Renaissance Boy Names from Florence

A handsome and romantic-sounding European option.

This attractively energetic Italian version of the classic Matthew is primed to move further and further into mainstream American nomenclature. Mateo is technically the Spanish version, but many parents in the US use the two spellings interchangeably.

Orlando, the ornate Italianate twist on the dated Roland, with a literary heritage stretching back to Shakespeare and before, has appealing book-ended o's, and is open to combination with almost any last name, a la British actor, Orlando Bloom.

Otto is cool again. Long a quintessential Old Man Name, Otto has been promoted to trending darling of adventurous baby namers.

Piero is elegant, melodic, appealing. Just picture the muted frescoes of Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca.

Yet another winning international form of Peter.

As commonly heard in Rome, Italy, as Steve is in Rome, New York. With the accent on the first syllable, Stefano has a lot of charm.

Old World Italian name that might become fashionable in a so-far-out-it's-in way, like Enzo and Rocco. Main recommendation: It's among the rare boy names that mean life.