Cheery-O Names

Cheery-O Names

From the time we wrote our very first name book, we’ve both been totally charmed by the unique verve and spirit of  names ending in the letter ‘o’.  And, over time, our love for them has only increased.  We’re glad to see that more and more people seem to be agreeing with us; lately there’s been an infusion of newly popular choices–and, surprisingly, this is beginning to be true for girls as well as boys.

Here are some of the currently coolest boys’  names, many of then reflecting the ever-growing globalization of baby names:

ALDO, ARLO & ARNO

BRUNO

COSMO & COSIMO

ENZO

HORATIO

HUGO

INDIO & INDIGO & INIGO

LASZLO

LEO

MATEO /MATTEO

MILO

ORLANDO

OTTO

RIO

ROCCO

ROMEO & VALENTINO — two choices previously considered uberly-romantic, now sudden celebrity faves

THEO

VIGGO

Of course a large proportion of the male names in the Italian and Spanish name lexicons have ‘o’ endings.  Here are a few that seem most ripe for cultural crossover:

ADRIANO

ALESSIO & ALESSANDRO

ALONZO

AMEDEO

AURELIO

DARIO

DIEGO

EMILIO

LAZARO

LORENZO, RENZO & ENZO

LUCIO & LUCIANO

MASSIMO

NICOLO

OCTAVIO & OTTAVIO

PAOLO

SANTINO

SERGIO

VITTORIO & VITO

An interesting recent development is the rise of girls names ending with the o-sound, though some are  spelled with the addition of a ‘t’ or a ‘w‘.  These include:

BARDOT — the latest movie glamour girl surname, added to the mix by David Boreanaz

CLEO/CLIO

COCO

DOMINO

ECHO  —  “Doll” name for the leading charater in “Dollhouse”; also recently used by rocker Nick Hexum for his daughter

HARLOW –Another old-star-to- new-starbaby name

JUNO —  Goddess name hot since the eponymous movie

LILO

MARGO/MARGOT

MARLOW/MARLOWE

NICO

WILLOW — zooming up the popularity list

About the Author

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.