There are thousands upon thousands of baby names currently in use. Any combination of letters can you think of is probably already a name or will become a name at some point. Still, it’s not all random. Word-names are very common, and one can often find themes in the kinds of words that show up as names in a given year.
Today I’ve written about names of adventure, in response to an inspiring one-word prompt by the Daily Post. My last-such prompt post was about poetic names, which you can read here. All the names listed below were given to American babies last year, and can be found within the extended SSA data. Adventure itself, alas, did not appear as a name; nor has it ever appeared in the data.
Journey – 1145 girls, 66 boys. This is a name with a *lot* of other spellings, including Jurnee (228 girls), Journi (160 girls), Journie (127 girls), and Journeigh (6 girls). I imagine at least some of them are named after the band.
Odyssey – 31 girls. Interestingly, 23 boys were named Odysseus in 2015.
Walker – 1148 boys.
Rider – 66 boys. Name-wise, this tends to be a variant of Ryder, which was given to 4,130 boys and 133 girls in 2015.
Sailor – 234 girls, 42 boys. Saylor is even more popular right now, with 478 girls and 37 boys.
Travell – 13 boys. A bit of a stretch, but Travel doesn’t appear in the 2015 data. Travelle was given to 7 boys, though.
Trip – 15 boys. Probably a variant of Tripp, which registered 364 times last year.
Sojourner – 5 girls. Almost certainly in honor of Sojourner Truth.
Quest – 27 boys.
Trek – 9 boys. I have to wonder if the parents are outdoorsy or trekkies, or some combination of the two.
Safari – 22 girls.
Sally – 221 girls. I was surprised to learn that this is a word of adventure, but the definition I found was “venture off path.” A clever way of concealing that you’re actually naming your child “Off-roading?” (And only now do I realize how ironic/fitting the astronaut Sally Ride’s name was). No longer is this just a nickname for Sarah.
What do you think of these adventurous names? Are there any others you can think of?
The Well-Informed Namer 
Love the name “Trek” for a boy. Never heard it before.
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Neither had I! It’s certainly unique.
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Since I consider myself an adventurer and one who dislikes my name, I found this post very interesting. Wonder if it is too late to make a change . . . . 🙂
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As long as you’re an adult, nothing legally stops you from changing your name!
Is there a particular reason why you don’t like Irene?
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My favorite name would be Peregrine, which means traveler or wanderer in Latin. It’s also the name of a bird. I’m surprised it wasn’t anywhere in the SSA data, it really is such a great name! So is Peregrina.
Other travel-themed names I can think of are Walker, Rover and Meander. There’s also Faramund/Pharamond which means “journey, protection”. Sojourn could also be used for boys.
My favorite names on the list are probably Quest (it reminds me of Jonny Quest), Sojourner, and Odyssey.
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Ugh, I forgot about Peregrine, and that’s one of my favorites! There were 15 female Peregrines and 8 male Peregrines last year.
I’m sure there are other such names in the data. My posts tend to include just the ones I can both think of and find. I did look for Meander (especially since Greek Mythology names are trendy) but that didn’t appear in the data.
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I forgot to add Viator and Viatrix. Viator is from Late Latin meaning voyager, traveler, while Viatrix is the feminine form of the name. I really like those names as well.
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What a fun post. I really enjoyed it.
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