The sea and water words, language by language

A water name is one that descends from a word meaning sea, river or water. Plenty of names on water lists belong instead to sea gods and sea nymphs whose own names mean something else entirely, so the two groups are separated here. Counts are from the Office for National Statistics 2025 lists for England and Wales, released on 9 July 2026.

Name	Language and meaning	Babies in 2025
Muirgel, Muriel	Old Irish muir "sea" and gel "bright": "bright sea". Muriel is the Anglicised form	fewer than 3
Moana	Means "ocean, wide expanse of water, deep sea" in Maori, Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages	7 girls
Thalassa	Means "sea" in Greek; the personification of the sea in Greek myth	fewer than 3
Mira	From Sanskrit mira meaning "sea, ocean"	135 girls
Marina	Feminine form of Marinus, from Latin marinus "of the sea" or from the family name Marius	68 girls
Llyr	Means "the sea" in Welsh; cognate with Irish Ler	fewer than 3
Dylan	Welsh dy "to, toward" and llanw "tide, flow"	717 boys
River	From the English word, ultimately from Latin ripa "riverbank"	481 boys
Jordan	From the river; Hebrew Yarden, from yarad "descend, flow down"	189 boys
Brooke	Variant of Brook, from a surname for someone who lived near a brook	121 girls

The three that water lists get wrong

Meredith does not mean protector of the sea

Meredith is one of the most confidently misreported names in this category. Behind the Name derives it from Welsh Maredudd or Meredydd, from Old Welsh forms such as Margetud, possibly from mawredd meaning "greatness, magnificence" combined with iudd meaning "lord". There is no sea element in it at all. The gloss appears to come from confusing the first syllable with Welsh mor.

Kai is not simply Hawaiian for sea

Kai is used in several unrelated traditions, and the entry Behind the Name gives for the name that spread through Germany and Scandinavia into English records the meaning as uncertain, possibly a Frisian diminutive of Gerhard, Nicolaas, Cornelis or Gaius. Hawaiian does have the word kai for sea, and some families choose the name for exactly that reason. But 672 boys received Kai in England and Wales in 2025, and the route most of them came by is the northern European one, where the meaning is not established.

Morgan is possibly sea circle, not sea-born

Morgan is usually glossed as "sea-born" or "born of the sea". Behind the Name gives Old Welsh Morcant or Morgant, possibly derived from mor "sea" and cant "circle". The sea element is probably there; the "born" is not, and the whole derivation is given as possible rather than certain. Morgan went to 65 girls and 128 boys in England and Wales in 2025.

Sea gods whose names mean something else

This is the largest source of error in water lists. Doris was a sea nymph in Greek myth, one of the children of Oceanus and Tethys, but the name means "Dorian woman". Thetis was a Nereid; her name possibly derives from a Greek word meaning "one who places". Nereus was a sea god, and his name does derive from a Greek word meaning "water, fresh", so he is the exception. Varuna is a Hindu god of water and the ocean, but the name probably comes from a Sanskrit root meaning "to surround, to encompass". Anahita was an Iranian goddess of fertility and water; her name means "immaculate, undefiled" in Old Persian.

Nerissa belongs in a category of its own: it was created by Shakespeare for The Merchant of Venice in 1596, possibly from the Greek word for a sea nymph. That makes it a literary coinage with a sea association rather than an inherited sea name, and it is worth saying so.

Where these names sit in the 2025 data

Two water names are in genuinely wide use in England and Wales, and neither is usually chosen for its meaning: Dylan at 717 boys and Kai at 672. River follows at 481 boys, and it is the one whose meaning is transparent to everyone who hears it. On the girls' side the category is thin: Mira at 135 and Marina at 68 are the most used names with a securely attested sea meaning, and several of the best options were given to fewer than three babies and are therefore withheld from the published list.

River names, which are the easiest group to verify

Names taken from rivers behave differently from names taken from sea words, because a river has a documented name of its own. Jordan is the clearest case: it comes from the river, whose Hebrew name Yarden derives from a verb meaning "descend, flow down", and Behind the Name records that it was adopted as a personal name in Europe after crusaders brought water back from the river to baptise their children. That is an unusually well-attested chain from word to river to name, and it is why Jordan is on firmer ground than most of this category.

River itself is the plainest option in English. It comes straight from the word, which reached English through Old French from Latin ripa, "riverbank", and it was given to 481 boys in 2025. Brooke works the same way through a surname for someone who lived near a brook, and went to 121 girls. Neither needs any explanation and neither can be misspelled, which is more than can be said for most names in this category.

How to check a water name yourself

Ask two questions. Does the name descend from a word for water, or is it the name of someone associated with water? Doris, Thetis, Varuna and Anahita all fail that test and all appear on water lists. Second, if the meaning is given as a compound, check both halves: Morgan's sea element is probably real and its "born" is not, and Meredith's supposed sea element does not exist. For Welsh the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru is the standard dictionary, and for Greek the Perseus lexicon gives the entries directly.

Names Meaning Water, Sea and River, Checked Against Sources