No longer tied to the hapless Ace Ventura, this jaunty, high-flying nickname name is starting to take flight among celebrity and other parents, with its countless positive references to doing well in tests and poker games, on the tennis court and golf course, and in the air.
 Natalie Appleton, Tom Dumont, Jennie Finch, and Jessica Simpson all have little Aces. The best known grownup with the name is Ace Frehley, born Paul, one-time KISS guitarist.

Since the first production of Camille this has been considered one of the world's most romantic names, though it's one of those <a href="https://nameberry.com/baby-names/498/french-names-for-boys">French names for boys</a> rarely heard in this country.
 Actor Armie Hammer's first name is Armand.

Armand

Arthur, once the shining head of the Knights of the Round Table, is, after decades of neglect, now being polished up and restored by stylish parents, inspired perhaps by the new generation of royals. Arthur has led the list of possible names for the young British princes, chosen as a middle name for Prince Louis, son of William and Catherine, Prince and Princess of Wales.
 In addition to its leading role in the Arthurian legends, Arthurs figure prominently in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and George Eliot's Adam Bede. There are also countless Arthurs in children's literature, movies, and TV -- including The Fonz of Happy Days fame. More recently, Arthur was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Santa in the eponymous movie Arthur Christmas.
 Arthur has many notable namesakes, including playwright Arthur Miller; writer/astronomer Arthur C. Clarke; writers Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Rimbaud and Arthur Koestler; philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer; conductor Arthur Fiedler; and tennis great Arthur Ashe, the first African American to win the U.S. Open. Queen Victoria's seventh child was Prince Arthur.
 Arthur was a Top 20 name from at least 1880 through 1926. And in 2011, actress Selma Blair named her son Arthur Saint.

Arthur

This Ashley-like surname name actually made the US Top 1000 around the turn of the 20th century. Used very quietly today in equal numbers -- about a dozen each -- for boys and girls. Ashby is a major thoroughfare in Berkeley, California.

Ashby

Corydon

Dacey is a delicate and lacy Irish name with real possibilities. 

Dacey

Relaxed, laid-back cowboy name with broad appeal and more staying power than you might guess: Dallas has ranked among the Top 1000 boy names in the US since records began in 1880.

Today, Dallas is increasingly a gender-neutral option, still given to three times as many baby boys as girls though the gap is narrowing. Still, Dallas's star as a boys' name continues to rise, up more than 100 places since the turn of the century.

For boys, Dallas might be considered one of those golden names that's trending but not trendy.

Dallas

One of the original techno-punk bands of the late seventies, but even the most devoted fan has to admit that was a long time ago.

Devo

The jazzy, ultra-cool Dexter, like most names with an "x," has a lot of energy and dynamism. Over the years, it's been attached to a number of diverse real and fictional personalities—C. K. Dexter Haven, the witty Cary Grant character in The Philadelphia Story; Dexter Green, the protagonist of the F. Scott Fitzgerald story "Winter Dreams"; great jazz tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon; the boy-genius protagonist of cartoon Dexter's Laboratory; and the most recent TV series Dexter based on the books by Jeff Lindsay, whose lead happens to be a genial but sociopathic serial killer.
 Dexter was chosen by hip musical couple Diana Krall and Elvis Costello for one of their twin boys, and by singer Charlotte Church.
 Dex is an equally appealing nickname, now sometimes used on its own.

Dexter

The energetic Diego is rising rapidly along with a lot of other authentically <a href="https://nameberry.com/baby-names/161/spanish-names">Spanish baby names</a> that work perfectly well with surnames of any origin. 
 Possibly a derivative of Santiago, Diego is a Sevillian saint, and one notable cultural namesake is Mexican painter Diego Rivera.

Diego

One of the new bird names, like Lark and Wren, this one's associated with the billing and cooing sounds of love. Soft and gentle, Dove also has the admirable association with peace.
 Dove was actually an early bird, used as a first name in the seventeenth century and in the U.S. Top 1000 through the 1890's.
 One admirable surname association is with Rita Dove, the Pulitzer Prize winning poet and former United States Poet Laureate.

Dove

Erasmus has long retained the image of the bearded and bespectacled Dutch philosopher, but could be one that the audacious baby namer just might dare to dust off.
 The fourth century Saint Erasmus was also known as Elmo, the patron saint of sailors. The name is closely associated with Renaissance humanist and theologian Desiderius Erasmus, who was born Geert Geerts.
 Another less known bearer was Charles Darwin's grandfather, the poet, naturalist and physician Erasmus Darwin. The fictional Erasmus Holyday is a learned teacher in Walter Scott's 1821 novel Kenilworth, published at a time when the name did have some popularity in England.

Erasmus

If this name makes you think of Victorian novels, it's because Fairfax was part of Mr Rochester's name in Jane Eyre, and the surname of a minor character in Jane Austen's Emma. It has a distinctly aristocratic feel, despite its straightforward meaning. Fairfax is also a city in Virginia.

Fairfax

Felix is one of those ancient but nontraditional names for boys that have come into favor over the past few decades, a favorite of parents who want a masculine name with history and heft that breaks ranks with the standard Franks and Freds. Felix is also an international darling, ranking in the Top 100 in several European and English-speaking countries.

Felix was originally a Roman surname but was adopted as a nickname by the ancient Roman Sulla, who believed that he was especially blessed with luck by the gods. It is the name of four popes and sixty-seven saints; in the Bible, Felix is a Roman procurator of Judea.
 
Felix, energetic and upbeat with a felicitous meaning, has finally transcended its negative associations to Felix The Cat and the persnickety Felix Unger. 
 
The name appears in literature as the central character in George Eliot's novel Felix Holt, the protagonist of Thomas Mann's Confessions of Felix Krull, in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Henry James's The Europeans, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, and as a member of the Volturi Guard in the Twilight series. In movies Felix has popped up in everything from several James Bond films to Spy Kids and The Hangover.
 
Gillian Anderson and Elizabeth Banks are two modern celebrities who chose Felix for their baby boys. A notable namesake is Felix Frankfurter, a long-term Supreme Court Justice.
 
Popular in the Hispanic community, Felix is also celebrating a surge abroad. Felix has been on the <a href="https://nameberry.com/popular-names">U.S. popularity list</a> for as long as records have been kept and is rapidly becoming a Nameberry fave.

Felix

Finlay is a Scottish royal name: it belonged to Macbeth's father, Finlay MacRory--or Findlaech mac Ruaidri--that has a bit of a split personality. It has two acceptable spellings--Finlay and Finley, the first more popular in its native Scotland, where it ranks in the Top 10, the second in the US. It is also becoming more and more unisex in the States, with the Finley spelling now split between girls and boys.

 Increasingly popular on the celebrity circuit, the splits are evident here too. Amanda Pays and Corbin Bernsen, and Sadie Frost have boys named Finlay, Chris O'Donnell and Holly Marie Combs have sons called Finley, and Lisa Marie Presley, Daniel Baldwin, and Angie Harmon and Jason Sehorn have daughters named Finley; the latter couple were instrumental in making the gender switch in 2003.

Finlay

After Leo, this is one of the most usable names in the zodiac: part ancient, part new-age, part high-tech. In the night sky, the constellation Gemini is present all year round in both hemispheres. It has been associated with twins since ancient times, and its two brightest stars are named Castor and Pollux after the twins of Greek mythology. It also has STEM connections: Project Gemini was a NASA spaceflight program before Apollo.

Gemini

Originally a unisex nickname for a redhead -- red hair is called "ginger" in Britain -- or for the name Virginia, Ginger perennially wears pink gingham and spike heels. 

Ginger

Previously used primarily by Latino families, this name of the great hero of the Trojan War as related in Homer's Iliad is beginning to be considered more seriously by others seeking noble ancient hero names as well--it was also the name of the knight who raised King Arthur as his own son.
 In addition to being used for many contemporary Hispanic movie and TV characters,
other Hectors appeared in such films as Mystic Pizza and Lars and the Real Girl. In literature, you can find Hectors in Thackeray's Vanity Fair and Balzac's Cousin Bette.
 Some notable real-life Hectors: composer Berlioz and actor Elizando.

Hector

Looking for a Texas name more distinctive than Austin and Dallas?  Houston is a lanky, roguish place-name, right in style with its Texas accent and cowboy image.

Houston

Jack may have fallen from its Number 1 place in England, but in the US it's as popular as it was at its height in the 1920s and 1930s. A durable, cheery, everyman form of John, Jack ranks as one of the most popular <a href="https://nameberry.com/search/boys-names/j">boy names starting with J</a>. 
Jack is a derivative of John that originated in medieval England. The name went from John to Johnkin to Jankin to Jackin to Jack. The name was so common in the Middle Ages that Jack became a generic term for a man. 
 
Jack is familiar to all from earliest childhood via Jack and Jill, Jack Sprat, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Jack Horner et al. It is still a recent favorite for novel, TV and movie characters. 
 
Jack is at the top of the charts in Ireland and Scotland, and also ranks highly in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
 
The jaunty Scottish version is Jock.

Jack

This unpretentious, accessible, and optimistic ("everything's jake" -- meaning OK) short form of the top name Jacob is itself widely used, though more parents these days are opting for the full name Jacob. Jake (born Jacob) Gyllenhall is its most prominent current bearer. 

Jake

Jethro, though the biblical father-in-law of Moses, has suffered for a long time from a Beverly Hillbilly image, but some really adventurous parents might consider updating and urbanizing it and transitioning it into the hip o-ending category. 
 The 60s rock group Jethro Tull was named for an eighteenth century British agricultural reformer and inventor.

Jethro

A jaunty diminutive of Job, or simply a soundalike to Toby, Koby et al.

Joby

This nickname for popular and traditional Joseph has a long history of being used as a given name all on its own. Nonetheless, everyone will always assume that Joey is short for the longer form. It might be nice for a potential son to have the option of a more professional and classic name to fall back on.

Joey

Attractive British place-name with a sense of humor. Fun fact: John Wayne played five characters with the first or second name of Kirby. 

Kirby

Nickname name Lainey has been rising since the turn of the century to become a Top 200 girls' name in the US today.

Mother name Elaine has reversed a long slide to start an upward climb too. And the popularity of the gender neutral name Lane hasn't hurt.

Lainey is now more popular than Elaine, Laney, or Lane.

Lainey

A versatile classic, Lucy is both sweet and solid, a saint's name, and the heroine of several great novels. First fashionable in England and Wales, Lucy is now a popular choice in the US, The Netherlands, and New Zealand.
 
The English form of the Roman Lucia, Lucy derives from the Latin word lux, meaning “light.” Once given to girls born at dawn, Lucy is also associated with Saint Lucia, the patron saint of the blind.
 
Lucy has a wide range of namesakes, from the bossy friend in the Peanuts comic, to psychedelic "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," to the rash and zany heroine of I Love Lucy. 
 
It is a name with a rich literary history, chosen for the heroines of Charlotte Brontë’s novel Villette, E.M. Forster’s A Room With A View, Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy, and C. S Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia - just to name a few. 
 
Beyond fiction, Lucy Stone was an important American activist, Lucy Worsley is a successful author and historian, and Lucy Lui is an actress who has imparted strength and style to the name.
 
Simple but sophisticated, playful but grounded, it is no wonder Lucy is a popular choice. Given to over 4000 girls in the US each year, it is a classic that doesn’t feel dusty.
 
If you love Lucy, but don’t love its popularity, you could consider one of its many variants. From vintage Lucille, to the musical Lucetta, to the fresh, unexpected Lux; from nickname-y Lou to sleek Luciana, there are plenty of possibilities.

Lucy

Spaniards use Pax and Paz, Hebrew speakers Shalom, for Greeks it's Irene, so why can't we make the English word Peace a name? Peace Adzo Medie is the author of the novel His Only Wife</a>.

Peace

All the old ae/ay <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/479/middle-names-for-girls">middle names for girls</a> are back--Kay, Fay, Mae/May, --and Rae is one of the coolest, used as such by celebrities as Mark Wahlberg and Daniel Baldwin. Even more popular in the celebrisphere is the jazzy Ray spelling: among those who used it as their daughters' middles are Bruce Willis, Dermot Mulroney, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman and Lee Lee Sobieski. 
 But Rae is perfectly capable of standing on her own, as in Rae Dawn Chong; it was in the Top 500 in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

A modernization of the Hebrew Rivka, which doesn't sound so modern anymore. 

Riva

Weapon-related names like Saber have been on the rise in recent years.  In 2014, ten baby boys in the US were named Saber and five Sabre.  The name may also relate to the Arabic Sabir, though to contemporary English-speakers, the reference will more likely be the sword.

Saber

It would be easy to dismiss this girlish name as invented fluff, but it has roots in several cultures with evocative meanings and references. Shani refers to the "scarlet thread" or theme of a story. Shani is also the name of a Hindu god and the Sanskrit word for the planet Saturn. And it's a Swahili name also found in other African cultures that means marvelous.

Shani

This once-cool nickname-y name now belongs to the grandma generation. 

Shari

Animated Gaelic name popularized by singer Sheena Easton, also brings to mind Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, the Amazonian comic book and TV series heroine. Sine is considered to be and English equivalent of Jane or Jean. 

Sheena

A bright and warm possibility for a summertime girl, Solana has been heard in a few video games. Solana Rowe is the real name of the singer known as SZA.

Solana

Most parents today would prefer the softer-sell Stella. But Star has symbolic power related to Christmas, so this could make one of the perfect <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/577/names-for-december-babies">names for December babies</a>.

Star

Windswept and dramatic, but perhaps asking for trouble. Quite popular in Denmark and Sweden, where it derives from Stromr, which is a fairly common surname. Storm Thorgerson is a famous bearer of the name - he designed iconic album covers for Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Cranberries, Anthrax, and Pink Floyd.

Storm

Sunshine was seen as a quintessential hippie name of the 70s, reaching as high as Number 536 in 1975. Now such names are making a bit of a retro comeback, seen, for example, as a character on Glee.

Sunshine

Shanley

Tasha

Tobias is one of a number of s-ending <a href="https://nameberry.com/boys-names">boys' names</a> that are riding a wave of popularity. With its Old Testament-Dickensian feel, it's a name with a distinguished pedigree. 
Tobias is the Greek form of the Hebrew Tobiah, which was derived from the name Toviyah. Toviyah was created from the elements tov, meaning "good" and yah, representing the Hebrew God. Tobias is the name of several biblical figures but is primarily associated with the story of Tobias and the Angel.
 A contemporary bearer is Tobias Wolff, author of A Boy's Life. Tobias Smollett was a major eighteenth century Scottish novelist. Tobias Snape, meanwhile, is a Harry Potter character.
 
The short form Toby has a life of its own, used independently at least as far back as Shakespeare's time, with Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. Toby also was the name of a character on The West Wing. Actor Tobey Maguire was born Tobias and named his son Otis Tobias.
 
There is also the rarely used but still viable daddy of them all --Tobiah, the name of a rebel Hebrew king

Tobias

In the 1940s, Toni began to surpass its progenitor, Antonia, but it peaked in 1960 and has since dropped back below the US Top 1000.

 American author Toni Morrison is an eminent namesake. She was actually born Chloe Ardelia but took the baptismal name Anthony when she converted to Catholicism aged 12, which is where her nickname comes from. Australian actress Toni Collette is another notable bearer.

Toni

When actress Susan Ker Weld changed her name to Tuesday, she opened up a whole calendar of possibilities. This was decades before the arrival of Sunday Rose Urban.

Tuesday

Tani

Tomo

Zodiac's list "More names that I like" of 45 great name ideas: Ace - Tomo!

More names that I like

This is a collection of more names that I have found and that I like. Don't worry, more are coming!