Star-Shooting Names

Jupiter's partner Juno has entered the mainstream, so it's possible that her divine mate could follow. But not necessarily for boys — Jupiter is currently mostly female in the US, thanks to its similarity to Juniper. Stars including Ed Sheeran and Ashley Tisdale recently welcomed daughters named Jupiter, which could shift the balance even more towards the girls.

Adventurous parents are starting to look back to names of ancient gods like Mercury, Zeus, and Apollo. This one is also a planet and a metallic element, and has a friendly nickname, Merc. The Roman god Mercury, which derives from the Latin words for trade or wages, is the patron of tradesmen and travelers and the fastest-moving planet in the solar system. Mercury is the planet associated with the sign of Virgo, so this is one of the prime names for Virgo babies.

A beyond-bold shooting-star name choice, sure to raise some relatives' eyebrows.

The original oddball celebrity baby name, via Frank Zappa's daughter Moon Unit, who claims she's always liked it.

This Roman mythology (and planet) name would be very hard to handle. It derives from a root meaning cloud.

The Roman god of the underworld, the former ninth planet, a cartoon dog...but not a baby.

Starbaby name that might prove too supercharged for real life, but if like director Robert Rodriguez you're interested only in boys' names starting with R, you may need to add Rocket (and Rebel and Racer) to your list.

If you've rejected all the names on earth, you might move on to the sixth planet from the sun, also the Roman god of agriculture and plenty, and the origin of Saturday.

Sky may be a bit hippie-ish, but it's bright and sunny nonetheless. Sky rejoined the Top 1000 in 2013 after spending many years off the list. Sky was the choice of magician David Copperfield for his daughter, born in 2010.

A simple and appealing unisex Korean name with many possible meanings, depending on the hanja characters used. Coincides with the English word "sun", which is a nice bonus.