smm1's list "Potential Dog Names" of 20 great name ideas: Honor - Rhys!

Potential Dog Names

Honor is a somewhat more straight-laced virtue name than Hope or Grace, placing a high standard on any girl carrying it, but it's a goal worth setting. By choosing Honor for her daughter, Jessica Alba brought it very much into the modern world. 
 
Honor has become popular as a nonbinary name, given to nearly equal numbers of girls and boys but not ranking in the Top 1000 for either.
 
Probably the best known bearer is British actress Honor Blackman, remembered for her roles in The Avengers and the James Bond Goldfinger.
 The more feminine Honora is also pretty and a fresh route to Nora. In another variation, Honoria Blake is a character in the Dickens novel Bleak House, Honoria Brady is the hero's cousin in the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by W. M. Thackeray and Honoria Glossop, a character in the Jeeves stories by P. G. Wodehouse.

Honor

Lovely entry into the tree name genre, joining Juniper, Maple, and Willow. Nearly 200 babies were named Cypress in the US last year, about 40 percent of them female.

Cypress

In Greek mythology, Nyx was a powerful goddess and the embodiment of the night, giving this name a dark yet mystical feel. She is often depicted as one of the first deities, an offspring of Chaos who appears in black robes and whom even Zeus fears to anger.
 
Similar in sound to Nicks (or Nicky) and to Onyx, Phoenix, Lennyx, Pixie, and Trixie, some may associate it too strongly with the word nix (meaning "nothing", "refuse" or "put an end to"), or to the make-up brand, Nyx. It was nevertheless chosen for nearly 70 girls (and 30 boys) in the US in a recent year.

Burke

Sable is often associated with the Dynsaty soap opera, but it is actually a type of animal historically hunted for its fur. Sable is also used as a word for a warm, rich black color. Both associations carry hints of luxury.

Sable

Cato conjures up images of ancient Roman statesmen and southern antebellum retainers; it could have revival potential, with its 'O' ending and the current interest in the names of Greek and Roman antiquity.
 The Roman statesman known as Cato the Elder was born Marcus Portius, the Cato added in tribute to his natural sagacity, practical wisdom and political expertise.
 Cato appears in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and, to go from the sublime to the ridiculous, in the Pink Panther movies--and Kato was The Green Hornet's valet. Cato is also a 21st century Hunger Games name, which could do more to spur its popularity than all its past history.

Cato

The name of the brave, resourceful hero of Homer's epic saga, Odysseus is associated with hatching the Trojan Horse plot, and with his long and challenging journey home to his kingdom. Possibly meaning "to hate" or "wrathful", the exact etymology is unknown, with some scholars suggesting it was drawn from a non-Greek source.
 
The wrathful meaning, however, likely comes from Homer's Odyssey, in which Odysseus's grandfather names him to reflect his own feelings towards life. 
 
A weighty choice that may once have been dismissed as too out there, Odysseus has, nevertheless been appearing in the US stats since the late 1990s. Given to 44 boys in a recent year, Odysseus is arguably not too dissimilar to Ulysses, Atticus, Ozias, Augustus, and Thaddeus.
 
Plus, with mythological names in vogue and the 2026 movie The Odyssey making it far more familiar, perhaps coming years will see Odysseus climb higher. 
 
Nicknames could be Odie or Ozzy.

Odysseus

Saint John Bosco is well-known to Catholic School children, but Bosco is perhaps better known as a chocolate syrup.

Bosco

These days, some may think of Hermes as an upscale brand name like Chanel and Porsche (spelled as Hermès), or a strange choice thanks to the parcel delivery company. However, with names from Greek mythology very much in style, it is possible there will be plenty who link it to the Greek messenger god. 
 
Derived from the Greek herma meaning "pile of stones" or "boundary marker", Hermes is the god of travellers, writers, athletes, merchants and thieves. Often portrayed as wearing a winged helmet, he is also associated with delivering messages, with good luck, and with speed.
 
Pronounced as HEHR-MEHS in Classic Greek, the English pronunciation is typically HUHR-meez. In Spanish it would be EHR-mehs and in French, EHR-MEHZ.
 
Actress Kelly Rutherford bestowed the name on her son in the late 2000s, and it has since seen moderate use in the US. In a recent year, it was chosen for just shy of 40 boys.

Hermes

Jeter, which of course is used as a first name only because of Yankee star Derek, rhymes with Peter and may be derived from the French surname Jette, which was often bestowed on foundlings because it means "thrown out," or the German Jetter, an occupational name meaning "weeder".
 
These days, however, it may also be seen as a creative spin on Jet or Jett, blended with the popular -er ending, which also links it to jet engines, jumbo jets, the shade jet black, and to the gemstone.

Jeter

A royal, European name, and a relation of Rayner and Ragnar, Rainier is also associated with the majestic mountain in Washington state. Traditionally pronounced as REH-NYEH in French and as ray-NEER in American English, this name also coincides with a word indicating increasingly wet weather. 
 
Given to 35 boys in the US in recent year, it ranked slightly above Rayner but below Ragnar.

Rainier

Any number of Fitz names -- Fitzgerald, Fitzpatrick, Fitzroy, Fitzwilliam -- have been used as Christian names, in fact Fitzwilliam was the given name of the dashing Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. Fitz can be a short form of any of them and is often, like Mac, a nickname drawn from a surname.

Fitz

Yes, it's the name of the brightest star in the sky, but can't you just hear people saying, "Are you serious?" Singer Erykah Badu used it as a middle name for son Seven. 

Sirius

Clancy, one of the original crossover Irish surname names, is as energetic and appealing as ever &mdash; full of moxie, more distinctive than Casey, and also one of the less obvious of the red-headed names.
 A literary namesake is Clancy Sigal, author of the autobiographical novel Going Away, and there is also the comical mid-century song, Clancy Lowered the Boom.
 More common as a last name than a first, Clancy has gained fame via the Irish folk music group the Clancy Brothers, and one of the bestselling authors of all time, Tom Clancy, known for his espionage and techno thrillers.

Clancy

Stately Gaius (pronounced GUY-us) was in the name of many ancient Romans, including Julius Caesar. Little-used before the year 2000, it now feels like a fresh possibility in the revival of Latin boys' names like Atticus and Cassius. Caius and derivatives like Caio come from the same root, and in ancient Roman times Caius was probably pronounced as Gaius. You could also see Gaius as a male version of the earth-goddess name Gaia.

Gaius

The French-accented Pascal was historically used for sons born at Easter, and can make an interesting choice for a boy with Gallic roots arriving around that holiday. 
 Pascal has a number of notable first and last named namesakes, including the philosopher Blaise Pascal, a character in Beauty and the Beast and--for computer freaks--it is also the name of a scientific database.
 Pascoe is an attractive Cornish variation.

Pascal

If you like names that are not really names -- some say, the wave of the future -- Harbor has an attractive sound as well as an appealing meaning and image. 

Harbor

Rigby is a rather stiff British surname, which might call to mind the Beatles "Eleanor Rigby" or, from the recent past, Cathy Rigby, the first American woman to win a medal in World Gymnastics competition.  The problem with Rigby may be its similarity to the word "rigid."

Rigby

Winslet is one of a legion of surnames newly considered fair game as first names. The inspiration may be British star Kate, but she's not the only reason parents are attracted to Winslet, one of those <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/195/british-girl-names-">British girl names</a> that sounds at once classy and winning. Yet be warned that if you choose this, people will forever assume you are major fans of the actress. Other Win- beginning names up for new consideration: Winslow, Winston, Wynton, Winifred and Winnie, along with just plain Win or Wyn or Wynn.

Winslet

Less than ten percent of the babies named Rhys are girls, whereas Reese is given five times more often to girls than to boys, thanks to Ms. Witherspoon.  It's a sleek and attractive name, but one that benefits from two accepted spellings that help clarify its gender identity.