Hillbilly Names Have Rugged Charm

Updated Wed May 04 2022

Blame Li'l Abner, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Andy Griffith and even The Simpsons for the fact that some names have long been stereotyped as aw shucks, rube, hick, hayseed, country bumpkin names.

But lately, cowboy names have undergone something of a style revolution. With the rise of all things woodsy and rugged, former "hillbilly names" like Abner and Jasper, Cal and Gus, Wyatt and Waylon have been rapidly making their way back from that cartoony pigeonholing.

There are a great many more cool cowboy names on the fringes of this category that are worthy of resuscitation.

A selection of our favorite options for the most adventurous, outdoor-bound baby namers are below.

Hipster Hillbilly Names

About the Author

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 Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.

Introducing the Nameberry App

Find your perfect baby name together with our new mobile app.

Swipe through thousands of names with your partner
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Introducing the Nameberry App

Find your perfect baby name together with our new mobile app.

Swipe through thousands of names with your partner
Names you match on are saved to your shared list
Get personalized recommendations that learn based on your and your partner's preferences
Partner with friends and family to find names you all love
Backed by Nameberry's 20 years of data around name preferences.