There is absolutely no critical thinking or social analysis here in this post. It is just hippie baby names I love. That’s it. Sometimes I am just a completely one dimensional person and that is okay. ALRIGHT?
(I suspect for Debate-weary folk this may be a bit of a relief… but just for the record: my dear American readers VOTE HILARY.)
How I came up with my hippie baby names
Well, I definitely didn’t say “hmmm, I’m a bit of a hippie so what shall by hippie babies be called?” Honestly, I didn’t. HONESTLY. I just found myself drawn to certain names.
In fact, my children’s names, Ramona and Juno, are quite classic, they are just not mainstream these days. Ramona was popular at the end of the 1800’s and the beginning of the 1900s and when older people hear her name they often break into song, one popular back in the day. The name Ramona sprung out at me from an artist’s exhibition poster when I was outside Kings Cross Station one day when I was 5 months pregnant and I just knew that was my baby’s name. I looked it up and found it meant “nurturing hands” which struck me as being perfect.
Juno is an ancient name, the name of a Roman Goddess who was the protector of women and community and I loved the sentiment and the sound of it. There was also a not-so famous suffragette called Juno in the US. Everyone asks if our Juno was named for the movie Juno, she isn’t, although it is an awesome redemptive story of love, freedom, respect, friendship, so she may well have been in a deeply subconcious way.
I was looking for names that were:
- Strong and fairly non-prescriptive in terms of gender
- Not very common
- Held meaning for me
Whilst Ramona’s name came like divine inspiration, Juno’s name was an intense quest! But in that quest I came up with what I think are flipping AWESOME names!
To save me from emailing this list of names to any more of my pregnant friends (sorry friends) I thought I would put them out there.
What makes a name get on my list of hippie baby names?
No real reason apart from that I like it and I am a hippy, I guess. They are underused. Creative. Not on the list of 1000 top baby names etc. Often based on nature or social change rebels.
To me, the word “hippy” means: loving the earth and loving humankind even if acting on that love questions the status quo. To some people the word “hippy” means “tree hugger” and do you know what? I love that term too! The term tree hugger originates from the 1700’s when a community of peasant women in Northeast India refused to let the king cut down an ancient forest to build a palace. They embraced the trees with their bodies and stood strong while the foresters cut down the trees. Many of them died in this peaceful protest but it began a movement that culminated in forestry reform.
Am I a proud hippy and tree hugger? Heck, yep!
Here’s a video of the names in the back of my notebook when I was pregnant with Juno. I also discuss people trolling me online for calling my children Ramona and Juno AND a little interview with my kids about what they would call their babies… Thanks for that, Ramona, you comic:
A lot of them could be either boys or girls names I think but for ease I will start with those that are more commonly used for boys and then girls:
Hippie Baby Names for Boys
Zebedee
Obadiah
Van
Foy
Caspian
Sebastian
Jasper
Rufus
Pippin
Huckleberry
Hippie Baby Names for Girls
Blossom
Octavia
Meredith
Arietty (the Borrowers! Remember that?)
Eta
Odetta
Beatrice (this doesn’t sound too hippy but the truth is I wanted to call her Beet)
Pippi
Eartha (incredible 20th century performer and activist but I also love the reference to the earth)
Vita
<h2My favourite hippie baby names that friend’s have used:
Fern
Hazel
Brook
River
Aniren (commonly Aneurin in Wales)
Robin
Emmi
Rafael
Jude
Meshach
Arla
Hippie Baby Names based on the Suffragettes (I was absolutely certain both my girls would be named after suffragettes but only Juno was)
Ida
Alva
Matilda
Inez
Izetta
Lena
Maud
Sojourner
Mabel
Edith
Vera
Flora (flo! omg!)
Cicely
Nellie
Adela
Eva
Meri
Ahhh, they are all so brilliant. It makes me want to have fifty babies.
Okay, let’s go: your favourite hippie baby names?? Weirdly keen to hear them….
Ooh love a few of those! Our boy is Pippen… Hope it doesn’t get too popular after your list!
Pippen – totes gorgeous 😀
Harlo♥️
Ooh I like it!
Haha I love this video! 🙂 oh, I dreamed of having a child called Willowby or Willoughby…….. sadly it was not to be, Daddy said ‘I’m really sorry but I will never have a child called that’!
Are you serious? It is the BEST!
Ah I so wanted River for our son but my husband is Danish and river is the verb “to rake” in Danish so he vetoed it. I’m still sad…
but what?! raking is a good thing!!!
I had these on my list. It’s *almost* enough to have another baby!!
Girls names:
Anouk
Primrose
Blossom
Petal
Cherry
Laurel
Fleur
Honey
Juniper
Lula
Ivy
Coral
Boys names:
Felix
Kit
Jude
Zeak
Abraham
Joel
Otis
Tobias
GREAT LIST!
I’m not a hippy. At all. But my nearly names, those that I still pine for a little –
Boy – Beau, Sonny, Huckleberry, Blaise.
Girl – Honour, Bonnie, Ada.
Beau and Sonny – yes! Actually Juno was nearly one of these.. must be on another lid somewhere…
We’re big time tree lovers so it only seemed right to mane our two boys after trees; Bodhi and Matai
*name.
And our girl name we had ready was Ada-Bloom 🙂
looooove!
I love a good tree name! They are lovely.
I hate to be picky…but Meredith is not a girls name!
I’m Welsh, and the name…in Welsh it’s spelt Maredudd…is a male name meaning great chief. My eldest is Meredyth…my compromise on Welsh and English spelling…and even here in the UK people tell him he has a girls name! He now goes by the diminutive Med.
It’s also pronounced differently ..MeREdyth not MERedith.
Sorry but I had to point this out…
I am glad you did! Thank you 😀
I LOVE hippy baby names, we have loads lined up if we’re lucky enough to become parents. I really love the name Luna, but it’s becoming quite popular 🙁
What a lovely post!
Yes, HAZEL! This was the conversation with our Hazie’s big brother when she was born: ‘Her name’s Hazel! Like Hazelnut!’
‘But I can’t say Hazel. I can only say Hazelnut.’
Can’t go public on any other preferences, just in case, but this is a fabulous list 🙂
*just in case* eeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!
Not an announcement. There is much negotiation. 🙂
I love the name Juno! I named my daughter Zoe, it means life in Greek (not just human life though but alla forms of life).
I named my daughter Zoe – which means universal life in ancient Greek. Ps, I love the name Juno!
I love the name Zoe! love love love love! In fact, don’t be offended, but we called our dog Zoe in leiu of having another baby girl!
None taken, in fact I see many pets named this way, and that is exaclty what ‘zoe’ means: life, no matter whether animal or human! 🙂
Love these! My girls are Coco Wren and Indigo Autumn. ❤️❤️
OH MY! They are AMAZING names!
baby nameeessssss. keep thinking if i can discover my boy-to-be’s name somehow “out there” in advance i could convince dh to have another (a boy?).
Sage?
Basil?
Oak? (a friend dreampt we had boy twins called Oak and Ash which i looovvveeee but the Ash would maybe should like ashes of a fire? rather than a tree?)
Apollo (always liked but can’t use as stupidly told an important family member who clearly hated it!)
Coriander (Cory for short?)
Cosmo
this is LITERALLY my favourite subject EVER. i think.
ahahahaha SAME!!!! I loooooove coming up with names! I love all your boy names – you are amazing at names!
I was super keen on science-y names for our boy – Galileo, Orion, Faraday – but we ended up at Augie because it kept following me around while I was pregnant (in a book, on a TV show, on a poster, a band on the radio). He’s officially an Augustus and the story we tell about his name is that we promised an emergency room Registrar that we’d name our first born after him when he gave my husband a shot of morphine large enough to fell a horse when he was writhing in pain from kidney stones. His name was Titus but we decided sticking to a classic Greek name was close enough.
For girls I was keen on Wren, Willow, Rhiannon, Iris, but we would have ended up with Claudia or Claudiana.
Omg my favorite subject. I love baby names but only got one kid Ossian. Boys name I love is Agathon, Lindelou and Gillis (swedish version of Giles). Girls names are too many but the top three is Helios, Tekla and Hillevi.
GREAT collection!
When I was much younger I was certain my future kids would be called caspian and odessa. As I’ve got older I have leant more towards Irish names. Lists like these make me want to have 10 kids!
I had two boys and there names are pretty normal. (Fred and thomas) but I would have banned a little girl something along the lines of Maud, Mildred, Enid, Ethel, Esther. Basically old lady names. They are the best!
Our girl is octavia ada meixi- octavias on your list lol, ada after ada lovelace- a woman in science well before her time, and origional computer programmer (guess what husband is!!??) And meixi is cantonese for beautiful morning. My mum is Dawn, my middle name is Dawn, and she is too, with a twist. 🙂
Guess who had hippy parents!
my little boy is Laike Ryder. Pronounced Lake but I played with the spelling n happy with it. As it looks more masculine. Middle name Ryder. ..a little cheesy! ₩ but so hard to get a band to follow that doesn’t sound like naming a lake! ! I love his name n wen others call him..it has ery strong sound to it. Never met another yet!..only known if lake as girls name
LOVE this list!! Proud hippy here! ❤️
We named our little girl Lucy
We named our daughter Aurelia and our other two names are Brando (boy) and Celestine (girl)
We went well hippy with our kids names, particularly their middle names which are all Earth based/nature names. We have Eva Sky, Chloe Rosa and Soren River xx
I want to have several children, like 3 or 4, and I’d like to give them sort of hippie/feminist names. I’d name my first daughter Carrie Grace Eucalyptus (feminist, family name and a tree) and my second either Rhi- annon Lindsey (beautiful song and the guitarist who played it) or Serena Nina (after childhood friends) and a boy Redwood Elton (tree and a singer).
We have a Dakota 🙂