User-created list
By Fiery~Red~Fox · Updated May 2023
Across 5 pages
of 5
German
"bear"
Benno is a cool name in its own right -- there was a tenth century Saint Benno -- though it is also used as a lively nickname for Benjamin. Saint Benno of Meissen is the patron saint of anglers and…
Word name
This recently coined respelling of Cole darkens its image.
Bird name
From Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore , the story of a boy named Kafka -- crow in Czech.
Short form of Konstantinos, Greek form of Constantine
"steadfast"
Kostas makes the ancient emperor's name more approachable.
Axe, spelled like this, is used for a handful of baby boys in the US each year. You can see it as one of the new weapon names, along with Dagger and Beretta, or as an abbreviation of the very popular…
Botanical name, English
"rough stream"
Highly unusual as a baby name for either gender, Yarrow is an herb that grows wild and has long been used for its medicinal property. It's named for the mythical Achilles, who was said to carry…
Dagger is one of the new badass baby names , a sharp and scary choice that some parents may feel arm their child for battle in a cruel modern world.
English word name
"exposure to injury, pain, harm, or loss"
Prime example of the aggressive word names that are an off-the-grid branch of the new macho names. Makes Cannon, Maverick, and Ranger feel almost soft and sensitive by comparison.
English place-name
"from the oxen crossing"
High-collared and straightlaced, with the deadly "Ox" nickname.
The version of Rob used in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books and HBO's Game of Thrones .
English, Gaelic
"minstrel, poet"
A literary word name, now synonymous with Shakespeare, Bard also refers more generally to a poet, particularly one who recited epics and traditional poems out loud. Similar in sound to Bernard,…
Short form of Bardolph or Aboriginal
"water"
Bardo has a poetic beginning and upbeat ending, with roots in several diverse cultures. It may be most familiar today via George Saunders' novel Lincoln in the Bardo , which refers to the Tibetan…
Color and nature name
Even among the range of blue names on the current baby naming palette -- Blue itself, Azure, Cerulean, Teal, Aqua, Cyan, Indigo -- Cobalt remains the most unusual, not to mention the most masculine.
Greek
"bed bug"
This herb is also known as cilantro. It's meaning, "bed bug" is on account of its smell, characterized by the ancient Greeks as bed bug-like.
Even if you're hoping for a fiery child, this seems like playing with fire. One celebrity--Steve Vai--was bold enough to use it for his son.
There are many fire-related names, from Aidan to Fiammetta, but the Flame isn't one that's often found on birth certificates. It's a highly symbolic word: flames can represent faith, passion and…
Word and comic book name
Flash Gordon makes this a superhero name, but Flash might just appeal to modern parents looking for one of the new active boys' names, ala Ace and Breaker and Ranger. We'd recommend something more…
"free"
One of the classic hippie word names. In the 1970s, actors Barbara Hershey and David Carradine gave this name to their son...who later changed it to Tom.
Spanish
"fire"
Hot name best used as a middle, as Paula Patton and Robin Thicke did for their son Julian in 2010.
Nature name
There's a whole quarry of rocky names parents are now considering: Slate, Flint, etc. , but this one is particularly hard-edged and problematic.
