6000+ Dog Names

Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin put Ireland on the map when they chose it as a first for their daughter, saying that geographic names were a family tradition. And it seems they were a bit ahead of the curve (or trendsetting)—Ireland has been among the fastest-rising names of recent years. Other Irish place names include Shannon, Kerry, Galway, and Dublin.

Kizzy was a character in Alex Haley's Roots; this and other Keziah variations were widely used among enslaved people. In Roots the name is explained by the hero Kunta as 'you sit down' or 'you stay put' in the Mandinka language meaning that 'this child would never get sold away'.

Consider this short form for your little Richard.

Mango might be cute as a short form of a related name like Manuel, or for a pet name. But we're not feeling it as a full baby name for a child of any gender.

Name that's virtually unknown here but has a lovely meaning and a simple sound and spelling.

A beautiful Yoruban name associated with honor and good fortune. Both fy-o-la and fay-OH-luh are used as pronunciations.

Dior was among the fastest-rising names for both girls and boys in the US in the early 2020s, but was the fastest-falling name for boys in the 2023 statistics.

Like Mitzi, the bubbly Fritzi shows signs of rising again. Has a bit of a comic-strip feel.

This Welsh surname might be an interesting alternative to the popular Evan, though that Bev beginning conjures up a fifty-five-year-old woman named Beverly.

Ezri is one of the cool new unisex names starting with E, except as a Biblical name, it's not so new. Used for both genders in Israel, in the US it's currently running five to one in favor of girls, surprisingly. Its deviation from the better known and more traditional Ezra makes it feel like one of the more truly gender neutral names.

As surname Lane becomes more popular, so too does this variant. Regardless, it does create the possibility for spelling confusion.

Readers who remember J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey have probably forgotten that the character was male (nee Zachary). Nowadays the somewhat loopy spin on Zoe is associated with actress Zooey Deschanel.

Has a decidedly middle-aged image.

Leviathan was a name given to 76 boys in the USA in 2021. It makes a rather unusual Biblical choice, being the name not of a man or angel, but of a sea monster. In literature and popular culture, the term Leviathan has since come to be used as a synonym for any gargantuan, monstrous creature or object (think of the bag in VEEP).

Y is often used to feminize a variant spelling of a name, though of course there's nothing intrinsically gendered about it. The Karsyn spelling is slightly off its peak for girls, but rising for boys.

Lexus, an automotive newcomer, has recently entered the Top 1000 -- more because of its association, we fear, with the status symbol car than its relation to the name Alexis. If you love this name, do your child a favor and make it Alexis or at least spell it Lexis.

Bright and pretty, resembling Aaliyah, Delilah, Amaya and Sarah, Sariyah is a celestial and stylish choice,

The short-lived magazine edited by former Vogue chief Grace Mirabella put this beautiful name off-limits for a while, but now it's perfectly fit to join the fashionable Bella pantheon. More distinctive than Isabella.

A dashing French surname name most famously borne by Henry David Thoreau, an American naturalist, writer and philosopher who influenced such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. The most common modern American pronunciation is "thor-OH", with emphasis on the final syllable, although Thoreau himself pronounced it "THOR-oh".

From Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, the story of a boy named Kafka -- crow in Czech.