Fruit Names for Babies

They say “you are what you eat.” When your name is a food, that’s even more true!

Lately, I’ve been pondering baby names related to food. Food names aren’t usually popular for babies, but sometimes they break through. Remember when Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their daughter Apple? That was all over the news, even if the name itself never became popular. Meanwhile, certain types of culinary herbs are popular baby names, and so is Olive! What *is* a big trend currently is nature names, and depending on the type of food I think some food names can double up as nature names.

Here’s a list of baby names inspired by fruit to kick off an exploration into food names! Note that for this post, I treat some produce that technically count as fruit (i.e., pumpkins) like they’re vegetables and plan to include them in a separate list.

• Apple – A certain former celebrity couple weren’t the first to name their child Apple, but they are almost certainly responsible for the spike in usage we saw after 2004 (and maybe for a few baby girls named Apples too). If you’re looking for a formal name that shortens to Apple, Apollonia is a beautiful option. According to the Social Security Administration, 13 baby girls were named Apple in 2021.
• Apricot – This name might be a little harder to swallow on its own, but it’s a cute nickname idea for an April or Apricity.
• Banana is the nom de plume of Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto.
• Berry – 8 boys were named Berry in 2021. The question is, were they named after the fruit, the surname, or maybe even Chuck Berry?
• Cherry has a longer usage history than many other fruit names, probably due to its similarity to names like Sherry, Cheryl, and Charity. Only 23 girls were named Cherry in 2021, but it was mildly popular in the mid-20th century.
• Clementine is one of the most popular fruit names that people commonly associate with the fruit. I wager it’s also popular because it’s vintage, ends in a bright bell-sound, and vaguely Southern. Trendy Clementine currently ranks #549 in the U.S.
• Huckleberry – Berry names rarely work well as people’s names, but some literary parents have named their children after Huckleberry Finn. 25 boys were named Huckleberry in 2021.
• Jack – Jackfruit is a popular plant-based alternative to pork for BBQ, since it can be served pulled. Timeless, Jack currently ranks #11 in the U.S.
• Juneberry is a great option for parents who want something longer than June and rarer than Juniper!
• Juniper – I reckon many baby Junipers are named after the tree and not the berry, but you can find juniper berries as a main component of gin or (sometimes) paired with venison. Juniper ranks #138 for girls nationally.
• Lemon is still quite rare as a baby name, but it’s a lot more popular than it was a few years ago. I wonder if that’s at all thanks to the character on the TV show Hart of Dixie, but the name only began reappearing towards the series end in the mid 2010s. The most recent pop culture influence I can think of is the character on Bullet Train, which only came out in 2022 and wouldn’t have affected the 2021 stats. These days, Lemon only appears as a girls’ name (though it didn’t always), though that may change after Bullet Train. 50 girls were named Lemon in 2021.
• Loganberry – like Juneberry, Loganberry is an intriguing way to elaborate Logan.
• Mulberry – A berry name that sounds like a people name, probably because it’s an actual surname! Unfortunately, it seems the primary association as a human name is a rather nasty Charles Dickens character from Nicholas Nickleby, a Sir Mulberry Hawk.
• Olive – Olives are more savory than the other fruits here, but it is the fruit of a tree. Olive currently ranks #182 for girls in the U.S., also benefiting from vintage and nature associations.
• Papaya boasts such a bright, beautiful sound and rhymes with Maya. I would love to encounter a baby named Papaya.
• Passion – I’d wager most people named Passion aren’t named after the fruit, but the Hawaiian word name Lilikoi does mean passion fruit (apparently that’s where it was first planted in Hawaii, hence the name). 44 girls were named Passion in 2021, while 9 were named Lilikoi.
• Peach is an option for fans of Princess Peach, though I wonder if the emoji makes this name a bad idea for a baby in 2023. Alternatively, Peaches hit the naming scene because of Peaches Geldof. 17 American baby girls were named Peach in 2021, and 8 were named Peaches.
• Pear – I have a hard time seeing Pear as a name on its own, but the pear equivalent of hard cider is called Perry, which works great! There’s also Pearson for fans of last names as baby names. 
• Persimmon sounds more like a name than a lot of other fruits, and indeed, the following names come to mind: Perseus, Percy, Simon, Simmons, Perry, Perpetua, and Primrose. I’d love to see Persimmon take off.
• Plum is just plain adorable, especially in the middle name spot…and hey, Moon Unit Zappa named her daughter Mathilda Plum! Damson is a handsome alternative for baby boys. I’m shocked that Plum is too rare to appear in the U.S. baby name data (it did once, when 5 girls were named Plum in 2011). 
• Rowan is a type of berry commonly used in jams and jellies. Like Juniper, I think more parents associate Rowan with the tree or the wood. Rowan ranks #106 for boys and #241 for girls, making it an excellent gender-neutral choice.
• Quince sounds a lot like Quintin or Quinta. Perhaps this is a gender-neutral option for parents who want something rarer than Quinn?
• Star, as in starfruit. 126 girls and 5 boys were named Star in 2021. 104 girls were named Starr, and you can find a slew of related names like Starla and Starlyn in the 2021 data.
• Strawberry is beyond adorable, evoking the character Strawberry Shortcake. I did discover that there’s a writer named Strawberry.
• Tangerine is the code-name of a major character in Bullet Train; his brother’s code name is Lemon.

Another fantastic fruit-related name to consider for baby girls is Pomeline, a variant of Pomelline or Pomellina that’s associated with the royal family of Monaco. Then you have the name Pomona, which belonged to the Roman goddess of fruit trees – another great option for parents who love names from mythology.

Do you have a favorite fruit name for babies? Are there any you would add to my list? Let me know in the comments!