the ultimate list of boy names

Drummer entered the baby name lexicon thanks to blogger No Big Dill, who chose it for her newborn son, who joins five older sisters. Drummer is right in step with other occupational names in vogue now, from Archer to Gardener. Let's just hope Drummer doesn't prefer to play the piano.

Vladimir is a cultured and deep-rooted Slavic name associated in this country with cultural figures including piano virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz and the author of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov.

Brisk, preppy York is an underused classic with the potential to really shine in the 21st century. It's most familiar as a place name — York is a city in England — and surname. New York City and State were named after the Duke of York.

Musical association with Igor Stravinsky, but also Dr. Frankenstein's right-hand man.

Rakish nickname able to stand on its own.

Pacific is an adventurous kind of place-name, with the added bonus of the association with peace.

Nature names like Ocean and River are flowing back into favor, especially with nature lovers and green-oriented parents. In 2024, it was given to 483 boys and 325 girls, making this a unisex favorite in the US, while in the UK, it is considerably more popular for girls.

Seneca's distinguished heritage as the name of the ancient Roman philosopher-playwright who tutored Nero, and of an Iroquois tribe makes this an interesting choice for either sex.

The "Believe It or Not" jokes will get old fast, but this surname feels fun and on-trend for both girls and boys, reminiscent of Riley, Tripp, Bridger, and Oakley.

Most American parents would choose to use the more commonly seen variant, Axel, but .this form is preferred in Denmark and Norway, and also ranks in the French Top 400.

Juan, the Spanish version of John, is ubiquitous in the Spanish-speaking world, and is familiar internationally via such references as Don Juan and San Juan.

This Turkish name meaning "friend" should be very useable outside Turkey, given that it is pronounced just as it is spelled. Famous men named Emre include Emre Can, a chess grandmaster, and Emre Sahin, the director.

Softer than Benedict, less popular than Benjamin, and bolder than Bennett, Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro introduced this name to the American mainstream in the early 2000s, before which the name was hardly use. Popular in Argentina, Benicio debuted on the US Top 1000 in 2016, when it was the third-fastest-rising boys' name, and while it hasn't skyrocketed then, it remains comfortably in the charts.

Caesar, the name of the greatest Roman of them all, is rarely used outside Latino families, where the Cesar spelling is preferred —as in activist Chavez and Dog Whisperer Millan. Its original meaning is debated — either "long-haired", "blue-gray" (as in eyes), or "cut" (because Julius Caesar was supposedly born by cesarian section) — it came to be the title to denote all Roman emperors and it is from the name Caesar that many other European royal titles are derived, including Kaiser and Tsar.

Pablo, the commonly used Spanish version of Paul, has the added bonus of some fantastic artistic bearers: painter Picasso, cellist Casals, and poet Neruda. Pablo has been consistently in the US charts since records began, and has been within the Top 500 since the mid 60s. However, Pablo has never cracked the Top 200, making it familiar but not overused or tired.

An Asian name that would be easily understood in this country.

When playwright Thomas Lanier Williams adopted the pen name of Tennessee, he created a new possibility among American place-names, although it's admittedly a bit bulky in size.

A new addition to the menagerie of animal baby names — Rooster was given to five baby boys in 2019, but did not return to the charts in the following year. The word has American origins — the Puritans used it as an alternative to "cock," which developed its euphemistic meaning around the 1770s. Rooster comes from the verb "to roost," as the birds are known to do.

This alternative and modern spelling of Leo is popular with German- and Dutch-speaking parents and features in the charts in Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. While it's less popular in English-speaking coutntries, there has been a quiet but not insubstantial increase in the number of boys given the name. 2024 saw it given to 44 babies in the US, compared to just 20 a few years earlier.

Manly almost to the point of macho.