Boho Baby Names

Clancy, one of the original crossover Irish surname names, is as energetic and appealing as ever — full of moxie, more distinctive than Casey, and also one of the less obvious of the red-headed names.

Blue suddenly came into the spotlight, as the unusual color name chosen by Beyonce and Jay-Z for their baby girl Blue Ivy. Blue is also a starbaby middle name du jour, used for both sexes in different spellings and forms, from John Travolta and Kelly Preston's Ella Bleu to Alicia Silverstone's Bear Blu. Dave 'The Edge' Evans named his daughter Blue Angel back in 1989.

Nicole Richie and Joel Madden added this rocking name to the lexicon of day names, which have their roots in the African tradition of naming a child after the day of the week, time of day, or season in which he or she was born. But they wisely used it as a middle name.

One of those ultimate cool-girl names, played by Keira Knightley in a movie about a supermodel-turned-bounty hunter, but kids might associate it with the game. High profile British designer India Hicks used it for her daughter. As a girls' nameit's still very rare, used in 2015 in the US for only seven baby girls.

A sweet, nostalgic nosegay kind of name, Posy has been long fashionable in England, a country of gardeners, but this pretty bouquet-of-flowers name is still rarely heard in the US, though it could be seen as a more unusual possible alternative to Rosy or Josie.

Rami has gained notoriety in the English-speaking world as the first name of the Oscar-nominated actor Rami Malek, whose parents immigrated to the US from Egypt. Rami also feels more approachable thanks to the stylish Remi, Romy, and Rumi. The only challenge is keeping the pronunciation on track.

Rarely heard in the US, Auberon has a gentle autumnal feel rare in a male name. A Shakespeare-adjacent choice, Auberon started out as as a pet form of Auberi, the French form of German Alberich.

Petal is the soft and sweet-smelling name of a character in the novel and film, The Shipping News. With the rise of such flower names as Poppy and Posy, we believe Petal — down-to-earth yet romantic — has its own appealingly distinctive style.

With other bird names such as Lark and Phoenix on the rise, why not chirpy Sparrow? Nicole Richie and Joel Madden named their son, born in 2009, Sparrow James Midnight.

More unusual than Justin, less word-like than Justice, this New Testament name could make an intriguing choice. After being off the popularity lists from 1904 to 1993, it is now being used in steady numbers.

Augie is an adorable and, at this point, fresher sounding short form than Gus of the rising August and all its variations, from Augustine to Augustus. The Adventures of Augie March is a 1953 novel by Nobel winner Saul Bellow.

Floyd was a Top 100 name from the 1880s to the 1940s that somehow developed an almost comical hayseed persona along with a touch of retro jazz cool; it's beginning to appeal to parents with a strong taste for the quirky.

Khloe : Chloe :: Kleo : Cleo

Novelist Djuna Barnes introduced this interesting and unusual name with an arty, Bohemian feel to the mix. She explained that it was invented by her father, saying it came about as a combination of her infant brother's pronunciation of the word moon as 'nuna' and a character in a book her father was reading, Prince Djalma, and so he "put the Dj onto the 'una'." Result: the silent-D pronunciation (as in Django) of JOON-a.

Contrary to popular belief, the name Kahlo has German origins, rather than Spanish. It derives from kahl, a German word meaning "bald." Mexican Artist Frida Kahlo was born to a German father, photographer Guillermo Kahlo.

Sweet, modern descriptive name, but perhaps a little too cute for its own good.

Bas is a fashionable name in its own right in the Netherlands, where it's been in the Top 10. Used throughout Europe, it may have a future here as a straightforward-but-charming nickname name. Baz is another, similar and more appealing possibility.

A plausible color name, it was chosen by the singer Sting as a middle name for his daughter, after a character in the Gormenghast fantasy trilogy, of which he's a big fan. Another bearer is Fuchsia Voremberg, a member of the BBC Show, Antiques Roadshow who specializes in diaries and manuscripts.

Cyan is an attractive color names, but for a girl, better go all the way to Cyane, the name of a Sicilian nymph who lived in a blue pool.

Poet is a new entry in both the trendy word and occupational categories as well as a member of the growing group of gender neutral names. A handful of baby boys received the name in the US last year. A perfect choice, especially in the middle, for the child of writers or those with a poetic bent. And Po is an adorable nickname for either gender.