Not long ago, a couple I know — both serious swimmers — asked me if I could help them come up with a girl's name that related to water. They didn't want any site-specific water names — no actual names of oceans or rivers or seas, no Hudsons or Niles for them but something with the feel or sense or literal meaning of water.
I put together a relatively short list for them of water-related words and names whose meanings reference water. Here's a considerably expanded version of those water names, with some, of course, more usable than others. (By the way, my friends chose to name their daughter Tallulah, in large part because they loved its meaning — "leaping water")
So if you're a swimmer, a surfer, a snorkeler, a fisherperson, or just someone who likes to walk in the rain, here are some possible approaches.
1. Find a word related to water:
— Aqua
— Aquarius
— Arroyo
— Bay
— Bayou
— Briny
— Brook
— Cascade
— Delta
— Eddy
— Fen
— Fjord
— Glade
— Gully
— Harbor
— Laguna
— Lake
— Marine
— Marina
— Marsh
— Misty
— Moor
— Ocean, Oceane
— Oceanus
— Rain/Raine
— Raina
— Rainey
— Rainie
— Rana
— Rio
— River
2. Find a name with a water-related meaning:
GIRLS
— Darya means 'seas' in Iranian
— Hama Japanese for 'shore'
— Jurmala Latvian, means 'sea shore'
— Kendall 'valley of the River Kent' (unisex)
— Kai — 'sea' in Hawaiian (unisex)
— Kyle from a Scottish surname meaning 'channel, strait'
— Marin, Marina — meaning 'of the sea'
— Maris 'of the sea'
— Maya, Mayim — one definition is 'water' in Hebrew
— Meredith one meaning is 'sea lord' from the Welsh
— Mira 'ocean' in Sanskrit
— Morwenna — ancient Cornish name meaning 'waves of the sea'
— Nerida Greek name that means 'mermaid'.
— Nerissa, Shakespearean name with Greek pedigree — 'sea nymph'
— Tallulah Choktaw Indian, 'leaping water'
— Tulia in Latin, one meaning is 'heavy rain'
BOYS
— Adrian — relates to the Adriatic Sea
— Aberdeen — 'mouth of the river'
— Bourne — 'lives by a stream'
— Clifford — 'river crossing near the cliff'
— Coburn — 'where streams meet'
— Deniz Turkish boys' name that means 'sea'.
— Conway Welsh, 'from the holy river'
— Douglas Scots Gaelic for 'dark water'
— Dylan — Welsh god's name that means "son of the sea"
— Ford — 'river crossing'
— Lincoln 'settlement by the lake'
— Kendall 'valley of the River Kent' (unisex)
— Marlowe — 'from the hill by the lake' (unisex)
— Marius — Latin, meaning 'of the sea'
— Morrissey Irish name that means 'of the sea' or 'sea action
— Muir — Celtic for 'sea, moor'
— Murphy — Irish surname that means "descendent of sea warrior"
— Murray — "settlement by the sea"
— Noelani Hawaiian 'mist of Heaven'
— Seaton, English surname meaning 'farm or town by the sea'
3. Explore gods and goddesses whose realms included rain and the sea:
— Hiro — Easter Island
— Indra Hindu (male)
— Jupiter Roman
— Neha Hindu
— Neith Egyptian
— Oceanus — Greek
— Poseidon — Greek
— Rana Norse
— Tamesis Celtic (also the ancient name for the River Thames)
— Thalassa — Greek
— Thor Norse
— Varina Vedic
— Zeus Greek
Nameberry is a baby-naming site produced by Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz, co-authors of 10 bestselling baby name guides, including the newest, "Beyond Ave and Aiden: The Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby." Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.