Mermaids have been part of human storytelling for thousands of years.
Not just the gentle, fish-tailed figures of modern fairy tales. I mean the ancient ones. The sirens of Greek mythology who lured sailors to their deaths. The selkies of Irish and Scottish folklore who shed their seal skins and walked on land. The Rusalki of Slavic legend who haunted rivers and forests. The Ningyo of Japanese mythology who could grant eternal life.
Every culture that ever lived near water created its own version of the mythical water being. And the names that come from those traditions are some of the most extraordinary in any naming category.
Here are 126 of the most beautiful ones for boys and girls.
Sea Goddess and Water Deity Names for Girls
These are not soft, decorative names. They belonged to figures with real power in the old stories.
Thetis was the mother of Achilles. Amphitrite ruled the entire ocean alongside Poseidon. Ran drowned sailors and collected them in her net. These women were forces of nature and their names carry all of that.
- Thetis
- Amphitrite
- Galatea
- Thalassa
- Calypso
- Doris
- Nereid
- Nereida
- Tethys
- Ran
- Undine
- Ondine
- Melusine
- Lorelei
- Nixie
- Nix
- Naiad
- Naia
- Sedna
- Yemoja
- Mami Wata
- Rusalka
- Vodyanoy – traditionally male but increasingly used for girls
- Nixe
- Meera
Mermaid Names From Greek and Roman Mythology
Greek and Roman mythology gave us the richest ocean naming tradition of any culture.
Fifty sea nymphs called the Nereids. Ocean Titans whose names feel like the sea itself. Sirens who sang from clifftops and changed the course of ships. I find these names genuinely extraordinary because they carry both beauty and danger in equal measure. Which is exactly what the best names do.
- Calliroe
- Alcyone
- Arethusa
- Cymothoe
- Dynamene
- Eudore
- Galene
- Glauce
- Halie
- Ianeira
- Ione
- Ligeia – one of the Sirens
- Leucothea
- Melite
- Nausithoe
- Nesaea
- Panopea
- Polynoe
- Pontomedusa
- Psamathe
- Sao
- Speio
- Thoe
- Agaue
- Cymopoleia
Celtic Mermaid and Water Spirit Names
Celtic mythology has some of the most hauntingly beautiful water spirit names of any tradition.
The selkie stories alone, those heartbreaking tales of seal women who shed their skins to walk on land, produced a whole collection of names that feel both ancient and completely current right now. And the Irish merrow, their version of the mermaid, gave us names that most parents have never heard of but will never forget once they do.
- Niamh
- Liban – Irish mermaid who swam the seas for three hundred years
- Muirenn – Irish meaning “sea white”
- Muirgheal – Irish meaning “sea bright”
- Muireann – Irish meaning “sea fair”
- Rónán – Irish meaning “little seal”
- Selkie
- Mara
- Muriel – Celtic meaning “bright sea”
- Morgan – Celtic meaning “sea circle”
- Morgana
- Dylan – Welsh meaning “son of the sea”
- Branwen – Welsh connected to the sea in her myth
- Merewyn – Old English meaning “sea friend”
- Meralda
- Morvenna
- Morwenna
- Morvane
- Meriel
- Merial
- Meryl
- Merin
- Merina
- Meriona
- Merwenna
Names Meaning Ocean, Sea, and Water
Every culture that ever lived near water found ways to name their children after it.
And the results across different languages are extraordinary. What I love about this section is that each name carries the same essential meaning but sounds completely different. Moana in Maori. Marina in Latin. Nami in Japanese. The ocean in every language.
- Marina
- Moana
- Maren
- Mara
- Mare
- Adria
- Adriana
- Pelagia – Greek meaning “of the sea”
- Nerida – Greek meaning “sea nymph”
- Tara – in Sanskrit connected to “star over water”
- Aqua
- Nami – Japanese meaning “wave”
- Kai – Hawaiian meaning “sea”
- Kaimana – Hawaiian meaning “power of the sea”
- Tallulah – Choctaw meaning “leaping water”
- Lana – connected to water in Hawaiian
- Naia – Basque meaning “wave” or “foam of the sea”
- Mere – Maori meaning “sea”
- Muriel
- Merewyn
- Mira – connected to water in multiple languages
- Mizuki – Japanese meaning “beautiful moon over water”
- Neri – Hebrew meaning “my light,” connected to the sea in mythology
- Nerissa – Greek meaning “of the sea”
- Thalassa – Greek goddess of the sea itself
Mermaid Names for Boys
Mermen exist in mythology too. And they are just as extraordinary as their female counterparts.
Triton ruled the seas for Poseidon. Proteus could see the future and change his shape. Dylan was the Welsh sea spirit who swam out to the ocean the moment he was born. These are names with real mythological weight behind them and they sound genuinely stunning on a modern boy.
- Triton
- Proteus
- Nereus
- Glaucus
- Phorcys
- Ceto – works cross-gender
- Oceanus
- Pontus
- Dylan
- Rónán
- Manannan
- Lir
- Aegir
- Njord
- Poseidon
- Neptune
- Leviathan – nickname Levi
- Tethys – works cross-gender
- Caspian
- Pelagius
Six More That Were Too Beautiful to Leave Off
- Calliroe
- Melusine
- Ondine
- Lorelei
- Thalassa
- Nerissa
Wrapping It Up
Mermaid names carry something that most naming categories simply do not.
The ancient wildness of the sea. The mystery of what lives in the deep. The particular magic of creatures who exist between two worlds and belong completely to neither.
Your child does not need to live near the ocean to wear one of these names beautifully.
Go back through the ones that stayed with you. Say them out loud slowly. Water names have a flow to them that you can only really feel when you hear them spoken rather than read.