December 11, 2025, by Jessica Bamford for Dreamland Books and Yarn 

Any expectant parents out there looking for a baby name suggestion? Something gender-neutral, fresh but familiar-sounding, with several potential nicknames and a (really cute!) nature meaning? Well, I have the name for you! And here’s how I came across it…

This week I listened to the audiobook version of a memoir called “Raising Hare” by Chloe Dalton. It’s the story of Dalton’s escape to the English countryside during the Covid lockdown and how the slower pace of the world led to her crossing paths (literally) with an abandoned newborn hare. And do you know what a baby hare is called? A leveret. And as the narrator said the word “leveret” over and over in her lovely British accent, I thought to myself, “That word sounds so nice! It would make a great baby name!”

According to nameberry.com, the word is sometimes used as a name, but usually spelled Leverett, and the site suggests the nicknames Lev, Levi or Rhett. Such versatility! 

Anyway, the star of this book, the leveret in question, does not have a name of her own because the author was determined to avoid personalizing the animal and turning her into a pet. Dalton reluctantly opted to take the leveret home after several hours of observation confirmed that it had been abandoned by its mother in an unsafe location. Against all odds, she managed to nurse this tiny hare through its fragile infancy to adulthood, but maintained an open-door policy that allowed the hare to come and go between her house and yard and the fields and forests beyond. Over the course of the book’s three-year span, the hare would sometimes disappear for weeks at a time, living her life in the wild, only to turn up at Dalton’s house again for a treat of porridge oats and a nap in her office. 

Weaving her experience with the hare together with literary references and scientific research, Dalton tells the story of the profound effect this animal had on her own life and character, while also advocating for a more balanced approach to modern agriculture that mitigates humans’ impact on hares and other wildlife.

If you love a good nature memoir, give this short book a try. And if you’re an adventurous parent-to-be, I have to say that everything I learned about hares in this story has convinced me that the animal has many characteristics that would make it a fitting namesake for a young child. Plus, if you believe that a name’s meaning has some bearing on a person’s destiny, you could be raising a future track star!