Signified's Personal Name List

From an English surname that was derived from York, the name of a city in northern England. The city name was originally Eburacon, Latinized as Eboracum, meaning "yew" in Brythonic. In the Anglo-Saxon period it was corrupted to Eoforwic, as if from Old English eofor "boar" and wic "village". This was rendered as Jórvík by the Vikings and eventually reduced to York.

Transferred use of surname Wyoming

From a surname that was originally derived from the name of an English town, itself meaning "settlement belonging to Wassa's people". The given name is usually given in honour of George Washington (1732-1799), commander of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and the first president of the United States.

From the English word for the large grassy plain, ultimately deriving from the Taino (Native American) word zabana. It came into use as a given name in America in the 19th century. It was revived in the 1980s by the movie Savannah Smiles (1982).

Means "river" in Spanish or Portuguese. A city in Brazil bears this name. Its full name is Rio de Janeiro, which means "river of January", so named because the first explorers came to the harbour in January and mistakenly thought it was a river mouth.

Greek form of Rhoda.

Meaning unknown, possibly of Luwian or Hittite origin. In Greek mythology he was the Trojan prince who kidnapped Helen and began the Trojan War. Though presented as a somewhat of a coward in the Iliad, he did manage to slay the great hero Achilles. He was himself eventually slain in battle by Philoctetes.

From the name of the capital city of France, which got its name from the Gaulish tribe known as the Parisii. In America the popularity of this name spiked up and then down between 2003 and 2006, around the time that the television personality and socialite Paris Hilton (1981-) was at the height of her fame.

From the name of the American state, which means "snow-capped" in Spanish.

Nebraska is derived from transliteration of the archaic Otoe words Ñí Brásge (contemporary Otoe Ñí Bráhge), or the Omaha Ní Btháska meaning "flat water", after the Platte River that flows through the state.

From the name of the American state, which is derived from Latin montanus "mountainous".

French word derived from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning "great river."

From the US state name.

From the name of the island Jersey (located in the English Channel between the UK and France) whose name was derived from the Old Norse name element -ey "island" combined with either Old Norse Geirr ("Geirr's island"), jarl ("the earl's island") or hjǫrr ("sword island").

By way of French Aiouez, from the Dakota word ayúxba/ayuxwe and named after the Iowa tribe. The name seems to have no further known etymology though some give it the meaning "sleepy ones".

Variant of Indiana.

From the name of the country, which is itself derived from the name of the Indus River. The river's name is ultimately from Sanskrit सिन्धु (Sindhu) meaning "body of trembling water, river". India Wilkes is a character in the novel Gone with the Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell.

From the name of a state in the United States of America. The name of the state was made in the early 1860s, when the United States Congress was considering organizing a new territory in the Rocky Mountains, eccentric lobbyist George M. Willing suggested the name "Idaho", which he claimed was derived from a Shoshone language term meaning "the sun comes from the mountains" or "gem of the mountains".

Latinate feminine form of George. This is the name of an American state, which was named after the British king George II. The country of Georgia has an unrelated etymology. A famous bearer was the American painter Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986).

Transferred use of the surname English.

The name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means "land of the Angles".

From the name of the Native American people of the northern Mississippi Valley, or from the two American states that were named for them: North and South Dakota (until 1889 unified as the Dakota Territory). The tribal name means "allies, friends" in the Dakota language.

It was rare as an American given name before 1975. In the mid-1980s it began growing in popularity for boys after a character by this name began appearing on the soap opera Ryan's Hope. It is now more common as a feminine name, probably due to the fame of the actress Dakota Fanning (1994-).

Late Latin name meaning "dove". The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit in Christianity. This was the name of several early saints both masculine and feminine, most notably the 6th-century Irish monk Saint Columba (or Colum) who established a monastery on the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland. He is credited with the conversion of Scotland to Christianity.

From the name of the American state, whose name probably derives from the fictional Island of California ruled by Queen Calafia in the 16th century novel Las sergas de Esplandián by García Ordóñez de Montalvo.

From the name of the city in Germany, which is of uncertain meaning.

From the place name Arkansas.