Vegas comes from Spanish vegas, meaning "meadows," and is usually used as a place-based name.
Vegas as a given name borrows its electricity directly from Las Vegas, Nevada, itself named by Spanish explorers who crossed the Mojave and found unexpected meadows fed by artesian springs — las vegas simply means 'the meadows' in Spanish. The place name entered English consciousness in the 1800s through the Old Spanish Trail, but it was the mid-twentieth century transformation of a desert railroad stop into a neon-lit entertainment capital that gave 'Vegas' its cultural charge: glamour, risk, spectacle, and reinvention. As a first name, Vegas belongs to a contemporary American tradition of bestowing geography on children — names like Brooklyn, Dallas, and Phoenix that carry a sense of place and atmosphere rather than historical lineage.
Vegas leans toward the bold end of that spectrum. It evokes Rat Pack swagger, showgirls, high-stakes drama, and the peculiarly American promise that you can become whoever you want on any given night. The name carries a cinematic quality — characters named Vegas appear in crime fiction and film as people who play by their own rules.
Parents choosing Vegas today are usually making a statement about personality before the child has had a chance to develop one: this child will be magnetic, unafraid of attention, willing to gamble on themselves. It remains rare as a given name, which only amplifies its impact. In an era when uniqueness is itself a value, Vegas announces itself without apology — much like the city after which it is named.