Boy Names That Mean Life

Darnel, the plant from which this name derives, is an intoxicating plant, which used to be grown to make medicines and poisons.

Though a common name in Hungary, with the spelling Zoltán, the relatively rare Z sound is striking to English speakers. Penn Gillette used the Zolten spelling for his son; it was also the name of Dracula's dog, and was also a robotic character in Dude, Where's My Car?.

Upper-crusty hotelish surname.

A popular name in medieval Scotland, it can be found in the surname Macbeth, meaning "son of Beathan" or "son of life." In later years it was increasingly anglicized as Benjamin.

The Brits say BARK-lee, but we pronounce it the same as the name of the California college: either way it's quite pretentious and of another era.

Beautiful downtown Burbank -- about as glamorous a place-name as Akron...or Detroit.

Hy was once a nickname for Hyman, a Jewish Anglicization of Chaim. Today it has gone extinct, for obvious reasons.

Bromley is an English surname-name that's more possible as a first name now than ever before. The -ley suffix has been adopted for many names, and surnames such as Bromley are fashionable.

Off-putting cousin of Bradley and Rodney.

Bekele is an attractive Ethiopian name prime for use in the English-speaking world, especially given the short form Bek. Pronunciation is three syllables with the emphasis on the second -- beh-KEH-lee.

Tarvo has two potential origin stories. The first is that it derives from the Old Finnish word tarvas, meaning "wild aurochs," a wild species of cattle that is now extinct. The second possible derivation is from the Estonian tarv, meaning "energy."

Selig comes from the Yiddish vocabulary word meaning 'happy, fortunate, blessed.' Most of us are more familiar with its Woody Allen variation, Zelig.

Simple and down-to-earth, but would probably work best as a middle name.