By Pamela Redmond · Updated September 2026
Across 73 pages
of 73
English occupational name
"cloth merchant"
Other occupational names would be more commonly accepted, though the Mad Men character has certainly brought it to the fore.
English
"Nicholas's village"
Charming Dickensian route to Nick.
English from French
"from Orsay"
Associated all through the swing years with bandleader brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.
"place of the northern people"
Would make a difficult choice even for those with ties to the Virginia city or British county.
English place-name
With Devon so overused, consider a move to the undiscovered neighboring county -- though it's nowhere near as euphonious, rhyming with corset.
"northern cliff"
Stick with North.
"northern farm"
Again, North is so much crisper.
"northern town"
Forever the upstairs neighbor on The Honeymooners.
"woods in the north"
Another stiff northerly choice.
"walnut tree"
As always, that oy sound is problematic.
"Roger's son"
Fresh way to pass down Roger.
"low, rolling hills"
Unusual, but clear and strong.
English word name
Baby name as political statement.
Adventurous word choice, but still quite a burden for a child to bear.
"Andrǣd's hill"
A rare surname name that could follow in the footsteps of Harlow, Marlow, and Winslow, Onslow comes from the Old English name Andrǣd , which likely relates to Andrew and Anders. In turn, this could…
"divinely brilliant"
Some cutting-edge parents might revive Osbert as a substitute for Oscar. We like the "divinely brilliant" meaning. Cool or terminally nerdy? Your call. Osbert Sitwell, born Francis Osbert Sacheverell…
"son of Dick"
Dickinson is a possibility for Richard's boy, though that Dick nickname is problematic no matter how you get to it.
French
"war horse"
Destry rides again, this time as a Western flavored baby name. Derived from the French surname Destrier, from an Anglo-Norman word meaning "warhorse", this rugged name was popularized by the 1930…
"son of Dennis"
A case in which the son is now more attractive than the father. There have been Colonial settlers surnamed Dennison on this side of the Atlantic since 1623.
"living near the forest"
Nature surname with an aristocratic edge. Spelling it DeForest distances it from deforestation.
