User-created list
By rosedelaterre · Updated December 2022
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English, Welsh "alert; son of Howell"
"alert; son of Howell"
Powerful surname choice with many distinguished bearers, fresher sounding than Parker.
German form of Maurice
"dark-skinned"
The unusual-to-the-English-ear Moritz is a Top 25 name in Austria and a form of Maurice or Morris, which are modern variations of the ancient Roman Maurus. There were several early saints named…
Hebrew
"God is just"
Adlai is an Old Testament name long associated with 1950's liberal presidential candidate Stevenson, who was named after his grandfather, who was Grover Cleveland's vice president in the nineteenth…
Dutch
"scholar"
This worthy name, imported by the early Dutch colonists, has been all but overpowered by the phonetic spellings -- Skyler for boys and Skylar for girls. With the surnames-as-first-names trend,…
Latin
"chickpea"
Roman statesman's name with a cool and quirky sound. Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman scholar, orator and lawyer who had an immense impact on the Latin language.
Irish
"love, friendship"
Connelly is an open, inviting, and rarely used Irish surname that can make a perfect alternative to the overused Connor or Colin for a boy.
English
"boar battle"
Averill is an ancient name, most properly spelled Averil, that has a Boston Brahmin air – probably due to the image of statesman Averill Harriman. It's of the rare English surname names that…
Irish, anglicized form of Old Gaelic Buadhachain
"victorious"
The surname of influential French fashion designer Marc Bohan could make a modern-sounding two-syllable boy's name, though it might be confused with Bowen.
Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese variation of Prosper
"succeed, prosper"
Shakespeare's Tempest has kept the name Prospero alive.
French
"piper"
Peverell is the surname of a Harry Potter family.
Welsh
"great ruler"
Meredith has been considered primarily a girl's name since the fifties, before which it was more commonly used for boys. Comic actor Jay Mohr recently named his son Meredith, which might help it…
Demeter, while historically a feminine name from Greek mythology, has occasionally been used as a masculine name in some contexts. In Greek mythology, Demeter was the powerful goddess of agriculture,…
"born handsome or son of Caomhan "
If you're looking for an Irish last name that moves beyond Casey and Cassidy, this one is pleasant sounding and worth considering. Kavanaugh, which can also be spelled Cavanagh, Cavenagh, Kavanagh,…
Gaelic or Sindarin
"white, fair"
Derived from the Scottish Gaelic bàn , meaning "white, fair". It's also a name in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Elvish language, in which it means "beautiful".
Scottish and English
"hall or woodland clearing"
While this has a distinguished male namesake -- astronomer Edmund Halley and his comet -- it still strays too close to the superpopular feminine Hailey family to work for some parents for a boy.…
English nature name
Shell has been used as a short form of Shelley for all genders and Sheldon for boys. That was then: Now, Shell can be a beachy nature name and word name turned baby name.
Macaire is a masculine name with French origins, derived from the Greek name Makarios meaning 'blessed' or 'happy.' This elegant name has historical significance in France and appears in medieval…
"little dog"
A jovial and jaunty Irish name, the title of a long-gone TV crime drama, this would make an appealing choice. Slight downside: Maddy is already a mega-popular nickname for Madeline/Madelyn and…
Maghnus is a masculine name of Irish and Scottish Gaelic origin, representing the traditional Gaelic form of Magnus. The name ultimately derives from the Latin 'magnus,' meaning 'great' or 'large.'…
