Boy Names

Balthasar was one of the biblical Three Kings who visited the infant Jesus, also used by Shakespeare and in the oil-rich Getty family; offbeat and intriguing. Balthazar is another, equally appropriate spelling.

A traditional French male name that could, with American pronunciation, become an admirable word name.

Extremely attractive color name chosen by some African-American families for its reference to the West African Ivory Coast; more commonly used for girls.

Forget Patience and Charity: Here's a Colonial name (and sentiment) that seems perfect for modern times.

Woodsy names are fashionable for boys, as are surnames and occupational names, so Forester scores on all three. It can also be spelled Forrester.

An evocative, windswept choice that is part of the third generation of western-influenced names, picking up where first Jesse and then Dakota left off, though with a slight feminine edge.

Clove is one of a whole tantalizing genre of spice names that might work for a boy. Clovis could be considered a long form.

An occupation name with a preppy, scholarly air, Author could fit in alongside Arthur and August or Chosen and Booker, in terms of sound and style. Author saw more usage that you might think in the first half of the 20th century, peaking in 1933 when it was given to nearly 60 boys. While some may have used it as an occupational and word name, others may have chosen owing to misspelling or misinterpreting the classic Arthur.

There's a whole quarry of rocky names parents are now considering: Slate, Flint, etc. , but this one is particularly hard-edged and problematic.

Rockers Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz put a new baby name on the map when they chose this downscale New York borough name for their son. The Bronx, the place, was named for early Dutch settler Jonas Bronck. Might Bronx become the next Brooklyn? We'd be surprised if it did.

Gentle giant Rubeus Hagrid is the groundskeeper at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter novels (probably after Hagrid Rubes, the equally kind ancient Greek mythological giant), but that's not the only reason this name could prove a playground liability.

Worthy sibling for Oak, Elm, Juniper, and Spruce.

One of the more unusual of the current crop of strong, single-syllable boys' names, evoking the images of both old-fashioned blackboards and modern stepping-stones and countertops.

This softer version of Adolf is sadly still off-limits due to the connotations with Hitler.

One of the classic hippie word names. In the 1970s, actors Barbara Hershey and David Carradine gave this name to their son...who later changed it to Tom.

Ron Burgundy was Will Ferrell's fictional helmet-haired newsman, but this color name is much more suited to a girl.

This recently coined respelling of Cole darkens its image.

A possible Christmas name for a baby boy, if you find Noel too mundane. But we fear it doesn't sound very festive.