Nature names have the longest shelf life of anything in the catalogue. They don't date, they don't comment on size, and they carry no cultural baggage to check. A puppy called Juniper is still called Juniper at twelve, and it still fits.
They also cover an unusually wide tonal range for one theme — from soft botanicals that suit a nervous rabbit to weather and stone names with real hardness to them. Worth browsing by personality rather than by species here.
What's in this theme
- The safest theme for a rescue whose eventual character you don't yet know.
- Soft plant names suit prey species; weather and stone names suit working dogs.
- Excellent for pairs, because a single landscape supplies several names that sound nothing alike.
54 names, with what they mean
A cross-section of the 288 names tagged Nature & Plants. Every one of them, and 234 more, is filterable in the name quiz, where you can stack this theme with your animal, a personality and a syllable count.
AlbaDawnLatin/Spanish: "dawn, white"
AvivaSpringHebrew: "springtime, dewy"
ChunhuaSpringChinese: "spring flower"
GustusAugustLatin: "taste, enjoyment"
HarukoSpringJapanese: "spring child"
HoneymoonJuneEnglish: "sweet first moon"; June tradition
MarchMarchLatin Martius, "of Mars"
MarchionMarchOld French: "of March"
MayflowerMayEnglish: "the spring bloom"
MiddayAfternoonOld English middæg, "middle of the day"
Moonbeam1960s HippieEnglish: "ray of moonlight"
MuguetMayFrench: "lily of the valley"; May birth flower
NachtigallNightGerman: "nightingale, night singer"
NepheleGreekGreek: "cloud"; a nymph in Greek myth
NicholasDecemberGreek: "victory of the people"; December saint
NightfallDuskEnglish: "the coming of night"
NoireNightFrench: "black, of the night"
NoonAfternoonLatin nona hora, "ninth hour"
NotturnoNightItalian: "nocturnal, of the night"
NoviNovemberLatin: "new"; short for November
NowruzSpringPersian: "new day"; spring new year
OccidensDuskLatin: "the setting west"
PalmSummerLatin palma, "palm tree"
ParkaWinterNenets: "furry outer coat"
PopsicleSummerEnglish: "the frozen ice treat"
ReapAutumnOld English ripan, "to cut ripe grain"
RiverEnglishEnglish: "a flowing stream"
RoshanDawnPersian: "bright, luminous"
RoshniDawnHindi: "light, glow"
SailorSummerOld English seolh, "seafarer"
ScarecrowAutumnEnglish: "one that scares crows from the harvest"
SeptSeptemberLatin: short for September, "seventh month"
SizzleSummerEnglish: "the sound of summer heat"
SleetWinterOld English slete, "icy rain"
SnowbellWinterEnglish: "the winter-blooming flower"
SprigSpringOld English: "a small twig or shoot"
StarlitNightEnglish: "lit by starlight"
SunAfternoonOld English sunne, "the daytime star"
SundownerDuskEnglish: "the last drink at sunset"
SundropSummerEnglish: "a droplet of sunshine"
SunlitAfternoonEnglish: "lit by the sun"
TardeDuskSpanish: "late afternoon, evening"
TaurusAprilLatin: "bull"; April zodiac
TenebrisNightLatin: "in the darkness"
TropicanaSummerLatin tropicus, "of the tropics"
VerdantSpringOld French verdoyant, "green, fresh"
VernalSpringLatin vernalis, "of the spring"
VesperineDuskLatin vespera, "of the evening"
VintageAutumnOld French vendage, "wine harvest"
WakeDawnOld English wacan, "to become alert"
WinterberryWinterEnglish: "the red winter fruit"
YugureDuskJapanese: "the time of dusk"
YuleDecemberOld English geol, "midwinter festival"
ZephyraSummerGreek: "west wind of summer"
Where to go next
Other themes with their own page: