Strong, but Uncommon Sibling Set

Arden, the name of the magical forest in Shakespeare's As You Like It, is a stylish A name with a strong, straightforward image. Another reason to love Arden: its similarity to "ardent." Arden is solidly unisex, with the current gender distribution running about 60 percent girls and 40 percent boys.

Avis is a bird name that's been in hibernation for awhile, possibly due to the car rental association, but it could make a return on the wings of Ava. Baldwin brother Daniel chose it for his daughter.

Cady is one of those names that sounds popular but is actually rare in this form, given to only a few dozen baby girls in the US last year.

This ancient name, also spelled Caspar, is finally shedding its ghostly image and moving into the 21st century. Popular in the Netherlands and Scandinavia, where it's sometimes shortened to Cas, Casper could ride the style coattails of cousin Jasper.

A light variation of any of the weightier names beginning with Cas, such as Casper, Cassius etc- this is a beautifully mellow and soft name that bears greater consideration.

In the early 1990s, Cody was in the Top 25 most popular boys' names in the USA; but it has been in decline since then. It retains a greater degree of popularity in the UK, however. Cody might be short for Dakota but despite its nickname feeling, it's a name of its own.

Cole -- a short name that embodies a lot of richness and depth -- has long been associated with the great songwriter Cole Porter. It's quite popular in Scotland.

Elliot (which boasts several spellings depending upon how many 'l's or 't's you want to use) is a winner -- it has the ideal quality of being neither too common nor weirdly unique. Elliot had a style boost back in the early 1980s via the young hero of the movie E.T. , who was named Elliott. Since then there have been Elliots on Law & Order: SVU and Mad Men.

The lyrical and melodious Elodie, a Nameberry favorite, is starting to rise through the US popularity charts for the first time since the 1880s. This once uncommon member of the El- family is a Top 100 name in the UK, Canada, and New Zealand, while in the US, it was one of the fasted rising names of 2024 and now sits in the Top 400.

Garrett, also spelled with one 't', is an Irish-inflected name that was in the Top 100 in the nineties, but has now slipped in popularity.

Harrison, a name made viable by Harrison Ford, is increasingly popular with parents who want an H name that's more formal than Harry or Hank but doesn't veer into the stiff Huntington-Harrington territory.

One of those simple, straightforward English surnames -- and with a presidential pedigree -- that's easy to translate into a first. Chosen by both Kevin Costner and Jessica Alba for their sons, it has been climbing the US charts since 2009.

Hazel has a pleasantly hazy, brownish-green-eyed, old-fashioned image that more and more parents are choosing to share. Former Old Lady name Hazel reentered the popularity lists in 1998 and now is near the top of the charts.

Hiatt is a masculine name of English origin, derived from an Old English surname. The surname Hiatt likely originated as a topographical name from the words 'hegh' (high) and 'gate' (road or path), referring to someone who lived near a high road. As a first name, Hiatt is extremely uncommon, appealing to parents looking for distinctive surnames to use as given names. It has never ranked in popular name charts but fits within contemporary trends of using short, strong-sounding surname names for boys. Hiatt offers the advantage of being recognizable yet unique, with a crisp, masculine sound that's straightforward to spell and pronounce.

Keller is a German surname that originated as an occupational name for a cellar or store master, which seems to be the background of several of the most stylish new German names for boys. One of the stylish new two-syllable -er ending names for boys, Keller is rising up the ranks heading for the Top 1000. It may be an honorific for Helen Keller.

According to exclusive Nameberry data, Logan is officially the Number 1 gender-neutral name in the US, but that statistic is somewhat misleading given that nearly 90 percent of the baby Logans born in 2024 were boys.

A wearable update to the New Testament classic.

Maren is one of the many twenty-first-century takes on Mary--but we find the more classic Marin spelling preferable. When spelled Maren, the pronunciation seems more clearly to resemble Mary, with the emphasis on the first syllable. Marin, the spelling also used for the beautiful coastal county north of San Francisco, is often pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable, as in Marie.

Medora is a Greek name much less common here than, say, Melanie or Melissa. It has some literary references, including as the beautiful and passionate heroine of Lord Byron's poem The Corsair, and in Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, there is a character named Marchioness Melora Manson.