Names for Animals

Archer

English

"bowman"

Archer is an Anglo-Saxon surname that feels more modern than most because of its on-target occupational and Hunger Games associations. And it's a nice way to bypass the clunky Archibald to get to the…

Evander

Scottish; Greek

"bow warrior; strong man"

Evander is a name that could build on the popularity of shorter form Evan, and could work and play well with schoolmates like Zander and Xander. Evander was prominent in Greek and Roman mythology: in…

Neil

Irish

"cloud"

Always the top spelling of the name; Neil peaked in the 1950s, but then enjoyed a second coming following the fame of such Neils as astronaut Armstrong and singers Sedaka, Diamond, and Young. Now…

Dimitri

Russian from Greek Demetrius

"follower of Demeter"

Dimitri is a Slavic variation of the Russian Dmitriy, a name that comes from the Greek Demetrius. Demetrius was derived from Demeter, the name of the Greek goddess of fertility and farming. Among the…

Bowie

Scottish

"blond, yellow"

Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn put this name in play as a first name, but David Bowie (born with the considerably less marketable moniker of David Robert Jones) gave it charisma. He changed his…

Lester

Variation of Lester, English

"military camp by the river Ligore"

A popular choice in the US in the early 20th-century, Lester made the Top 100 consistently for 46 years between 1886 and 1931. It then remained in the Top 500 until the mid-80s before dropping out of…

Claude

French from Latin

"lame; enclosure"

Claude is a soft-spoken French name that conjures up the pastel colors of Monet and harmonies of Debussy. In France, it is used for girls as well, in fact in the Tracy Chevalier novel Lady and the…

Dirk

Flemish and Dutch, contracted form of Derek

A perennial classic in the Netherlands, short-and-sweet Dirk is starting to feel like a fresher alternative to cousin Derek.

Cletus

Greek

"called forth"

Sometimes used as a short-form of Catholic Pope name Anacletus, Cletus is an ancient name that has not-yet found the popularity of Theodore, Leo, Atticus and Max. It perhaps suffers from its…