American Boy Names 

A fancy TV western name that didn't catch on like fellow cowboys Luke and Josh, but definitely has a certain amount of charm. It is also spelled Yancy, as in the 1950s series Yancy Derringer. It was first spotted in the Edna Ferber novel Cimarron, which became a popular movie.

Yancey

Rare and rugged, though one of the <a href="https://nameberry.com/">baby names</a> with a lot of teasing potential.

Teton

A unique natural-wonder option, conjuring up the beauty of the lake between California and Nevada that has become a popular tourist destination. 

Tahoe

Journalist Hiawatha Bray is a singular contemporary bearer of this name of a Native-American leader immortalized in a Longfellow poem. 

Hiawatha

Resonant place-name of the beautiful Southern California desert. 

Mojave

A place name from Venezuela believed to come from an indigenous word for wind, this can make an innovative choice for a child of either sex.

Coro

Cherokee is the name of a Native American tribe, the largest in the United States stretching from North Carolina through Oklahoma.  The meaning of the word Cherokee is uncertain: It may be Choctaw for "those who live in the mountains" or "those who live in the cave country" or it may be an Anglicization of the word the Cherokee use to refer to themselves, Tsalagi.  The name was given to 19 baby girls in the U.S. in 2013 but was not recorded on the boys' roster, though we'd consider it equally appropriate for either gender.

Cherokee

A southwestern city name that could make a distinctive alternative to Dallas. 

Tucson

Though distinguished former Speaker of the House Thomas P. O'Neill was known as Tip, it's usually best to leave names like Skip, Flip, Kip, Pip, Rip, and Tip to the pets of the household. 

Spike is part mid-century nickname-name, ala Buster or Buck, and part word name, with an all-over cool creative dude feel thanks to directors Spike Lee and Spike Jonze. Mike Myers named his son Spike. That's right: Spike and Mike. Spike qualifies as one of the distinctly <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/519/american-baby-names">American names</a>.

Spike

First Woody Allen, then Spike Lee named their children to honor the great early black pitcher, Leroy "Satchel" Paige. A bit luggage-related for non-celebrity use, however.


Satchel

A dashing French surname name most famously borne by Henry David Thoreau, an American naturalist, writer and philosopher who influenced such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. The most common modern American pronunciation is "thor-OH", with emphasis on the final syllable, although Thoreau himself pronounced it "THOR-oh".

 The origins of the surname are not entirely clear, although one possibility is that it derives from a diminutive form of the Old French tor, meaning "bull" (the root of the modern French word taureau). A fitting choice for a Taurus baby boy!

 Thoreau may also be related to the Norse name Thor "thunder", or to the Germanic name Theodoric and its French form Thierry "ruler of the people".

 With its on-trend sound and literary pedigree, Thoreau certainly makes for a rare but appealing choice. Zac and Kate Hanson used it as a middle name for their fifth child, born in 2021.

Thoreau

 is Jayden, an invented variation of the Biblical Jadon.

 American boy names that rank in the US Top 400 

include Hudson, Nolan, Easton, Colton, Maverick, Bryson, Jase, Jace, Kayden, and Sawyer.

A little further down the list are Hendrix, Maverick, Dakota, Drake, Holden, Dallas, Austin, Cash, Justice, Lincoln, and Shane. Of course, not all these names are American in origin, but they are used as first names almost exclusively in the US.

on our recommended list include Booker, Poe, Huck, Jericho, Tennessee, Langston, West, and Hiawatha.

Quintessentially American baby names for boys include the following.

American Boy Names with meanings and popularity, including top names and unique names for boys with origins in the US (Page 9)