emichel4's list "EOWAYNE-BOYS" of 20 great name ideas: Alex - Dakota!

EOWAYNE-BOYS

The independent Alex has become a classic in its own right. One of the truest <a href="https://nameberry.com/unisex-names">unisex names</a>, Alex is used almost equally for both sexes. Alex is used both on its own and as a short form of formal names of both genders, such as Alexander, Alexandra, and Alexis.

Alex

A laid-back cowboy name which feels both cool and gentle, Dallas has ranked in the US Top 500 since records began in 1880. Never super popular but surprisingly never out of style, Dallas is given to nearly 1400 boys in the US every year.

Although Dallas is often associated with the city in Texas, named for Vice President George M. Dallas, it's also: a Scottish place name with the meaning "meadow dwelling"; an English surname, meaning "valley house" and possibly an Irish name, meaning "skilled, assembly, council, or, blindness" depending on the translation. 
 
Today, Dallas is a gender neutral option too, though it is still given to nearly three times as many boys as girls. Currently a Top 300 choice Dallas meets a number of recent name trends: fresh though well established, a last name that works easily as a first name, and complete with an outdoorsy, nature-inspired meaning.

Dallas

Long lingering in limbo, Warren suddenly seems to be on the cusp of revival. One of the oldest recorded English surnames, Warren's popularity in the U.S. dates back to the nineteenth century, and by 1921, reached its peak at Number 24.
 At one time it was bestowed in honor of General Joseph Warren, the first hero of the Revolution, who was killed at Bunker Hill. There have also been a number of notable first-named Warrens, including the 29th president, Warren Gamaliel Harding, financier Warren Buffett, actor Warren Beatty and musician Warren Zevon. NFL defensive tackle Warren Sapp was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

Warren

Ellis is a former Old Man Name turned gender-neutral choice for the 21st century. It's one of the less used names in the currently popular El-family, unless you're in the UK, where it's a Top 100 choice. 
 
 Ellis has two separate roots: on one hand, it's an English surname, derived from Elias and Elijah, Greek and Hebrew names meaning "my God is Yahweh". On the other hand, it's popular Welsh name, also spelled as Elis, ultimately from the Old Welsh Elisedd (eh-lih-seth), meaning "benevolent, kind".
 Ellis Bell was the male pseudonym of Emily Bronte when she wrote Wuthering Heights, while Ellis Marsalis is the paterfamilias of the noted jazz family, father of Wynton, Branford and others. There have been a number of Ellises on the big and small screen too: in The Wire, Grey's Anatomy and No Country for Old Men. As a surname, it's associated with designer Perry, writer Bret Easton and psychologist Havelock.
 Predominantly used as a boy name in England and Wales, where it was given to 570 boys compared to 24 girls in recent stats, in the US, it is a unisex option, in the Top 1000 for both sexes. Masculine leaning, it was given to 1250 boys and 400 girls, meaning roughly three quarters of all babies called Ellis were boys in a recent year.

Ellis

Emerson is a dignified, somewhat serious name associated with transcendental thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson. Much more popular now for girls since Desperate Housewife Teri Hatcher used it for her daughter, it is definitely still a viable <a href="https://nameberry.com/boys-names">boys name</a>.

Emerson

Though ancient, Marcus now sounds more current than Mark, in tune with today's trend towards us-ending Latinate names.
 Marcus, which is thought to be related to Mars, the god of war, was commonplace in classical Rome--not surprising as it was one of only about a dozen given names in use then. Among the most prominent were the emperor and stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, the Marcus known to us as Mark Antony, and the politician, philosopher and orator Cicero.
 Dr Marcus Welby was a staple on vintage TV, and since then we have seen the name in both the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, as the protagonist of Nick Hornby's About a Boy, on Sons of Anarchy and Men of a Certain Age, and in Indiana Jones, The Blind Side, and Bad Santa.
 Marcus Loew was the movie magnate behind MGM and Loew's theatres, and Marcus Allen was an Oakland Raiders superstar.
 Marius is a related possibility.

Marcus

Steven, the phonetic and now predominant spelling of the classier Stephen, has finally dropped out of the Top 100 after seventy years.  Steve has become one of the ultimate regular-guy names, right up there with Dave and Joe. and there have been  innumerable pop-culture role models among its bearers--from Steven Spielberg to Steven Soderbergh to Steve Jobs.

Steven

The powerful name of the powerful character played by Russell Crowe in the 2000 film Gladiator first appeared on the popularity charts that same year. Max to the max. One time considered a "too much name" name, Maximus has entered the realm of possibility.
 Maximus was originally a Latin title of honor given to successful military commanders, such as Quintus Fabius Maximus, and then came to be a personal name, borne by several early saints.
 In George Eliot's novel Felix Holt: The Radical, Maximus Debarry is very much an aristocrat. LeBron James used it as the middle name for his son Bryce.

Maximus

Otto is cool again. Long a quintessential Old Man Name, Otto has been promoted to trending darling of adventurous baby namers. 
 Like most <a href="https://nameberry.com/baby-names/160/german-names">German names</a>, Otto fell out of favor during and after the two World Wars – it had been a Top 100 name in the years preceding. Off the Top 1000 from the mid-1970s until 2011, Otto is now headed straight uphill.
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There were some distinguished Ottos before the imperial image of Prussian Otto von Bismarck colored the name. Otto the Great is generally considered the founder of the Holy Roman Empire and there were several German and Austrian royals with the name. 

 Otto Frank was the father of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who wrote her famous diary during her family's years in hiding from the Nazis during World War II. She was killed in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 and her father Otto typed and edited the diary himself to prepare it for publication. 

 Otto Hightower is a character in the Game of Thrones universe, played by Rhys Ifans in the HBO prequel House of the Dragon.

 Feminine forms of Otto include Ottoline, Ottilie, Odilia and Odette, all fashionable in the UK along with Otto itself.

Otto

Haunting biblical and Civil War place-name; now unisex—especially after the mega-high-profile Brangelina couple picked it for their daughter. It debuted in the Top 1000 for boys in 2015.
 Many people may associate this name with the 1990s family film about a dog.

Shiloh

Atticus, with its trendy Roman feel combined with the upstanding, noble image of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, is a real winner among <a href="https://nameberry.com/boys-names">boy names</a>. Atticus entered the US Top 1000 in 2004 and is a firm Nameberry favorite. 
 
The reason for the popularity of Atticus is less its ancient roots than Atticus Finch, the upstanding hero of To Kill A Mockingbird.. In fact so many people have been inspired by the character embodied by Gregory Peck that Atticus Finch was voted the greatest hero of American film by the American Film Institute. Harper Lee's recently-released novel Go Set a Watchman paints Atticus Finch in a less flattering light, though that doesn't seem to have impacted the rising popularity of the name.
 
Atticus derives from the Greek Attikos, meaning "from Attica," the Ancient Greek region that contained Athens. Atticus is a literary name in more ways than one. Before it became synonymous with Atticus Finch, the name Atticus was associated with Titus Pomponius Atticus, a Roman literary figure.
 Daniel Baldwin and Isabella Hoffman were ahead of the curve when they chose Atticus for their son born in 1996; since then Summer Phoenix and Casey Affleck named their little boy Atticus, and Tom Dumont made it the middle name for his son Rio.

Atticus

Tobias is one of a number of s-ending <a href="https://nameberry.com/boys-names">boys' names</a> that are riding a wave of popularity. With its Old Testament-Dickensian feel, it's a name with a distinguished pedigree. 
Tobias is the Greek form of the Hebrew Tobiah, which was derived from the name Toviyah. Toviyah was created from the elements tov, meaning "good" and yah, representing the Hebrew God. Tobias is the name of several biblical figures but is primarily associated with the story of Tobias and the Angel.
 A contemporary bearer is Tobias Wolff, author of A Boy's Life. Tobias Smollett was a major eighteenth century Scottish novelist. Tobias Snape, meanwhile, is a Harry Potter character.
 
The short form Toby has a life of its own, used independently at least as far back as Shakespeare's time, with Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. Toby also was the name of a character on The West Wing. Actor Tobey Maguire was born Tobias and named his son Otis Tobias.
 
There is also the rarely used but still viable daddy of them all --Tobiah, the name of a rebel Hebrew king

Tobias

Avery is a unisex name that is used four times as often today for girls as for boys. But while Avery's popularity is starting to soften for girls, it continues to get stronger for boys -- in keeping with our finding that gender neutral names are becoming more favored for boys than for girls. 

Avery

Holden is a classic case of a name that jumped out of a book and onto birth certificates--though it took quite a while. Parents who loved J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye are flocking to the name of its hero, Holden Caulfield -- not coincidentally in tune with the Hudson-Hayden-Colton field of names.
 
(Trivia note: Salinger supposedly came up with the name while looking at a movie poster promoting a film starring William Holden and Joan Caulfield, though other sources say he was named after Salinger's friend Holden Bowler.) 
 
But can Holden's entry into the Top 1000 really be owed to the classic novel? Possibly not, given how frequently it has been challenged, censored, and banned in the classroom. While this may not stop parents today, it was given to no more than 12 American boys a year, right up until the mid-1980s.
 
Holden's actual introduction into the mainstream likely has more to do with the introduction of the character Holden Snyder to the soap, As the World Turns. Played by Jon Hensley, the character first appeared in 1985 and by 1987, it was in the Top 1000 and on the rise. 

 Among the celebs who have chosen Holden are Brendan Fraser and Mira Sorvino.
 In Australia, only a car-lover would choose this name, which is inextricably linked with the car-brand.

Holden

Archie made global news as the surprise first name of the newborn royal baby, son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (aka Harry and Meghan) back in 2019. Already a popular choice in England, Wales, and Scotland, where it has featured in the Top 100 since the 2000s, and the Top 20 since the the 2010s, Archie has begun to recover its status in the US, after its fall from grace, thanks to the bigoted character, Archie Bunker of All in the Family and its spin off.
Back in the US Top 1000 since 2018, it has since jumped up to the #301 mark in a recent year, when it ranked alongside other retro choices like Sonny and Otto. Similar in sound to contemporary Archer, it may well continue to climb, leaving its long form, Archibald behind.
 
Meaning "truly brave" from Archibald, it could additionally meaning "archer, bowman", or even "master counsel" from truly unexpected Archimedes (used for 14 boys in 2025).
 Archie can be a female nickname name too: Archie Panjabi, who won an Emmy for her role as Kalinda Sharma in The Good Wife in 2010, was born Archana, meaning "honoring, praising" in Sanskrit.

Archie

Gavin, a name with Scottish roots, has stepped into the spotlight, replacing the dated Kevin, thanks in part to pop-rock sensation Gavin DeGraw and Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale. 
 Gavin also has made literary appearances in J.M. Barrie's The Little Minister and in William Faulkner's Snopes family trilogy. In the form Gawain, he was one of the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table.
 Gavin entered the ranks in the 1950's and climbed as high as Number 30, in 2008, before dropping a bit on the charts.

Gavin

Tristan -- known through medieval legend and Wagnerian opera -- has a slightly wistful, touching air. This, combined with the name's popular "an" ending, makes Tristan very appealing to parents seeking a more original alternative to Christian.
 One influence was the character Tristan Ludlow played by Brad Pitt in the 1994 movie Legends of the Fall, based on a Jim Harrison novel.
 Tristan is a dragon-slaying hero of Celtic legend, whose story was incorporated into Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, in which Tristan is one of the Knights of the Round Table, consumed by his doomed love affair with Queen Isolde. Wagner set the story to music in his opera Tristan und Isolde.
 Tristan and its alternate form Tristram have been found in later lit as well. Tristram Shandy is a famous early comic novel by Laurence Sterne (in which the hero's father calls Tristram the worst name in the universe); Tristan is a major character in James Herriott's All Creatures Great and Small, and there is an eponymous novella by Thomas Mann.
 Particularly popular in Canada, Tristan was chosen for their sons by Travis Tritt, Wayne Gretzky, Natasha Henstridge and, most recently, by Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth. Basketball player Tristan Thompson hails from Canada.
 Other variants of Tristan include Tristen, Tristin, Triston and Tristian.

Tristan

Matthias is the ancient Biblical form of Matthew, widely used along with brother Mathias in the US for the past 20 years.

This New Testament name -- he was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot as an Apostle -- is found in several European languages and cultures. In every language from Scandinavia to France to Spain, the name is pronounced ma-TEE-us, but in the US it might be pronounced with a long I in the middle -- ma-TYE-us.

Mathias

Blake -- an early unisex option -- dropped out of the Top 100 in 2017 for the first time since 1988, but remains a sophisticated choice. And yes, both conflicting meanings of Blake are accurate. It originated as a surname in England derived from a nickname. Much of its masculine image was influenced by the wealthy, silver-haired character Blake Carrington in the massively popular 80s TV series Dynasty. Rosie O'Donnell has a son named Blake.

Blake

An early and still one of the most <a href="https://nameberry.com/unisex-names">popular unisex names</a>, also a place name and name of a Native American people in the northern Mississippi valley, which makes it a controversial baby name choice. While the popularity of Dakota is trending downward for both genders, it's one of those rare genuinely gender-neutral names that is used for nearly equal numbers of boys and girls.