Boris

Boris is one of the old Russian names being revived by chic Europeans; it hasn't quite made a comeback yet in the U.S., but it does have potential.

For a long time the name has been associated with Boris Karloff, famed for playing Frankenstein's monster; he was William Henry Pratt before taking on the more captivating stage name of Boris — and the Karloff fear factor may have kept some parents away.

A Russian saint's name, Boris has other more benign and inspiring namesakes like German-born tennis champ Boris Becker and writer Boris Pasternak, author of Dr. Zhivago, as well as the early Tsar Boris Gudonov, son-in-law of Ivan the Terrible, the subject of the Moussorgsky opera.

Boris Trigorin is a main character in the Chekhov play The Seagull.