By Pamela Redmond · Updated September 2026
Across 73 pages
of 73
Nature name
Sky may be a bit hippie-ish, but it's bright and sunny nonetheless. Sky rejoined the Top 1000 in 2013 after spending many years off the list. Sky was the choice of magician David Copperfield for his…
English variation of Michael
"who is like God"
Mitchell has had something of a roller coaster ride, showing some panache in the forties and fifties, when it was seen as a sharper alternative to Michael with its cool Mitch nickname, slipping a…
English word name
"love, fondness, attachment"
Love makes an endearing middle name, as in Jennifer Love Hewitt. However, more parents are considering Love as a first name — enough for it to enter the US charts for the first time in 2022 as one of…
English and Scottish
"council protector"
This once perfectly respectable surname has suffered decades of abuse, not least by Jerry Lewis's character in the fifties. NFL running back Melvin Gordon stars for the Los Angeles Chargers.
English
"dear friend"
Enough parents have found naturalist Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, a worthy hero to keep Darwin relatively consistently in the Top 1000. It has a lovely meaning too—"dear…
Scottish
"foreigner, stranger"
Wallace is so square could almost be ripe for a turnaround, especially with the hipness imparted by the British Claymation series Wallace & Gromit . And Wally makes an adorable Leave it to Beaver…
"valley of the eagle; high"
Arden, the name of the magical forest in Shakespeare's As You Like It , is a stylish A name with a strong, straightforward image. Another reason to love Arden: its similarity to "ardent." Arden is…
English or Latin
"queen's manor; fifth"
Quinton is among several attractive Q-beginning, n-ending two-syllable names for boys , that also includes Quentin (the most popular iteration) and Quenton. They only suffer from their similarity and…
"barn for cows"
For centuries, this name had a romantic, windswept image due to its strong connection to the poet Lord Byron, who inspired its use as a first name. It is one of those surprise names that's appeared…
"faithful, loyal"
Loyal is one of the few virtue names suitable for boys, an honorable and principled Boy Scout-esque appellation with a surprisingly long and distinguished history. Loyal was a mid-list name at the…
English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Italian
"pledged to God"
Elvis naming his daughter Lisa Marie and Nat King Cole's hit song "Mona Lisa" conspired to catapult one of Elizabeth's many offshoots to a high of #4 in 1970. It has largely fallen from favor in the…
Modern invented name
"thorny woodland clearing"
Blending the sounds of Bryce, Brian, Riley and Kylie, Brylee is a modern invention that ranked in the US Top 1000 from 2005 to 2022. It peaked back in 2012 when it was given to around 770 babies, but…
Diminutive of Joseph
"Jehovah increases"
Joe is still the ultimate good-guy name, not at all diminished by its longevity or popularity or its everyman rep as Regular Joe, Cowboy Joe, G.I. Joe, Joe Exotic, Joe Blow, Joe Millionaire, Average…
"pilgrim; one who holds a palm"
Palmer is a name that derives from the fact that pilgrims often carried palms, thus the double meaning. It's a fresher sounding twist other surname style names, such as Spencer, Carter, Porter and…
French and English
"ruler or king of the land"
St. Landry was a seventh century bishop of Paris, founder of the city's first hospital, though in the US, it may be better connected with legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry, an association…
"tall man's town; long stone"
The great African-American Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes put this one on the map, while actor Laurence Fishburne adopted it for his now grown son, born in 1987. Despite these popular…
"high meadow"
The name of a British town on the Thames that hosts a famous regatta. Henley is one of the English baby names soaring in popularity for both boys and girls in the US, but is now much more popular for…
Arden is a gender-neutral name that's sleek and stylish but always seems to bob just below the surface of popularity, despite ticking all the boxes with its fashionable two-syllable, N-ending shape…
English and Scottish surname related to Walter
"son of Wat"
What with the resurgence of W names like Weston and Walter, the prominence of high profile actress Emma and golfer Bubba, and even the attention paid to Watson, the IBM computer on "Jeopardy" (named…
"dweller near the beaver stream"
The remarkable success of the girls' name Everly makes a revival of the name Beverly seem possible. More commonly a masculine name in the 19th century, it began to be used for girls in the early…
