Strong Names For Baby Boys

Today we bring you more than 50 boys’ names that convey masculine strength, vigor, and power, either via their literal meanings or their image and associations. The number in the popularity column is the number of American boys given that name in 2016.
Why these strong boy names now? Many of the dystopian stories popular these days — from Mad Max: Fury Road to The Walking Dead — make it seem like pure physical strength is going to be pretty crucial for surviving the rough-and-tumble future. And even if the next generation manages to avert a zombie apocalypse or robot uprising, strength of all kinds — physical, mental, spiritual — always comes in handy.
The 25 strong boy names in the table below all have literal meanings related to strength and power.
Strong Boy Names
Name | Origin | Meaning | Popularity |
---|---|---|---|
Anders | Scandinavian | “strong and manly” | 277 |
Angus | Gaelic via English | “one strength” | 75 |
Arsenio | Greek via Spanish | “virile, strong” | 14 |
Aziz | Arabic and African | “powerful and beloved” | 63 |
Brian | Irish | “strong, virtuous and honorable” | 1965 |
Denzel | Cornish | “from the high stronghold” | 175 |
Egon | German | “strong with a sword” | Fewer than 5 |
Emeric | German via France | “power” | 23 |
Ethan | Hebrew | “strong, firm” | 13758 |
Evander | Greek | “strong man” | 116 |
Fort | French | “strong” | Fewer than 5 |
Garrett | Irish | “spear strength | 1144 |
Godric | Anglo-Saxon | “God’s power” | 36 |
Griffin | Welsh | “strong lord” | 1688 |
Kenzo | Japanese | “strong and healthy” | 103 |
Kwan | Korean | “strong” | 6 |
Merrick | Anglo-Welsh | “fame, power” | 208 |
Montgomery | Norman | “man power” | 115 |
Oswald | English | “divine power” | 35 |
Qadir | Arabic | “capable, powerful” | 12 |
Ragnar | Norse | “warrior, judgment” | 39 |
Reynard | German | “powerful advice” | Fewer than 5 |
Richmond | German | “powerful protector” | 24 |
Thor | Norse | “thunder” | 87 |
Ulric | English | “wealthy, powerful ruler” | 10 |
Some of the names above, notably Brian and Ethan, are already widely-used, but others are yet to be discovered. Egon, for instance, as in the great Austrian painter Egon Schiele, didn’t show up in the Social Security list of Most Popular Names at all, meaning it was given to fewer than five American boys last year.
Many of these names conjure up an image of a pre-modern warrior, the kind that fought with swords and arrows. Surely there were companies of medieval knights in Western Europe that included Godrics, Griffins, Merricks and Anguses. They almost feel like the distant forebears of such fashionable, violent-feeling names as Gunnar and Remington.
Boy Names That Feel Strong
Of course, boys’ names that literally mean power are not the only kind of masculine names that convey power and strength. Some newly-popular word names portray strength, some names of powerful heroes (and anti-heroes) can lend their strength to a namesake, while other masculine names simply carry the aura of power. A roundup:
Name | Origin | Meaning | Popularity |
Greek | god name | 787 | |
German | “father of peace” | 3441 | |
English | “badger” | 684 | |
German | “brown” | 382 | |
Latin | “heavy, dull” | Fewer than 5 | |
Irish | “little wolf” | 67 | |
Latin | “belonging to the Lord“ | 5394 | |
English | word name | 513 | |
English | “born near an outcrop of flint” | 85 | |
English | “son of the unspoiled forest” | 68 | |
Old Norse via Russian | “warrior” | 16 | |
English | word name | 2642 | |
Scottish | “round hill” | 1527 | |
Norse | “knot” | Fewer than 5 | |
Scottish and Irish | “son of” | 353 | |
German | “wealthy” | 556 | |
Italian | “first” | 8 | |
English | surname name | 10 | |
Dutch | “ripe, fully grown” | Fewer than 5 | |
Italian via German | “rest” | 673 | |
English | word name | 30 | |
Italian | diminutive of Rocco | 215 | |
English | “famous ruler” | 11 | |
Hebrew | “sun” | 476 | |
English | word name | 52 | |
English | word name | 177 | |
English | word name | 67 | |
Hungarian | “life” | 16 |
(By the way, if you’re looking for girls’ names that connote strength, check out our recent post on Wonder Woman-inspired names.)
Comments
4 Responses to “Strong Names For Baby Boys”
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Sky85 Said on September 15th, 2017 at 11:59 am
I love Wolf, Axel & Stone the most. I also like Anders, Emeric, Griffin, Richmond, Ulric & Holt.
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tabitha Said on September 16th, 2017 at 11:27 am
Unfortunately the tables in this post aren’t formatting well on my phone, I can’t scroll across to the meaning column. Just a note that not all of us view this site on a desktop computer.
Having said that, I like Anders, Angus, Atlas and Axel – I’m sensing a theme here!!
But I love Evander. I love its’ history, meaning, the punchy V sound and how it also somehow seems very modern as well. This is a “strong” contender for a future boy!
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VoronX Said on September 19th, 2017 at 3:50 pm
Some good strong boy’s names are Xerxes, Israfel, and Orion. I may know a little boy with all three.
Theoden is another strong name.Xander would have been a good one for that list. Vin Diesel’s character had that in the movie xXx.
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VoronX Said on September 19th, 2017 at 3:52 pm
I imagine Aegon is going to be more popular than Egon in the near future, though, LOL. #GoT
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