On August 21, the United States will see its first coast-to-coast solar eclipse since 1918. If you’re planning to have — or conceive! — a baby around the time of the eclipse, you might be interested in a name that marks the event (but that isn’t as audacious as Eclipse itself). So what are your options?
Names with “celestial” associations
A solar eclipse involves the alignment of three celestial bodies — the sun (a star), the moon, and the Earth — in the sky. You could use a name that is associated in some way with one of these elements, such as…
| “Sun” names | Helios, Elio, Sunny, Sol, Solange, Soleil, Solaris, Ravi, Samson, Surya, Sunniva, Haruko, Hinata |
| “Star” names | Star, Stella, Estelle, Starla, Astra, Seren, Tara, Citlali, Hoshi |
| “Moon” names | Luna, Moon, Selene, Selena, Chandra, Mahina, Qamar, Dawa |
| “Earth” names | Eartha, Gaia, Tierra, Tlaloc, Avani |
| “Sky” names | Sky, Skyla, Skylar, Lani, Miku, Akash, Alya, Celeste, Celestine, Ciel, Sora |
Names with “dark” associations
The main event, from an Earthling’s perspective, is the darkening of the sun thanks to the moon getting in the way and casting its shadow over us. You could use a name associated in some way with darkness, such as…
| “Shadow” names | Shade, Umbra, Shadow, Zillah |
| “Dark” or “Black” names | Melanie, Duff, Dubhan, Ciar, Ciara, Ciaran, Sullivan*, Krishna, Charna, Jett, Raven |
| “Night” names | Nisha, Layla, Nyx, Lilith, Miyako, Rajnish |
*Sullivan essentially means “descendant of the little dark eye” in Irish — weirdly appropriate for a solar eclipse baby name, don’t you think?
Name combos with both “celestial” and “dark” associations
You could combine some of the “celestial” and “dark” names above to get something more specific, like…
- Layla Soleil: “night” and “sun”
- Jett Samson: “black” and “sun”
- Ciaran Sol: “black” and “sun”
- Melanie Stella: “dark” and “star” (“Dark Star” is also a Grateful Dead song)
- Luna Zillah: “moon” and “shadow” (“Moon Shadow” is also a Cat Stevens song)
Names (or name combos) featuring the letters “S” and “E”
This is as inconspicuous as it gets. Commemorate the solar eclipse simply by using the letters “S” and “E” in combination. You could choose a single name that starts with “Se-,” like…
|
Seeta Sela Selene (“moon” in Greek) Selma Seraphina Seren (“star” in Welsh) Serenity |
Sean Sebastian Sefton Sergio Seth Severino Seymour |
Or, you could use a pair of names that start with “S-” and “E-,” such as…
|
Sally Esther Scarlett Eve Sophia Eloise Susanna Elizabeth |
Samuel Elijah Shane Everett Stanley Edward Sylvester Ellis |
Which of the above names (or combos) do you like most? What other solar eclipse-themed ideas would you add to this list?
Sources: When & Where to See the Solar Eclipse of August 21, 2017, Two Minutes Of Darkness With 20,000 Strangers
Update, 5/15/2018: The baby name Eclipse debuted in the 2017 SSA data!