakes: Beryl Reid, an English actress, known for the movie The Killing of Sister George and for playing the grandma in the Adrian Mole saga.
- Popularity: Beryl ranked #11,101 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 8 births. Its high point was more than a century ago, #374 in 1920.
Calder
Calder is a Scottish river and place name, usually read as rough or violent waters, and it has the hard consonants to match. The sculptor Alexander Calder makes it a quiet art-world pick, which is unusual for a name this rugged. It is one of the surnames-turned-first-names that has climbed steadily rather than spiking. Cal is the short form nobody has to be taught.
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Rough waters
- Pronunciation: Cal-der
- Popularity: Calder ranked #1,731 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 94 births, and is up about 55 percent on the previous decade. Its record total came in 2023, when 113 boys were given the name.
Cari
Cari carries two unrelated meanings depending on where you start. In Turkish it describes something that flows like water; in Welsh it means beloved. People will hear it as a respelling of Carrie, a short form of Caroline, on almost every phone call, though the two names are unrelated. The singer Cari Fletcher, who records as FLETCHER, reached the Billboard Hot 100 with her breakout single in 2019. Few water names come this short.
- Origin: Turkish
- Meaning: Flows like water
- Pronunciation: Ka-ree
- Namesakes: Cari Fletcher, an American singer who reached the Billboard Hot 100 with her breakout single in 2019.
- Popularity: Cari ranked #9,580 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 10 births. It was far more common in the mid-1970s, peaking at #380 in 1976.
Caspian
C.S. Lewis coined Caspian for the exiled prince in Prince Caspian, who first appeared in 1950, the second book in his Chronicles of Narnia series, and he most likely took it from the Caspian Sea, itself named for the city of Qazvin and the ancient Cas tribe behind it. So it is a literary name pointing at a real body of water. The sound has done the rest of the work: three syllables, a soft landing, and no nickname required, though Cass and Cas both fit. Nothing else on this list has climbed as fast.
- Origin: Literary
- Meaning: From the Caspian Sea
- Pronunciation: Cass-pee-an
- Namesakes: Caspian Diament, an American actor, featured on the television shows This is Us and Modern Family.
- Popularity: Caspian is the fastest riser on this list, up about 665 percent over the last ten years of births measured against the ten before them. It reached its best rank yet in 2025, #491 for boys, with 614 births.
Chantara
Chantara is a Thai name built on chan, the moon, and it is usually read as moon water, the reflection rather than the sea itself. Chantal, from a French place name meaning stone, is a near neighbour by sound only, not by root. Tara and Chan both shorten it. Tara has the advantage of being instantly familiar in English. Parents who want a water name with a lighter, more celestial tilt should start here.
- Origin: Thai
- Meaning: Moon water
- Pronunciation: Chan-tah-rah
- Namesakes: Chantara Cleo, an American singer known for her song Distant Star.
- Popularity: Chantara has no United States birth record on file, so it carries no American ranking.
Coral
Coral is one of the few sea names that is a colour, a creature and a jewel at once. Reef-building coral is an animal colony rather than a plant or a stone, a fact most adults learn late and most children enjoy. The name has never been common in the United States, and its best rank came in the 1930s, so it has the vintage feel of Pearl and Ruby without their queue, while Cora, the obvious modern neighbour, stays far busier.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Sea growth
- Pronunciation: Koh-rahl
- Namesakes: Coral Taylor, an Australian rally driver and four-time winner of the Australian Motorsport Rally Championship alongside teammate Neal Bates.
- Popularity: Coral ranked #1,931 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 100 births. Its highest annual total came recently, 224 girls in 2004, though its best rank was #901 all the way back in 1936.
Cordelia
Cordelia comes from Cordeilla, a name in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century chronicles, borne by the youngest and only loyal daughter of King Leir. Geoffrey may have built it on Creiddylad from Welsh legend, and the spelling we use arrived by way of Spenser and, later, Shakespeare. The popular gloss daughter of the sea is a later folk reading rather than a documented etymology, which is worth knowing before it goes on a nursery wall. Cordelia also belongs to Cordelia Chase in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is how many parents under forty first met it. Cordie, Cory and Delia all shorten it.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: Daughter of the sea
- Pronunciation: Cor-dee-lee-ah
- Popularity: Cordelia is having its best run in decades: 258 girls were given the name in 2025, its highest annual total on record, at #981. Its best rank, though, was #526 in 1913.
Cove
A cove is a small sheltered bay, and the name keeps that meaning intact, which is rarer than it sounds on a list like this. It is one of the landscape words that jumped from surname to first name in the last decade, alongside River, which is up about 290 percent over the same stretch. One syllable pairs with almost anything longer. The data backs the unisex label too, with 171 boys and 100 girls recorded in 2025.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Small bay
- Pronunciation: KOHV
- Popularity: Cove reached its best rank in 2025, #1,192 for boys with 171 births and #1,933 for girls with 100. Use for boys is up about 451 percent on the previous decade.
Daria
Daria is the Persian-rooted feminine of Darius, and the ocean reading comes from the Persian darya, meaning sea. Russian uses Darya, Tolstoy gives it to Dolly in Anna Karenina, and there’s a deadpan cartoon teenager named Daria too. That cartoon is still the first association for a good many American parents, which either helps or does not, depending on the parent. The Australian tennis player Daria Saville reached world number 20 in 2017. Russian speakers will hear Darya first, which is worth knowing if that side of the family is close.
- Origin: Persian
- Meaning: Ocean
- Pronunciation: Dah-ree-ah
- Variations: Darya
- Namesakes: Daria Saville, an Australian tennis player who peaked with a world singles ranking of 20 in 2017.
- Popularity: Daria ranked #1,858 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 107 births, and has held roughly steady for a decade. Its best year was 1998, at #741.
Delmar
Delmar reads as Spanish for of the sea, and it also came into English separately as a British surname from the Norman French de la mare. Two routes, one sound. It had a real run in the United States before the Second World War and then went quiet, which puts it alongside Delbert and Wilmer. The actor Delmar Watson, one of the child performers in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, is its best-known bearer. Del carries the everyday load.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Of the sea
- Pronunciation: Del-marr
- Namesakes: Delmar Watson, an American actor known for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Heidi.
- Popularity: Delmar ranked #5,920 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 15 births. It was a top-300 name once, peaking at #294 in 1931.
Delmare
Delmare is the French of the sea, and like Delmar it arrived in England as a surname first, brought over after 1066. The final E softens it noticeably against Delmar and pushes it toward the feminine. Mare and Mary both work as everyday short forms. Expect to spell it out once, after which it behaves.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Of the sea
- Pronunciation: Del-mare
- Popularity: Delmare has no United States birth record, so no American ranking exists for it. Delmar, its closer cousin, does appear.
Delmore
Delmore is the French-derived sibling of Delmar and Delmare, and one bearer dominates it entirely: the poet Delmore Schwartz, whose In Dreams Begin Responsibilities is his best known work. That is a lot of literary weight for a name absent from American birth records since the 1950s. If you want something nobody in the class will share, this qualifies.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Of the seas
- Pronunciation: Del-mor
- Namesakes: Delmore Schwartz, an American poet, best known for In Dreams Begin Responsibilities.
- Popularity: Delmore last appeared in United States birth records in 1955, when 5 boys were given the name. It has not been recorded since.
Deniz
Deniz is simply the Turkish word for sea, one of the Turkish boy names given to boys and girls alike, so it needs no etymological detour at all. The resemblance to Dennis is coincidence, not a shared root. The spelling survives the trip into English intact, and American birth records back up the unisex reading, with both sexes recorded in 2025. The footballer Deniz Undav is its most visible current bearer in Europe. The Z invites a spelling correction about once a week.
- Origin: Turkish
- Meaning: Sea
- Pronunciation: Deh-neez
- Namesakes: Deniz Undav, a German international forward who plays for VfB Stuttgart.
- Popularity: Deniz ranked #2,611 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 50 births, and #6,178 for girls with 19. It is up about 48 percent on the previous decade.
Derya
Derya is Turkish for sea, taken from the same Persian darya that sits behind Daria. It is a cousin rather than a variant, and it lands noticeably softer than the Turkish alternative Deniz. English speakers get it right on the first attempt, which is not true of most names this rare in the United States, and Derry, Dee and Ya-Ya are the nicknames tucked inside it.
- Origin: Turkish
- Meaning: Sea
- Pronunciation: Derr-yah
- Namesakes: Derya Bedavaci, a Turkish singer.
- Popularity: Derya last appeared in United States birth records in 2023, when 5 girls were given the name. Its best rank was #7,543, back in 1991.
Doris
Doris was a sea nymph in Greek myth, daughter of Oceanus and mother of the fifty Nereids, so the ocean claim here is first-hand rather than borrowed. It sat at #6 in 1929 and is outside the top 2,500 today. Doris Day carried it through the fifties without ever making it feel young. Dorothy and Dora have both come back; Doris has not, which is the whole opportunity. Dodie and Dori soften the full form for anyone who finds it stern.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Gift of the Ocean
- Pronunciation: Doh-riss
- Namesakes: Doris Day, an American actress, singer, and lead in the Doris Day show, best known for the film Calamity Jane and her cover song Dream a Little Dream of Me.
- Popularity: Doris was the sixth most popular girls’ name in the U.S. in 1929, when 16,498 babies were given it. In 2025 it ranked #2,909, with 58 births.
Douglas
Douglas is Gaelic dubh glais, dark water, and it began as the name of a river before it was a clan, a place or a person. Sir James Douglas, Robert the Bruce’s lieutenant, carried the king’s heart on crusade after his death. It only became a first name in the 16th century. Doug is the default short form, though Dougie has more life in it.
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Blackwater
- Pronunciation: Dug-las
- Namesakes: Douglas Smith, a Canadian actor known for the TV series Big Little Lies.
- Popularity: Douglas ranked #807 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 308 births, and is down about 32 percent on the previous decade. Its best year was 1942, at #23.
Dwyn
Dwyn is a Welsh short form of Dwynwen, the Welsh saint whose feast day is the Welsh answer to Valentine’s. Her legend has her living out her life as a hermit on an island cut off twice a day by the tide, and that island is the honest source of the name’s water association. One syllable, hard to misspell once heard, and unclaimed almost everywhere outside Wales. Better still, it sidesteps the pronunciation wall that stops most Welsh names at the border.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: Wave
- Pronunciation: Dwinn
- Popularity: Dwyn appears exactly once in United States birth records, in 1962, when 5 girls were given the name.
Dylan
Dylan is built from the Welsh dy, toward, and llanw, tide or flow. The Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi has Dylan take to the sea the moment he is baptised and swim as well as a fish, and scholars read the character as what is left of an older Celtic sea god. Dylan Thomas gave the name its modern life, Bob Dylan borrowed it from the poet, and a Beverly Hills 90210 character pushed it up the American charts in the nineties. If you want rarity, this is the wrong end of the list. Dyl and Dee are the everyday short forms, though most families use all six letters.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: Of the sea
- Pronunciation: DIL-un
- Namesakes: Dylan McDermott, an American actor known for The Practice and FBI: Most Wanted.
- Popularity: Dylan ranked #41 for boys in the U.S. in 2025 with 6,208 births, roughly one boy in 275, making it the highest-ranked name on this list. It also ranked #808 for girls, and is down about 24 percent on the previous decade after its best rank of #19 in 2003.
Earwen
Earwen is Tolkien’s own coinage, built from the Elvish ear, sea, and wen, maiden. In The Silmarillion she is the daughter of Olwe of Alqualonde and the wife of Finarfin, which makes her Galadriel’s mother. The resemblance to Erwin is coincidence, not a shared root. Among elf names it is one of the gentler ones to say out loud, although families who want that sound almost always land on Arwen instead.
- Origin: Literary
- Meaning: Sea maiden
- Pronunciation: Ear-wen
- Popularity: Earwen has never been recorded in United States births.
Eldoris
Eldoris is an elaborated form of the Greek Doris, the sea nymph who mothered the fifty Nereids. The extra syllable does real work: it keeps the gift-of-the-ocean sense while shedding the mid-century feel that sank Doris itself. The federal record lists it only for girls, though the Gender label above stays open because the name reads unisex. Its disappearance from the data three-quarters of a century ago puts it firmly in unclaimed territory. If three syllables feels long, Dorie or Elle trims it down.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Gift of the ocean
- Pronunciation: Eld-or-is
- Popularity: Eldoris last appeared in United States birth records in 1949, when 6 babies were given the name. Its best rank was #2,855, in 1924.
Ezili
Ezili, more often written Erzulie, is a lwa of Haitian Vodou whose roots run back to the Fon-speaking kingdom of Dahomey, in what is now Benin. She crossed the Atlantic with enslaved West Africans and settled in Haiti as a spirit of fresh water, love and beauty, and also as a protector of small children and a punisher of unfaithful lovers. That is a fuller character than most goddess names carry, and the name itself is three easy syllables with Zili waiting underneath.
- Origin: West African
- Meaning: Goddess of water and beauty
- Pronunciation: Ez-ell-ee
- Popularity: Ezili has no United States birth record, so no American ranking exists for it.
Firtha
A firth is the wide tidal inlet where a Scottish river opens into the sea, the Firth of Forth being the one everyone has heard of, and the word came into Scots from Old Norse. Firtha is the given-name form. Most people know Firth only as a surname, so expect the actor question at least once, and the A ending is the whole trick that turns a piece of coastline into a name.
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Arm of the sea
- Pronunciation: Fir-tha
- Popularity: Firtha has no United States birth record on file, so it carries no American ranking.
Fury
Fury comes from the Latin furia and names the Erinyes, the underworld goddesses of vengeance in Greek and Roman myth. It earns a place on an ocean list the way Storm and Tempest do, by describing what the sea does rather than what it is. That is a heavy thing to hand a child, and it sits closer to names that mean power than to the rest of this list. Five American girls have been given it, all in the same year. That is the whole of its record.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Rage, frenzy
- Pronunciation: FYOOR-ee
- Popularity: Fury appears once in United States birth records, in 2002, when 5 girls were given the name.
Gali
Gali is Hebrew for my wave, from gal, and United States records carry it for girls only. Gail, a short form of Abigail meaning my father’s joy, gets confused with it constantly despite the unrelated root. Two syllables, no silent letters, nothing for an English speaker to get wrong, and a relaxed, easy sound.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Wave
- Pronunciation: Gah-lee
- Popularity: Gali reached its best rank in 2025, #8,031 for girls, with 13 births, and it is up about 45 percent on the previous decade.
Ginevra
Ginevra is the Italian form of Guinevere, which traces to the Welsh Gwenhwyfar, white wave or white phantom, and it is also the Italian name for the city of Geneva. J.K. Rowling gave it to Ginny Weasley, whose full name is Ginevra Molly Weasley, which is how most English speakers meet it. It solves the problem Guinevere creates, keeping the Arthurian link while losing the heaviness. Ginny is the obvious nickname, though Neve works just as cleanly.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: White wave
- Pronunciation: Gin-ev-rah
- Popularity: Ginevra ranked #6,634 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 17 births, and is up about 73 percent on the previous decade. Its highest annual total, 25 girls, came in 2024.
Gyatso
Gyatso is the Tibetan word for ocean, and the title Dalai Lama translates gyatso into Mongolian as dalai, ocean. The current Dalai Lama carries it in his religious name, as Tenzin Gyatso. That gives it real weight rather than a pretty sound. In the West it is almost unknown as a first name. The initial G softens enough in practice that most people land on something close to JAHT-so, which is easier than it looks on the page.
- Origin: Tibetan
- Meaning: Ocean
- Pronunciation: Jaht-so
- Popularity: No American birth record carries Gyatso.
Hali
Hali comes from the Greek hals, salt or sea. In myth, Halie is one of the fifty Nereids, daughter of Nereus and Doris, and she cries out for Achilles when Patroclus is killed. The same four letters exist separately in Hawaiian, so the name arrives from two directions at once, though in American use it reads as a trimmer Hallie or Haley rather than a Greek sea nymph.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Sea
- Pronunciation: Hal-ee
- Variations: Halie
- Popularity: Hali ranked #5,143 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 25 births, and is down about 44 percent on the previous decade. Its best year was 1993, at #672.
Heli
Heli is a Finnish and Estonian girls’ name, and the Welsh salt-water sense comes through Pwllheli, the town on the Llyn Peninsula whose name means salt pool. Hebrew has a separate Heli, an ancestor listed in Luke’s genealogy, which is why it turns up on both boys’ and girls’ lists. Four letters, two syllables, and a quieter alternative to Hallie and Hayley. Americans will hear the first half of helicopter, which is the one real drawback.
- Origin: Celtic
- Meaning: Saltwater pool
- Pronunciation: Hell-ee
- Popularity: Heli last appeared in United States birth records in 2020, when 5 girls were given the name. Its best rank was #9,690, in 2005.
Hurley
Hurley is an anglicised Irish surname, best known through the actress Elizabeth Hurley. In Ireland a hurley is also the ash stick used in hurling, so the name carries a game as well as a family. Lost gave it to Hugo Reyes, the show’s warmest character, and that is the association most American parents will actually have. As an Irish boy name it sounds friendly rather than formal.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Sea tide
- Pronunciation: Hurl-ee
- Popularity: Hurley last appeared in United States birth records in 2024, when 9 boys were given the name. It was a top-1,000 name once, at #912 in 1919.
Iluka
Iluka is an Australian Aboriginal word usually given as by the sea, and it is the name of a coastal town in northern New South Wales, at the mouth of the Clarence River. Like many Aboriginal names, its source language is recorded differently in different places, so treat any single origin claim carefully. It gives Illie and Luka as short forms, the second already familiar everywhere. For Australian families it points at a specific place rather than a general mood.
- Origin: Australian Aboriginal
- Meaning: By the sea
- Pronunciation: ih-LOU-kah
- Popularity: Iluka has not reached United States birth data.
Irving
Irving is a Scottish place name and surname, from Irvine in Ayrshire, and the water in it is the river the town sits on. In the early twentieth century it became a common choice for the American-born sons of Jewish immigrants, who often took British surnames as first names; Irving Berlin is the clearest case. The photographer Irving Penn and the actor Ving Rhames both kept it in circulation. Irv and Ving are the short forms. Only the second still sounds current, which is a strange thing to say about a name that peaked in 1914.
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Sea friend
- Pronunciation: Irv-ing
- Namesakes: Irving Penn, an American photographer known for his photos used in advertising campaigns for Clinique. Irving “Ving” Rhames, an American actor known for his action movies Con Air, Pulp Fiction, and the Mission Impossible movies.
- Popularity: Irving ranked #1,783 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 90 births. It was a top-100 name in 1914, at exactly #100.
Itsaso
Itsaso is Basque for sea, and Basque is a language isolate with no known relatives anywhere on earth, which makes its vocabulary genuinely unlike anything else on this list. The Spanish actress Itsaso Arana carries it. Three syllables, all of them phonetic, so it reads harder than it says. For a family with roots around Bilbao or San Sebastian it is an obvious pick. Everywhere else it is simply unclaimed.
- Origin: Basque
- Meaning: Sea
- Pronunciation: It-say-so
- Namesakes: Itsaso Arana, a Spanish actress known for the Spanish TV series High Seas.
- Popularity: Itsaso has no United States birth record on file, so no American ranking exists for it.
Jennifer
Jennifer is the Cornish form of Guinevere, from the Welsh Gwenhwyfar, white wave or white phantom, and that is the whole of its ocean claim. It was barely used outside Cornwall until the twentieth century, then reached #1 in the United States in 1970 and topped 63,000 births in 1974. Its fall has been about as steep as its rise, which is why it now reads as a mother’s name rather than a baby’s. Jen, Jenny and Jenna all stand on their own, and Jenna in particular has aged better than the full form.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: White Wave
- Pronunciation: Jen-ee-fer
- Namesakes: Jennifer Aniston, an American actress known for her rom coms and role in the television show Friends. Jennifer Lopez, an American actress, singer, businesswoman, and dancer.
- Popularity: Jennifer was the #1 girls’ name in the U.S. in 1970 and peaked at 63,107 births in 1974. In 2025 it ranked #586, with 501 births, down about 70 percent on the previous decade.
Jordan
Jordan comes from the Hebrew Yarden, built on a root meaning to descend, which describes a river dropping steeply from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. In time, the river’s name became a given name across Europe. It is where Jesus was baptised, and it still marks return in Jewish tradition. Michael Jordan did more for its American numbers in the nineties than any of that history did. Boys and girls have both received it throughout, and still do.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: To flow down
- Pronunciation: Jor-dan
- Namesakes: Jordan Danger, an American actress known for her role as Zoe Carter in the TV series A Town Called Eureka.
- Popularity: Jordan ranked #131 for boys in the U.S. in 2025 with 2,732 births, and #584 for girls with 503. It is down about 44 percent on the previous decade, after reaching #26 for boys in 1997.
Kai
Kai is Hawaiian for sea. Hans Christian Andersen gave the name to the boy the Snow Queen steals and Gerda rescues. Three letters, one syllable, and no spelling problems.
- Origin: Hawaiian
- Meaning: Sea
- Pronunciation: KY
- Namesakes: Kai Havertz, a German pro soccer player, who plays with the German national team and for the Premier League team, Chelsea.
- Popularity: Kai ranked #93 for boys in the U.S. in 2025 with 3,768 births, and #1,054 for girls with 234. Use for boys is up about 135 percent on the previous decade, and it is one of only four names here still inside the top 100.
Kailani
Kailani joins the Hawaiian kai, sea, to lani, sky or heaven, so it names the line where the two meet. Use of it is up about 405 percent on the previous decade, and unlike most Hawaiian borrowings it has kept its spelling intact on the way into English. Kai and Lani both work as short forms, and the first is a top-100 name in its own right. The Australian figure skater Kailani Craine competed at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics.
- Origin: Hawaiian
- Meaning: Sea and Sky
- Pronunciation: Kai-lah-nee
- Namesakes: Kailani Craine, an Australian figure skater who represented Australia at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics.
- Popularity: Kailani ranked #253 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 1,215 births, and is up about 405 percent on the previous decade. Its best rank was #222 in 2022.
Kaimana
Kaimana joins kai, sea, to mana, spiritual power, and Hawaiian also uses the word for diamond, which is how it works in Kaimana Hila, the Hawaiian name for Diamond Head. It suits a boy or a girl with no adjustment, useful if you are waiting to find out. Four syllables is the only real objection anyone raises, and Kai or Mana handles it easily.
- Origin: Hawaiian
- Meaning: The power of the ocean
- Pronunciation: Kai-mah-nah
- Popularity: Kaimana ranked #3,613 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 31 births, and #8,601 for girls with 12. It is up about 28 percent on the previous decade.
Kairi
Kairi is a Japanese name that can be written with characters for sea and village, among other combinations, since a Japanese name carries its meaning in the characters rather than the sound. Kingdom Hearts gave it to one of the seven Princesses of Heart, which accounts for a good share of its American use. It sits close enough to Carrie and Kyrie to be misheard as either. It goes mainly to girls in the United States, with a smaller number of boys each year.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Sea
- Pronunciation: Kai-ree
- Namesakes: Kaori Housako, a Japanese pro wrestler best known under her WWE stage name Kairi Sane.
- Popularity: Kairi ranked #1,041 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 239 births, and #2,958 for boys with 42. It is up about 28 percent on the previous decade.
Kano
Kano is listed among African boy names as a water name, and it is also a city and state in northern Nigeria, one of West Africa’s oldest trading centres. Japanese uses the same two syllables as a surname, and Mortal Kombat borrowed it for a villain, which is worth knowing in advance. The British rapper and actor Kane Robinson performs as Kano and helped build grime alongside Dizzee Rascal and Wiley. Nobody mispronounces it, which counts for a lot in a name this unfamiliar. In Nigeria the city itself is one of the largest in the country, so the name is anything but obscure at its source.
- Origin: African
- Meaning: God of the water
- Pronunciation: Kha-no
- Namesakes: Kane “Kano” Robinson, a British rapper, actor, and pioneer of grime music, known for working with Dizzee Rascal and Wiley.
- Popularity: Kano ranked #6,638 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 13 births, and is up about 90 percent on the previous decade. Its highest annual total, 26 boys, came in 2022.
Kelby
Kelby comes from an Old Norse place name meaning farm by the spring, carried into England by Danish settlers and later used as a surname. The water in it is fresh rather than salt, which makes it a quieter pick than most of this list. It has drifted toward unisex use in the United States without ever getting popular, which keeps it available, and Kel and Kelly both sit underneath.
- Origin: Old Norse
- Meaning: By the spring
- Pronunciation: Kel-bee
- Popularity: Kelby ranked #5,313 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 18 births, and #7,682 for girls with 14. It is down about 54 percent on the previous decade, after peaking at #746 in 1991.
Kendra
Kendra’s origin is genuinely unsettled. It is usually explained as a feminine of Kenneth, or as a borrowing from the Old English Cyneric, and the water-baby gloss that follows it around has no documented source behind it. What is certain is the timing: it entered the American record in 1936 and peaked in 1987. Buffy the Vampire Slayer gave it to the second Slayer, and Kendra Wilkinson kept it on television through the 2000s. If you like the sound, take it for the sound.
- Origin: Unknown
- Meaning: Water baby
- Pronunciation: Ken-drah
- Namesakes: Kendra Wilkinson, an American model, and TV personality, best known for the E reality series The Girls Next Door.
- Popularity: Kendra ranked #849 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 320 births, and is down about 56 percent on the previous decade. Its best year was 1987, at #77.
Laguna
A laguna is a lagoon, the shallow water a reef or sandbar holds back from the open sea, and the word is the same in Italian and Spanish. Most Americans will hear Laguna Beach first, the Orange County town and the reality show that ran on it, and that association is either the appeal or the obstacle. It works for a boy or a girl. Lagi and Luna both cut it shorter.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: Pond or lake
- Pronunciation: Lah-gun-ah
- Popularity: Laguna is new to the record. It first appeared in United States birth data in 2024, when 9 girls were given the name, and 7 followed in 2025.
Lana
Lana is Hawaiian for afloat, calm as still water, and it arrives separately as the Russian short form of Svetlana, meaning shining light, and, distinctly, as a short form of Alana. Lana Turner carried the first American wave of it in the 1940s; Lana Del Rey has done much the same since 2011. Four letters and two syllables that work in nearly every language they land in. No other name here has recovered as far from its low point. That is what a genuine revival looks like, as opposed to a spike.
- Origin: Hawaiian
- Meaning: Afloat in calm waters
- Pronunciation: Lah-nah
- Namesakes: Lana Turner, an American actress with a career spanning over 50 years, best known for The Postman Always Rings Twice.
- Popularity: Lana ranked #406 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 768 births. It peaked in 1948 at 863 births per million, fell to 103 per million by 1997, and is back to 478 per million now, about 4.6 times its low point. That is the biggest revival on this list.
Llyr
Llyr is the Welsh sea god, father of Branwen and Bran the Blessed in the Mabinogi, and often linked to Shakespeare’s King Lear by way of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Leir. The Irish cognate is Lir, whose children were turned into swans for a long exile. That double L is a Welsh sound English does not have, closer to a breathy HL than an L, which is why Lir is the practical alternative outside Wales. Four letters, one syllable, and a mythology most people half know already.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: The sea
- Pronunciation: HLEER
- Variations: Lir
- Popularity: Llyr has never been recorded in American births.
Malik
Malik is best known as the Arabic for king, and Al-Malik, the Sovereign, is one of the ninety-nine names of God in Islam, which is why it is common wherever Muslim families are. It entered the American record in 1949 and peaked in the mid-nineties, and it has held roughly steady across the past decade, well below that peak. Malek and Maliq are the standard respellings, and the K ending is the one Americans expect. Zayn Malik has kept the surname form in front of a generation. Malik spells itself for English speakers.
- Origin: Arabic
- Meaning: Wave
- Pronunciation: Ma-leek
- Variations: Malek, Maliq
- Namesakes: Malik Willis, an American football player, drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the 2022 NFL Draft.
- Popularity: Malik ranked #437 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 724 births, and has held roughly steady over the past decade. Its best year was 1996, at #97.
Manami
Manami is Japanese, and as with most Japanese names its meaning depends on the characters chosen: combinations for love, sea and beauty are all standard. That flexibility is the point rather than a complication, since parents pick the writing along with the sound. The wrestler Manami Toyota competed as the Flying Angel through the nineties, and Mana and Mimi both shorten the name for English speakers.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Ocean
- Pronunciation: Man-ah-mee
- Namesakes: Manami Toyota, a Japanese professional wrestler known as the Flying Angel in the All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling promotion.
- Popularity: Manami last appeared in United States birth records in 2018, when 6 girls were given the name. Its best rank was #9,467, in 2003.
Mar
Mar is the Spanish and Portuguese word for sea, a Latin-rooted name used on its own and as the short form of Maria del Mar, one of the Marian titles common in Spain. Three letters, one syllable, and it says exactly what it means with nothing lost in translation. It has grown quickly in the United States from a very small base.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Sea
- Pronunciation: Mahr
- Popularity: Mar reached its best rank in 2025, #1,708 for girls, with 120 births, and is up about 375 percent on the previous decade. It also appeared for boys that year, at #8,669.
Marcelline
Marcelline is a French feminine of Marcellinus, itself a diminutive of Marcellus, and that chain runs back to Mars rather than to the sea. The sea reading comes from the way the mar at the front sounds, which is a folk etymology rather than a documented one, and worth knowing before you commit to it. What is not in doubt is the sound, three syllables that stay soft the whole way through and split into Marcy, Celine or Lina, each with a different feel.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Defender of the sea
- Pronunciation: MAR-SU-LEEN
- Popularity: Marcelline last appeared in United States birth records in 2024, when 8 girls were given the name. Its best rank was #1,022, in 1928.
Maree
Maree is the French maree, tide, and separately a spelling of Marie. Two origins, one sound. The actress Maree Cheatham has carried it on American daytime television for decades. If you want Marie without the standard spelling, this is the version with a meaning attached.
- Origin: French
- Meaning: Ocean tides
- Pronunciation: Mar-ee
- Namesakes: Maree Cheatham, an American actress best known for the show Days of Our Lives.
- Popularity: Maree last appeared in United States birth records in 2020, when 7 girls were given the name. Its best rank was #1,590, in 1918.
Marella
Marella is usually read as the Latin mare, sea, joined to the Stella of stella maris, star of the sea. Marella Agnelli, the Italian aristocrat and photographer, is its best-known bearer. It sits close enough to Marcella and Mariella to need saying twice, far enough from both to stay its own name, and long enough at the front to give Mar, Maree or Ella.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Star of the Sea
- Pronunciation: Mar-ell-ah
- Popularity: Marella ranked #10,601 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 9 births, and is up about 55 percent on the previous decade. Its highest annual total, 17 girls, came in 1973.
Marin
Marin is the masculine of Marina in French, Romanian and Croatian, so it is genuinely pan-European rather than borrowed from one place. In the United States most people think of Marin County, north of the Golden Gate, which pushes it toward girls here even though it reads as a boys’ name across much of Europe. The tennis player Marin Cilic won the US Open in 2014, and Maren, the usual respelling, lands more clearly feminine.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Sea
- Pronunciation: Ma-ren or ma-REEN
- Variations: Maren
- Namesakes: Marin Cilic, a Croatian professional tennis player who won several titles, including a major in the 2014 U.S. Open and runner-up in the 2018 Australian Open.
- Popularity: Marin ranked #2,043 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 93 births, and #4,975 for boys with 20. It is down about 37 percent on the previous decade, after its best rank of #837 in 2004.
Marina
Marina is the feminine of the Latin Marinus, of the sea, and it was borne by several early saints. It is the name by which Saint Margaret of Antioch is known in the Eastern Orthodox Church, which is why it runs from Greece to Russia. Shakespeare gave it to the daughter born at sea in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, an on-the-nose choice that stuck. It is a name that is at home in Romance, Germanic and Slavic languages at once, which makes it unusually easy for a family that crosses languages. Rina and Mari both shorten it.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: From the sea
- Pronunciation: Mar-ee-nah
- Namesakes: Marina Yers, a Ukrainian influencer with over 1.3 million followers on Instagram and almost 2 million subscribers on YouTube.
- Popularity: Marina ranked #602 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 488 births, and has held roughly steady over the past decade. Its best year was 1994, at #218.
Marino
Marino is the Italian and Spanish masculine of Marina, and Saint Marinus is the founder San Marino is named for. That makes it one of very few first names attached to an entire country. In the United States it will call up Dan Marino long before it calls up the saint. The name has never been common here and shows no sign of changing. Whether that is the warning or the appeal depends entirely on you.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Of the sea
- Pronunciation: Mah-ree-no
- Popularity: Marino ranked #5,330 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 18 births, and has been steady for a decade. Its best rank was #1,234, in 1915.
Marissa
Marissa is an elaboration of Maris, from the Latin stella maris, star of the sea, and it reached English through Maria rather than straight from Latin. Melissa, from the Greek for bee, is a near neighbour by sound only, not a shared root. Its arc is the sharpest here: a top-60 name in 1994, well outside the top 1,500 now. Mar, Mari and Issa all shorten it, and its biblical cousins have aged better.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Drop of the sea
- Pronunciation: Mar-ris-ah
- Namesakes: Marissa Ribisi, an American actress best known for the movies Dazed and Confused and Pleasantville.
- Popularity: Marissa is the steepest faller on this list, down about 82 percent over the last ten years of births measured against the ten before them. It ranked #1,679 for girls in the U.S. in 2025 with 123 births, after peaking at #53 in 1994.
Marvin
Marvin comes from the Welsh Merfyn, and Merfyn Frych was a ninth-century king of Gwynedd. The sea-hill reading follows the Welsh elements rather than the English spelling. Marvin Gaye is the name’s centre of gravity in American English, and What’s Going On has kept it there for over fifty years. A peak in the thirties and a long drift since put it about where Arthur and Otis sat before they came back. Marvin the Martian and Marvin the Paranoid Android keep it on most lists of nerdy and geeky baby names as well.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: Sea hill
- Pronunciation: Mar-vin
- Namesakes: Marvin Gaye, an American singer, known for his Motown hits, Let’s Get It On and Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
- Popularity: Marvin ranked #699 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 385 births, and is down about 25 percent on the previous decade. Its best year was 1933, at #44.
Maury
Maury is a French place name and surname, and it doubles as a short form of Maurice and Maurus. The sea-channel reading is what lands it here, and it is the sort of gloss that circulates in name collections without a firm source behind it, so take it lightly. In American English the name belongs to Maury Povich and his daytime show, which is a lot to work around. Sixty years away from the top 1,000 leaves the name genuinely available, if that association does not bother you. That is a long time for a name to sit unclaimed.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Sea channel
- Pronunciation: Maw-ree
- Namesakes: Maury Povich, an American TV personality known for his show Maury.
- Popularity: Maury ranked #8,678 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 9 births. It last ranked anywhere near the top 1,000 in the sixties, best at #819 in 1963.
Maya
Maya means water, though its exact origin is unclear. It is also the name of a Mesoamerican civilisation, which is a separate word again. Maya Angelou gave it dignity in American English and Maya Rudolph gave it warmth. Four letters, spelled the way it sounds, understood almost everywhere, which is most of why it has held so steady near the top.
- Origin: Unknown
- Meaning: Water
- Pronunciation: May-ah
- Namesakes: Maya Angelou, an American poet known for her civil rights activism. Maya Rudolph, an American actress, known for her comedy film Bridesmaids and the TV show, The Good Place.
- Popularity: Maya ranked #62 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 3,712 births, roughly one girl in 433, and it is one of only four names here still inside the top 100. Its best rank was #49 in 2023.
Mayim
Mayim is the Hebrew word for water, plural in form the way the Hebrew word for sky is, and it is also the name of an Israeli folk dance. The actress Mayim Bialik, who ran from Blossom to The Big Bang Theory and then to Jeopardy, is the only bearer most Americans have met. She is also a neuroscientist, which makes the name easy to explain to a child later on. Two syllables, and English speakers land it right away. In practice it is used alongside Miriam, though the two are unrelated in etymology.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Water
- Pronunciation: May-im
- Namesakes: Mayim Bialik, an American actress known for her role in The Big Bang Theory.
- Popularity: Mayim last appeared in United States birth records in 2019, when 6 girls were given the name. Its best rank was #10,214, in 1993.
Meri
Meri is Finnish for sea, and it is separately a Maori and Pacific form of Mary, which is how Meri Te Tai Mangakahia came by it. Two origins, both worth knowing. It is a short, cheerful name that will be heard as Mary or Merry about half the time. That is the trade for four letters that mean the sea outright.
- Origin: Finnish
- Meaning: Sea
- Pronunciation: Merr-ee
- Namesakes: Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia, a Maori feminist icon and campaigner who inspired generations of women in New Zealand.
- Popularity: Meri ranked #10,632 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 9 births, and is up about 27 percent on the previous decade. Its highest annual total, 89 girls, came in 1961.
Mira
Mira means sea in Sanskrit and Hindi, peace in Slavic languages, and wonderful in Latin and Spanish, and it is a star as well: Mira Ceti is one of the earliest variable stars on record. Mirabai, the sixteenth-century Rajput princess who left court to write devotional poetry to Krishna, is still sung across northern India. Two syllables, four letters, and no spelling variant to argue over. Its best year on record is the one just gone. Meera is the Indian spelling if you want the Sanskrit reading to lead.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Ocean
- Pronunciation: Mee-ra
- Namesakes: Mira Sorvino, an American actress known for her award-winning role in the movie Mighty Aphrodite
- Popularity: Mira reached its best rank in 2025, #335 for girls, with 916 births, its highest annual total on record, and it is up about 105 percent on the previous decade.
Moana
Moana is the Polynesian word for the open ocean, shared across Hawaiian, Maori, Samoan and Tahitian, and it belonged to Pacific families long before 2016. The Disney film did what those films do: American use hit its highest ever the following year and has stayed well above where it started. Whether that reads as tribute or as costume depends a great deal on the family. Easy to say and impossible to misspell is a rare pairing on a list this international. The full three syllables are the point, so most families keep them.
- Origin: Polynesian
- Meaning: Sea
- Pronunciation: Mo-ah-na
- Popularity: Moana ranked #4,141 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 35 births, and is up about 362 percent on the previous decade. Its highest annual total, 141 girls, came in 2017.
Morgan
Morgan is the Old Welsh Morcant, usually read as sea-born or sea-circle, and it was a men’s name in Wales for centuries before it crossed over. Morgan le Fay, King Arthur’s half-sister, is a separate figure whose name may come from the Irish Morrigan instead. Morgan Freeman and Morgan Fairchild between them show how completely it has gone unisex in American English. The girls’ side peaked in the late nineties and has come down hard since. That fall is what has pulled the split back to roughly two girls for every boy.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: Seaborn, sea song
- Pronunciation: Mor-gan
- Namesakes: Morgan Freeman, an award-winning American actor with a career spanning over 50 years.
- Popularity: Morgan ranked #312 for girls in the U.S. in 2025 with 977 births, and #559 for boys with 532, close to a two-to-one split. Girls’ use is down about 60 percent on the previous decade, after peaking at #22 in 1997.
Morwenna
Morwenna is Welsh and Cornish, built on mor, sea, and Saint Morwenna gave her name to Morwenstow on the north Cornish coast. Poldark and Doc Martin have both used it, which is why it feels familiar to British viewers and completely new to everyone else. It entered American records only in 2020, so it is new here in the literal sense, and Mo, Mory and Wenna give it three different short forms to pick from.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: Waves of the sea
- Pronunciation: Mor-wen-ah
- Namesakes: Morwenna Banks, a British comedy writer, and actress known as the voices of Mummy Pig and Madam Gazelle in the children’s animated show Peppa Pig.
- Popularity: Morwenna first appeared in United States birth records in 2020 and ranked #12,771 for girls in 2025, with 7 births. Its highest annual total, 16 girls, came in that first year.
Moses
Moses comes from the Hebrew Moshe, and most likely from the Egyptian mes, son, the same element that sits in Thutmose and Ramesses. Exodus explains it instead from the Hebrew masha, to draw out, because the pharaoh’s daughter drew the baby from the Nile, and that reading is probably a later invention rather than the original etymology. Both stories are worth having. The name has been climbing again in the United States after a long flat stretch. Mo and Moss are the everyday short forms. Few names carry two competing origin stories this comfortably.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Delivered from the water
- Pronunciation: MOZ-is
- Namesakes: Moses Ingram, an American actress known for the TV shows, The Queen’s Gambit and Kenobi.
- Popularity: Moses ranked #515 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 583 births, and is up about 16 percent on the previous decade. Its best rank was #265, in 1913.
Murdoch
Murdoch is the anglicised Scottish Gaelic Muireadhach, built on muir, the sea, and read as mariner or sea-lord. It has been a Highland clan name for centuries and is far more common as a surname now. Murdoc Niccals of Gorillaz spells it differently and is most people’s first thought anyway. Murdo is the Scottish short form and stands on its own. In the United States it is available in the fullest sense of that word.
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Mariner
- Pronunciation: Mur-dock
- Variations: Murdock, Murdo, Murdoc
- Popularity: Murdoch ranked #13,291 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 5 births, and is up about 27 percent on the previous decade. Its highest annual total, 10 boys, came in 2019.
Murial
Murial is a variant spelling of Muriel, which comes from the Irish Muirgheal, built on muir, sea, and geal, bright. Miss Muriel Stacy is the teacher who changes everything for Anne in Anne of Green Gables, and Aunt Muriel is Ron Weasley’s sharp-tongued relative. The A spelling is the rarer of the two and has been out of American records since the sixties. When the full name feels heavy, Ellie is the easier landing, with Mur as a plainer option.
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Of the bright sea
- Pronunciation: Muer-ee-el
- Variations: Muriel
- Popularity: Murial last appeared in United States birth records in 1966, when 6 girls were given the name. Its best rank was #2,482, in 1913.
Murray
Murray comes from Moray, the region on the Moray Firth in northeast Scotland, and the name means seaboard settlement. It was a place, then a clan, then a surname, then a first name, in that order. Americans of a certain age will hear Murray Slaughter from The Mary Tyler Moore Show; younger ones think of Andy Murray, who has made the surname form famous all over again. The name has been climbing quietly from a very low base for a decade. Most families use all six letters and always have.
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Settlement by the sea
- Pronunciation: Murr-ee
- Namesakes: Murray Hill, an American comedian, and entertainer (Busby Murray Gallagher), considered the “hardest working, middle-aged man in show business.”
- Popularity: Murray ranked #2,633 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 50 births, and is up about 77 percent on the previous decade. Its best year was 1922, at #206.
Naia
Naia is Basque for wave or sea foam, and it doubles as a Spanish short form of longer names ending the same way. The Greek naiads, the fresh-water nymphs, are a separate root landing on nearly the same sound. Two syllables, four letters, and an English speaker gets it right first time, which is not true of most Basque names. The climb since the mid-2010s has been steady rather than sudden. Basque names rarely arrive in English this intact.
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Seafoam
- Pronunciation: Ni-ya
- Popularity: Naia ranked #1,585 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 133 births, and is up about 74 percent on the previous decade. Its highest annual total, 143 girls, came in 2023.
Nerida
Nerida comes from the Nereids, the fifty sea nymphs of Greek myth, daughters of Nereus and Doris, who rose from the water to escort Poseidon. It is one of a small cluster of Nere- names here, alongside Nerissa, and the softer of the two. The dancer Nerida Cortese has carried it on television. Nothing has been recorded under the name in American births since the mid-nineties, so it is genuinely open. Neri is the nickname worth keeping; Rida works too, though it trims less naturally.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Sea nymph
- Pronunciation: Nerr-ee-dah
- Namesakes: Nerida Cortese, a New Zealand professional dancer and choreographer, best known for the New Zealand version of Dancing With the Stars.
- Popularity: Nerida last appeared in United States birth records in 1995, when 6 girls were given the name. Its best rank was #5,168, in 1961.
Nerissa
Shakespeare created Nerissa for Portia’s quick-witted waiting-woman in The Merchant of Venice in 1596, most likely from the Greek Nereis, sea sprite, which traces back to the sea god Nereus. An invented name with a real etymology behind it is an unusual combination. Marissa gets swapped in for it constantly, though the two share no root beyond the rhyme, and Nessa is the nickname most people reach for, with Rissa as the alternative.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: From the sea
- Pronunciation: Nerr-iss-ah
- Namesakes: Nerissa Bowes-Lyon, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth of Britain.
- Popularity: Nerissa ranked #10,681 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 9 births, and is down about 34 percent on the previous decade. Its best rank was #1,585, in 1979.
Nori
Nori is the Japanese word for the seaweed sheets used to wrap sushi, and it is also a common element in Japanese given names carrying senses like rule or ceremony. Tolkien used it for a dwarf in The Hobbit, which is a separate source again. Kim Kardashian’s use of it as a pet name for her daughter North is what put it in front of American parents. Growth has been fast from a very small base, and the name works for a boy or a girl with no adjustment. Four letters, two syllables, nothing to spell out.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Seaweed
- Pronunciation: Nor-ee
- Namesakes: Nori Horikoshi, a Japanese actress known for the movies First Love and Judgment.
- Popularity: Nori ranked #1,196 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 193 births, and #3,632 for boys with 31. Girls’ use is up about 548 percent on the previous decade.
Ocean
Ocean comes into English from the Greek Okeanos, the Titan of the river the Greeks believed circled the whole earth, by way of Latin. It is one of the plainest choices here, an everyday English word that needs no explanation. The musician Frank Ocean has kept the word in front of a generation as a surname. Use for boys and girls is now within thirty births of even, 375 to 345. Oceane is the French feminine if you want the sound with a softer ending.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Ocean
- Pronunciation: O-shun
- Variations: Oceane
- Namesakes: Ocean Maturo, an American actor best known for the television shows Girl Meets World and American Horror Story.
- Popularity: Ocean ranked #720 for boys in the U.S. in 2025 with 375 births, and #787 for girls with 345, and it is up about 300 percent on the previous decade. Its best rank came in 2024, at #592 for boys.
Okeanos
Okeanos is the Greek original behind the English word ocean, and in myth he is the Titan of the vast river the Greeks believed circled the earth. Every spring, well and rain cloud was thought to draw from him, which makes him a fresh-water god as much as a salt-water one. It is the maximal version of Ocean, four syllables where the English word has two, and there is no easy shorthand for it, so a family taking it on commits to all four syllables for the long haul.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Body of water
- Pronunciation: oh-kee-ah-nos
- Popularity: Okeanos itself has never appeared in United States birth data. Ocean, the English word descended from it, went to 375 boys in 2025.
Onda
Onda is the Italian and Spanish word for wave, and a real if rare given name in both. Expect it to be mistaken for a clipping of Rhonda, though the two share no root. Four letters and two syllables sit somewhere between Nova and Ondine, and sixty years out of American records is about as clear a run as a name can offer.
- Origin: Italian
- Meaning: Wave
- Pronunciation: Un-da
- Popularity: Onda last appeared in United States birth records in 1964, when 5 girls were given the name. Its best rank was #3,399, in 1919.
Ondine
Ondine is the French form of Undine, the water spirit who could gain a soul only by marrying a mortal. Neil Jordan filmed a version in which Colin Farrell’s fisherman pulls Ondine up in his nets. The Latin unda, wave, sits under all of it, and the softer French opening keeps three syllables clear of Undine’s heavier German original.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Little wave
- Pronunciation: Un-deen-ne
- Popularity: Ondine last appeared in United States birth records in 2024, when 6 girls were given the name. Its best rank was #4,890, in 1964.
Pearl
A pearl forms when an oyster coats an irritant in layer after layer of nacre, which is a better story than most gemstones can offer and the reason the name reads as patient rather than showy. It is June’s birthstone, so it suits a summer baby twice over. Pearl held the American top 100 before the First World War, disappeared for most of a century, and is climbing again now in the same revival that has carried Hazel and Opal. Perle and Perla are the French and Spanish forms.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Sea birthstone
- Pronunciation: Purl
- Variations: Perle, Perla
- Namesakes: Pearl Aday, an American singer, and stepdaughter of rock legend Meatloaf.
- Popularity: Pearl ranked #777 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 350 births, and is up about 30 percent on the previous decade. It was a top-100 name once, best at #55 in 1913.
River
River is one of the nature words that came into use with the counterculture of the 1960s and went mainstream forty years later. River Phoenix carried it through the eighties, and River Tam of Firefly carried it into science fiction. It is now used for boys and girls in real numbers rather than in theory. Riv is the only short form anyone reaches for, and most families do not bother.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Flowing water to the ocean
- Pronunciation: RIV-ur
- Namesakes: River Phoenix, an American actor known for the movies Stand By Me, My Own Private Idaho, and Running on Empty.
- Popularity: River ranked #111 for boys in the U.S. in 2025 with 3,139 births, and #220 for girls with 1,401. Use for boys is up about 290 percent on the previous decade.
Sedna
Sedna is the Inuit sea goddess who rules the ocean floor and the animals in it, and in the best-known telling her fingers become the seals, walruses and whales after her father cuts them away. That is a harder myth than most goddess names carry, and worth reading before you choose it. A distant object in the far outer solar system, likely a dwarf planet, was named for her, which gives the name a second life for anyone who follows astronomy. Two syllables, five letters, and nothing to explain twice.
- Origin: Native American
- Meaning: Goddess of the sea
- Pronunciation: Sed-nah
- Popularity: Sedna reached its best rank in 2025, #14,655 for girls, with 6 births. It first appeared in United States birth records in 2017.
Sereia
Sereia is the Portuguese word for mermaid, from the same Greek seiren that gives English siren. Brazil and Portugal both use it far more as a word than as a name, so it reads as invented to Portuguese speakers and simply pretty to everyone else. It has only been in American birth records since 2017, and 2025 was its biggest year yet, a track record still too short to call a trend.
- Origin: Portuguese
- Meaning: Mermaid
- Pronunciation: seh-ray-ah
- Popularity: Sereia reached its best rank in 2025, #6,083 for girls, with 20 births, its highest annual total since it first appeared in 2017.
Serena
Serena is the Latin serenus, clear and calm, a word Romans used for weather and for water alike. It is the sea at its most settled rather than the sea itself, which is why it reads as a quiet pick on a list full of storms. Serena Williams has done more for the name than any saint, and Gossip Girl’s Serena van der Woodsen accounts for most of the rest. The three syllables land soft the whole way through, which is the reason to choose it.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Clear and tranquil
- Pronunciation: Sa-reen-ah
- Namesakes: Serena Williams, an American tennis player.
- Popularity: Serena ranked #325 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 942 births, and is up about 16 percent on the previous decade. Its best year was 2000, at #209.
Stellamaris
Stellamaris runs the Latin stella maris, star of the sea, into a single word. The phrase is an ancient Marian title, the star of the sea being the pole star a ship steers by. Written as one word it is unusual even among Catholic families, who more often use Stella or Maris on their own. Both of those are ready-made short forms.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Star of the sea
- Pronunciation: Stel-ah-mah-ree
- Popularity: Stellamaris reached its best rank in 2025, #11,810 for girls, with 8 births. It first appeared in United States birth records in 2017.
Tarni
Tarni is often traced to the Kaurna language of the Adelaide plains, where it is said to refer to the sea and the surf that breaks on it. Tawny and Tahnee look like close cousins on the page, though neither shares its root. Short, easy to say once heard, and unclaimed by anyone you know. For Australian families it points at a specific coastline; for everyone else it is simply a name almost nobody has.
- Origin: Australian Aboriginal
- Meaning: Surf
- Pronunciation: Tar-nee
- Popularity: Tarni has no United States birth record, so no American ranking exists for it.
Thalassa
Thalassa is the Greek word for the sea and the primordial goddess who personified it, older in the mythology than Poseidon and older than Okeanos too. Neptune has a moon named Thalassa, which pairs the name neatly with the god it orbits. Three syllables that stay soft throughout, and it has the same shape as Cassandra and Melissa without either name’s queue. Most people will use the whole thing, and it carries.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Ocean
- Pronunciation: Thal-ass-ah
- Popularity: Thalassa appears once in United States birth records, in 1977, when 6 girls were given the name.
Trent
Trent began as an English surname for someone who lived by the River Trent, one of the longest rivers in Britain, whose older Celtic name is usually read as strongly flooding. It is also the short form of Trenton, the New Jersey city named for its founder rather than for the river. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is the name’s loudest bearer by some distance. One syllable, no spelling variants, and a clean peak in 2001 that it has been sliding away from ever since.
- Origin: English
- Meaning: From the River Trent
- Pronunciation: TRENT
- Namesakes: Trent Reznor, an American musician, composer, and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist in the industrial band Nine Inch Nails.
- Popularity: Trent ranked #1,344 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 142 births, and is down about 69 percent on the previous decade. Its best year was 2001, at #208.
Ula
Ula is a Celtic name read as sea jewel, and the same three letters serve as a Scandinavian and Polish short form of Ursula and Eulalia. It is the rarest name here that the federal data records at all, which is a strange kind of distinction to hold. Three letters is about as short as a name gets without turning into an initial. It travels well too, since there is barely a language in which Ula is hard to say. Ursula and Eulalia are both there if you want a longer version on the certificate.
- Origin: Celtic
- Meaning: Gem of the seas
- Pronunciation: Oo-lah
- Popularity: Ula is the rarest name on this list that the U.S. data still records, ranked #17,088 for girls in 2025 at about one birth in 333,333. It was a top-1,000 name once, at #982 in 1919.
Umiko
Umiko is Japanese, built on umi, sea, with the -ko ending meaning child that ran through most Japanese girls’ names of the twentieth century. That ending marks Umiko as a classic Japanese name rather than a modern coinage. English speakers often meet names like it through anime and manga, and Umi works as a short form that means the sea on its own.
- Origin: Japanese
- Meaning: Child of the seas
- Pronunciation: Oo-mee-koh
- Popularity: Umiko does not appear in United States birth data.
Vanora
Vanora is the Scottish form of Guinevere, from the Welsh Gwenhwyfar, white wave, which puts it in the same family as Jennifer and Ginevra while looking nothing like either. Vanora’s Grave at Meigle in Perthshire is a grassy mound with Pictish stones beside it, and local legend attaches the Guinevere story to the spot. German uses Vanora separately as a form of Wanda, and the Meigle grave gives it a specific place to point to.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: White wave
- Pronunciation: Van-or-ah
- Namesakes: Vanora Bennett, a British journalist, and author, best known for her book Portrait of an Unknown Woman.
- Popularity: Vanora last appeared in United States birth records in 2018, when 6 girls were given the name. It first appeared in 2011.
Varuna
Varuna is one of the oldest gods in the Rigveda, keeper of cosmic order and lord of the waters, later narrowed in Hindu tradition to the sea and the rain. The name ends in A but is masculine in Sanskrit, which trips up English speakers every time; Varun is the modern Indian form that sidesteps the problem. Both are in ordinary use in India today. For a family who want a water name with real depth of history behind it, this is among the oldest available anywhere.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: God of water and oceans
- Pronunciation: Vah-roon-ah
- Variations: Varun
- Namesakes: Varuna Darensbourg, an American visual effects artist who worked on a long list of movies, including Spiderman, No Way Home, Avengers: End Game, and Alita: Battle Angel.
- Popularity: No United States birth record lists Varuna.
Wade
Wade is an English surname from the Old English wadan, to go or to ford, given to people who lived by a river crossing. It doubles as the name of Wada, a Germanic sea-giant who ferried travellers across the water and whose story the coastal north of England kept alive for centuries. One syllable, four letters, no nickname required. Quietly, it has more than doubled over the past decade while nobody was watching. Few names this plain move that fast.
- Origin: British
- Meaning: At the river crossing
- Pronunciation: Wade
- Namesakes: Wade Williams, an American actor, best known for his role in Prison Break and as the voice of Two Face in the Batman animated movies.
- Popularity: Wade ranked #344 for boys in the U.S. in 2025, with 948 births, and is up about 124 percent on the previous decade. Its best year was 1966, at #183.
Yara
Yara is a Brazilian Portuguese form of Iara, the Tupi water spirit who lures men into the rivers of the Amazon, a story that reached Brazil from Indigenous myth rather than from Europe. Arabic and Persian have a separate Yara meaning small butterfly or friend, so the same four letters arrive twice over. Yara Shahidi carried it through Black-ish and Grown-ish, and Yara Greyjoy carried it through Game of Thrones as a captain in her own right. Its best year in the American data is the one just gone. Four letters, two syllables, and three separate cultures standing behind it.
- Origin: Brazilian
- Meaning: Water lady
- Pronunciation: Yah-ra
- Namesakes: Yara Shahidi, an American actress known for the TV show Black-ish.
- Popularity: Yara reached its best rank in 2025, #507 for girls, with 585 births, its highest annual total on record, and it is up about 147 percent on the previous decade.
Zale
Zale is Greek for sea strength, the force of the water rather than its surface, and it has the short, blunt sound to match. American records list it only for boys, so treat it as a boys’ name a girl could carry rather than the other way round. It is a rare case of a Greek name that needs no trimming at all for English use, and Zay works as a nickname although Zale already reads like one.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Power of the seas
- Pronunciation: Zayl
- Popularity: Every U.S. birth record for Zale sits on the boys’ side of the federal data. It last appeared in 2024, when 11 boys were given the name, and its highest annual total, 17 boys, came in 2019.
Zarya
Zarya is the dawn in Slavic myth, a goddess who opens the gates for the sun each morning and who in some tellings stands guard over warriors. The water-priestess reading travels alongside that and is what lands the name on this list. Overwatch gave the name to a Russian soldier, which accounts for a fair share of its recent growth. Persian has a separate Zarya tied to gold. Zara is the near neighbour most people will hear first.
- Origin: Slavic
- Meaning: Water priestess
- Pronunciation: Zar-yah
- Namesakes: Zarya Manzo, a Mexican actress known for the movie Two Drops of Water.
- Popularity: Zarya ranked #5,550 for girls in the U.S. in 2025, with 23 births, and is up about 39 percent on the previous decade. Its highest annual total, 43 girls, came in 2022.
