Gray Cat Names

Could be the next Nova, now that celestial baby names are in the ascendent.

An interesting and attractive bicultural choice--the Hebrew version is used for babies born in spring, when turtledoves arrive--especially as a middle.

Spelling variant of Arianwen. Note that in Welsh, the -wyn suffix is usually masculine.

Hot star Ashton Kutcher is pushing this unisex choice toward the boys' camp, but its variation Ashtyn is on the rise.

Plausible word name, denoting strength and stability, currently given to a small handful of boys in the US each year.

A variation of an old Irish saint’s name, Liadin, and the name of a lovelorn poetess in Irish folk legend. Be prepared for some clumsy pronunciation outside Ireland, however.

In the ancient Hindu religion, Indra is the warrior god of sky and rain. The vowel ending could make it sound feminine to the English speaker, though Ezra and Luca work just fine, so why not Indra?

While the most famous Channing is the very male Channing Tatum, the name is now given about a third of the time for girls. It makes an attractive surname-name for either gender.

Zenebe is an appealing name well-used in Ethiopia but rarely heard outside its native land. But it translates easily into English and Zen makes for a cool and attractive nickname. A winning choice for those looking for an African boys' names that bridges cultures.

One of the top Icelandic girl names. It's very pretty — if you know how to pronounce it.

In German, the word eisen means "iron." It was adapted as a surname for Ashkenazi Jews — many of which were ornamental and had no ties to one's family history. Metals such as gold (Gold), silver (Zilver or Silver), copper (Kupfer or Copper), and iron (Eisen) were common elements in ornamental surnames. Eisen was also seen as a habitational surname for someone from Eisenstadt, Austria.

This old Persian name was chosen by actress Geena Davis for her daughter. It's an attractive variation on a name that exists in dozens of forms, from Alissa and Eliza to the French Alizee, but you'll forever be explaining how to spell and pronounce this version.

Crescent is an intriguing word name with a pretty sound and links to the moon. Cressie could make for a cute nickname, as used in the Worst Witch children's TV series, short for Crescentmoon.

Taranis was the Celtic god of thunder, the equivalent of the Norse god Thor. With Thor along with a legion of mythological choices back in use as baby names, Taranis just may have a chance to rise from the recesses of history to make the modern baby name rosters.

This kind of plainspoken nature name (think River and Sunshine) may still carry a whiff of the hippie, but this one has a nice, airy feel. It's slight similarity to Claude and Clyde helps to ground it.

A cute but rare feminine variation of the Norse thunder god (and Marvel superhero) name Thor.

Notable Wolfs like Blitzer, Mankowitz, and Kahn give this name a masculine bent, but nature names are inherently unisex, so we see no reason why Wolf can't be used on a baby girl.

Historically Wolf has been more common among German (where it's pronounced Vulf) and Jewish families, occasionally as a nickname for Wolfgang.

The nickname Wolfie softens and feminizes Wolf, while Wolfe turns it into a surname.

Surname of a fifteenth-century saint and a twenty-first-century quarterback, Brett Favre.