75 Baby Names Inspired by Influential Scientists

Calling all science enthusiasts. Are you fascinated by chemistry, black holes, or computer science? Are you expecting a new member of your family to arrive soon? If you answered yes to both of those questions, you made it to the right place. We have compiled a list of some of the most influential scientists in history and any of their names would be perfect for your baby. Many of these people have proven to be experts in their field, even without a Ph.D.

More: 75 Futuristic Names for Your Little One

Naming your child after one of these famous scientists would pay homage to their achievements as well as show that their work has not gone unnoticed, even many years later.

Scientist Girl Names

1. Ada - For Ada Lovelace, an English writer and mathematician who is considered one of the first computer programmers.
2. Agnes - For Agnes Pockels, a German chemist who was a pioneer in establishing surface science.
3. Alice - For Alice Ball, an American chemist who developed a treatment for leprosy that is known as the "Ball Method."
4. Beatrix - For Beatrix Potter, a writer, and natural scientist who is known for her series The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
5. Cecilia - For Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin, an American astronomer who is credited for discovering that stars can be classified by their temperature.
6. Dorothy - For Dorothy Hodgkin, was a British chemist who won a Noble Prize in chemistry in 1964.
7. Elizabeth - For Elizabeth Blackburn, a molecular biologist for her work with telomeres and DNA that earned her a Nobel Prize in 2009.
8. Emilie - For Emilie du Chatelet, a French philosopher who introduced Isaac Newton's Principia to the people of France.
9. Emmy - For Emmy Noether, a German mathematician who is known for her contribution to abstract algebra.
10. Esther - For Esther Lederberg, an American microbiologist who was a major pioneer of bacterial genetics.
11. Evangelista - For Evangelista Torricelli, an Italian mathematician and physicist who is credited with inventing the barometer.
12. Florence - For Florence Bascom, who is considered the first American female geologist.
13. Gertrude - For Gertrude B. Elion, an American biochemist who is known for the discovery of drugs to treat leukemia, herpes, and prevent the rejection of kidney transplants.
14. Gladys - For Gladys West, an American mathematician who was inducted into the United States Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018.
15. Grace - For Grace Hopper, an American computer scientist who helped create the first all-electronic computer.
16. Ida - For Ida Noddack, a German chemist who co-discovered the element rhenium.
17. Irene - For Irene Joliot-Curie, a French chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1035 for her discovery of artificial radioactivity.
18. Jane - For Jane Goodall, an English primatologist and expert on chimpanzees.
19. Jennifer - For Jennifer Doudna, an American biochemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for her method for genome editing.
20. Jocelyn - For Jocelyn Bell Burnell, an Irish astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967.
21. Katherine - For Katherine Johnson, an American mathematician and one of the first African American women to become a NASA scientist.
22. Laura - For Laura Bassi, an Italian physicist who was the first woman to have a doctorate in science.
23. Mae - For Mae Jemison, An American engineer and NASA astronaut who was the first African American woman to travel into space.
24. Marguerite - For Marguerite Perey, a French physicist who discovered the element francium.
25. Marie - For Marie Curie, a Polish-French physicist who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics.
26. Mary - For Mary Anning, an English paleontologist who discovered the plesiosaurus.
27. Pearl - For Judea Pearl, an Israeli-American computer scientist who is known for his work in artificial intelligence.
28. Rachel- For Rachel Carson, an American marine biologist who is well-known for her work on the global environmental movement and pollution.
29. Rita - For Rita Levi-Montalcini, an Italian neurobiologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology for nerve growth factor in 1986.
30. Rosalind - For Rosalind Franklin, an English chemist who discovered the helix shape of DNA.
31. Shirley - For Shirley Jackson, an American physicist was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate at MIT.
32. Sophie - For Sophie Germain, a French mathematician and physicist who is known for her work on elasticity theory.
33. Stephanie - For Stephanie Kwolek, an American chemist who invented Kevlar.
34. Sylvia - For Sylvia Earle, an American marine biologist who was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
35. Vera - For Vera Rubin, an American astronomer who is known for her work on galactic rotation curves.

Scientist Boy Names

36. Albert - For Albert Einstein, a German theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for the discovery of the photoelectric effect.
37. Archimedes - A Greek mathematician who is credited for modern calculus.
38. Benjamin - For Benjamin Franklin, an American inventor and one of the Founding Fathers who invented the lightning rod.
39. Bill - For Bill Nye the Science Guy, an American mechanical engineer who is famous for being a science educator on television.
40. Bohr - For Neils Bohr, a Danish physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 for his contributions to atomic structure and quantum theory.
41. Charles - For Charles Babbage, an English mathematician who invented the first mechanical computer.
42. Claude - For Claude Bernard, a French physiologist for his discoveries in the body's digestion and the role of the pancreas.
43. Darwin - For Charles Darwin, an English naturalist known for his contributions in the studies of evolution.
44. Enrico - For Enrico Fermi, an Italian physicist who created the world's first nuclear reactor.
45. Ernest - For Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealand physicist who was known as the father of nuclear physics.
46. Erwin - For Erwin Schrodinger, an Austrian physicist who received a Nobel Prize for her work in quantum theory.
47. Francis - For Francis Crick, a British molecular biologist who played a role in discovering the helix structure of DNA.
48. Galileo - For Galileo Galilei, an Italian astronomer who was known as the "father of the scientific method."
49. Hans - For Hans Christian Orsted, a Danish physicist who discovered the first connection between electricity and magnetism.
50. Isaac - For Isaac Newton, an English mathematician who played a key role in the scientific revolution with his theory of relativity.
51. Jacques - For Jacques Cousteau, a French scientist who was a pioneer in marine conservation.
52. Karl - For "Dr. Karl," a famous Australian science communicator and television commentator.
53. Leonardo - For Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian polymath during the High Renaissance period.
54. Linnaeus - For Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist who is known as the "father of taxonomy" as well as creating the binomial nomenclature system for identifying living things.
55. Louis - For Louis Pasteur, a French chemist who is known for his discovery of fermentation and development of pasteurization.
56. Maurice - For Maurice Wilkins, a New Zealand biophysicist who produced the first clear x-ray images of DNA.
57. Max - For Max Planck, a German theoretical physicist who won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918 for his work in quantum mechanics.
58. Michael - For Michael Faraday, an English scientist who was responsible for the concept of the electromagnetic field.
59. Muhammad - For Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a Persian polymath and had achievements in algebra with solving quadratic equations.
60. Neil- For Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist known for his documentaries such as Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.
61. Nicolaus - For Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer who came up with the model that the sun is the center of the universe.
62. Nikola - For Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American electrical engineer who is known for his design of the AC electricity supply system.
63. Oswald - For Oswald Avery, who was one of the first molecular biologists and worked at Rockefeller Hospital in New York City.
64. Otto - For Otto Hahn, who was a German chemist that is considered to be the "father of nuclear chemistry."
65. Pierre - For Pierre Curie, a French physicist who worked closely with his wife Marie Curie.
66. Ramon - For Ramon Barba, a Filipino inventor who discovered a way to get mango trees to produce more flowers.
67. Robert - For Robert Goddard, an American engineer who built the first liquid-filled rocket in the world.
68. Stephen - For Stephen Hawking, an English theoretical physicist who is known for his contribution to general relativity and the theory that black holes emit radiation.
69. Watson - For James Watson, an American molecular biologist who worked with Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin on the double helix structure of DNA.
70. William - For Willam Watson, a British scientist who was responsible for bringing the work of Carl Linnaeus to England.

Gender Neutral Scientist Names

71. George - For George Washington Carver, an American agricultural scientist who found methods to prevent soil depletion by promoting alternatives to growing cotton.
72. James - For James Watt, a Scottish inventor who is known for improving upon Thomas Newcomen's 1712 steam engine.
73. Rene - For Rene Descartes, a French mathematician who is known as one of the founders of modern philosophy.
74. Sam - For Samuel Morton, an American natural scientist who supported theories that went against the idea of the Bible's single creation story.
75. Tony - (Toni for a girl) For Anthony Fauci, an American immunologist who is the chief medical advisor to the President as well as a lead member of the White House's coronavirus task force.

Looking for more baby names and inspiration? Check out our Baby Name Center.

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