Enby Names

Lars is a perfect candidate for a cross-cultural passport: it has been heard often enough here to sound familiar and friendly, yet retains the charisma of a charming foreigner.

The Hungarian classic Laszlo, with its zippy 'z' middle and energetic 'o' ending, has become something of a hipster option, beginning to be considered by cutting-edge parents.

Usually adding an e to the end of a name makes it more feminine, but Locke is at most recent count used only for baby boys. Still, this stylishly strong one-syllable name is theoretically gender-neutral.

Lucian is a sleeker, more sophisticated version of Lucius that is climbing in tandem with other Lu-starting names.

Max was derived from Maximilian, a Latin name that originated from the Roman family name Maximus. The character name Max in the children's classic Where the Wild Things Are had an impact on baby namers. Max is a widely used name internationally.

Milo is most commonly considered to be Germanic name derived from the Latin word miles, meaning "soldier." However, there is evidence to suggest it also may have independently spawned from the Slavic root milu, meaning "merciful." Milo predates brother name Miles, a variation that evolved when the name immigrated to the British Isles in the Middle Ages. Mylo is an alternate spelling.

Moby, the nickname of musician Richard Melville Hall, was thanks to his ancestor Herman Melville, creator of the infamous whale. You can imagine calling a child Moby as a cute nickname in honor of a grandfatherly Richard or Dick, but the ghost of a Dick would always follow the name around. In Melville's classic book, Moby was an invented word whose meaning has never been firmly established, though the best scholarship calls it a fictional place name that, in the custom of whaling ships of the time, helped identify the whale called Dick.

Nico is one of the great nickname names, full of charm, energy and effortless cool -- a neo Nick.

Oliver is an international star, ranking near the top of the charts in the US and throughout the English-speaking world, along with a host of European and Latin American countries, from Norway to Chile, Slovenia to Switzerland.

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.

Actor Pierce Brosnan brings a strong helping of charm to this name. Pierce was actually a popular name long before Mr. Brosnan came along, from 1880 to the end of the 1930s.

Appealing Indian and Arabic choice.

This biblical place-name for the region now known as Yemen started to feel fresh again as the name of the heroine of Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal, played on screen by Cate Blanchett.

Sleek and smart, with a hint of mystique about it, Silas is a recent addition to the US Top 100. Both mythological and Biblical in origin, Silas joins the ranks of Isaiah, Atlas, Elias, and Sebastian: polished and contemporary feeling names with plenty of history.

In Maori mythology Tāne (also called Tāne Mahuta) was the god of forests and birds, son of the sky god Rangi and the earth goddess Papa. Tāne was the one who pushed his powerful parents apart to create the land and sky.

One of the fastest-rising Indian boy names of the past few years, Veer is a straightforward choice with visual appeal and a striking V initial.

Wolf is a name with a split personality. It can be seen as one of the fierce animal names, like Fox and Bear and Puma, with a touch of the werewolf, or it can be viewed as a quieter, Wolf Blitzer kind of name, fairly common in German (where is pronounced Vulf) and Jewish families, sometimes as a short form of Wolfgang, or even Wolfram or Wolfhart.

Zev is a short, simple, animal name that may relate to the Old Testament Ze'ev -- except he was a villainous character.