100 Cute Boy Names: Meanings & Origins

Cute boy names are usually short, soft in the middle, and easy for a toddler to say back to you. Most of them started life as nicknames and then moved out on their own.

Below are 100 of them, each with its origin, meaning, pronunciation and style, plus the current United States popularity rank wherever a real one exists.

A few sit in the American top 20 right now. Others last charted before the First World War, and we say which is which so you know what you are choosing.

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Popularity at a Glance

The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: Levi, Luca, Jack, Asher and Wyatt.

100 Cute Names for Boys

Here are 100 cute baby boy names, listed alphabetically, with the origin, meaning, pronunciation and current popularity of each one.

1. Adric

• Origin: Invented, from the television series Doctor Who
• Meaning: None recorded; the name was coined for the character
• Pronunciation: AD-rik
• Namesakes: Adric, companion to the Fourth and Fifth Doctors, played by Matthew Waterhouse
• Popularity: #7,206 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (11 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 13% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Adric is not an English boy’s name with a lost meaning, as it is often described.

It is an invented name, coined for a Doctor Who character and carried by no earlier tradition, which is exactly why it sits so comfortably on a modern baby. Nothing about it is dated, because it never had a period to belong to.

The character was a teenage mathematics prodigy from the planet Alzarius who wore a star-shaped badge for excellence in math, traveled with the Fourth and Fifth Doctors across 11 stories, and died stopping a freighter from hitting Earth. Fans still argue about him, which tells you the name has more emotional weight than five letters usually manage.

Practically, Adric is easy. Two syllables, no silent letters, and no obvious teasing angle. Ad and Ricky are both waiting if your son wants something shorter.

2. Aldous

• Origin: English
• Meaning: Probably from the Old English element eald, meaning old
• Pronunciation: AWL-dus
• Variations: Aldus
• Namesakes: Aldous Huxley, English author of Brave New World
• Popularity: #8,275 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (9 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 12% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Aldous has been used in England since the Middle Ages, concentrated in East Anglia, and it probably began as a pet form of names built on the Old English element eald, meaning old. That is a gentle irony for a newborn, and most parents who pick it are not thinking about the etymology anyway.

They are thinking about Aldous Huxley, who published Brave New World in 1932 and gave the name a permanent shelf in the library. The association is bookish rather than stuffy, and it lands well on a child who will grow into it.

The AWL opening is soft and the ending is unstressed, so the whole name sounds older than it looks on paper. Al works as a nickname, and so does Dous if your family likes the odd one.

3. Alf

• Origin: Swedish, Norwegian and Danish
• Meaning: Elf, from Old Norse alfr
• Pronunciation: ALF
• Variations: Alv, Alve, Alfr
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 1979 at #6,081 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.

Alf is a real Scandinavian name in its own right, not only a clipping of something longer. It comes from Old Norse alfr, meaning elf, and in Norse legend it belonged to a king who courted the maiden Alfhild.

It also does duty as a short form of Alfred, which pairs the same elf element with counsel, and of Adolf, which pairs noble with wolf. If you want the sound without the Norse spelling, Alv and Alve are the Norwegian and Swedish forms, and Alf is a genuine Norwegian name too.

Three letters, one syllable, no ambiguity. It has been out of the American top 1,000 since 1912, which makes it about as unclaimed as a cute boy name gets.

4. Andris

• Origin: Latvian and Hungarian
• Meaning: From Andrew, meaning manly
• Pronunciation: AHN-driss
• Variations: Andrejs, Andis, Bandi
• Popularity: #12,148 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 17% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Andris is the Latvian form of Andrew and, in Hungary, an affectionate diminutive of it. That double life gives it a softer feel than Andrew has in English, closer to how Andy sounds to an American ear but without the playground shrug.

In countries where name days are kept, everyone sharing a forename celebrates on the same date, so an Andris in Latvia has a second small birthday every year. It is a piece of cultural furniture that travels well if your family has Baltic or Hungarian roots.

The S ending is the giveaway that it is Latvian rather than Hungarian, and it keeps the name from being mistaken for a nickname.

5. Aodhán

• Origin: Irish
• Meaning: Little fire, from Old Irish Aed
• Pronunciation: AY-dawn
• Variations: Aidan, Aiden, Ayden, Aodhagán
• Namesakes: Aodán mac Gabráin, 6th-century king of Dál Riata; the 7th-century bishop of Lindisfarne
• Popularity: #72 in Northern Ireland in 2025

Aodhán is the diminutive of Aodh, which comes from Old Irish Aed and means fire, so the name means little fire. Aodh was one of the most heavily used names in early Ireland, worn by mythological figures and by several high kings, and it is the root behind the surnames Hayes, Hughes and McGee.

The saints came later. A 6th-century bishop of Ferns and the 7th-century bishop of Lindisfarne both carried it, which is why the Anglicized Aidan spread so far across the English-speaking world.

Choosing the Irish spelling means committing to spelling it out, since the dh is silent and English speakers will guess wrong. What you get in exchange is the original: a name still ranked #72 in Northern Ireland in 2025 rather than a phonetic copy of it.

6. Asher

• Origin: Hebrew
• Meaning: Happy, blessed
• Pronunciation: ASH-er
• Variations: Aser
• Namesakes: Asher, son of Jacob and ancestor of one of the twelve tribes of Israel
• Popularity: #28 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (7,456 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 167% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Asher comes from a Hebrew root meaning to be happy or blessed, and in the Old Testament it belongs to a son of Jacob whose descendants became one of the twelve tribes. Very few names state their own mood this plainly.

It has climbed steadily since the early 1990s and reached #28 in the United States in 2025, which puts it firmly in the popular tier rather than the rare one. That is worth knowing before you commit: your son will probably meet another Asher, though not in every class.

The sound is the reason. Two soft syllables, no hard consonants, and the built-in nickname Ash, which works on a toddler and on a grown man.

7. Avi

• Origin: Hebrew
• Meaning: My father
• Pronunciation: AH-vee
• Variations: Aviram, Avraham
• Namesakes: Avi, pen name of children’s author Edward Irving Wortis
• Popularity: #832 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (297 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 87% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Avi means my father in Hebrew and also serves as a short form of Avraham and Aviram. It is one of those names that sounds like a nickname and functions as a full one, which is a large part of its charm.

The best-known bearer chose it himself. Edward Irving Wortis has published 80 books for children and young adults under the single name Avi, and in 2003 his fiftieth book, Crispin: The Cross of Lead, won the Newbery Medal.

At #832 in the United States in 2025 it is genuinely uncommon without being unheard of, and the two-syllable AH-vee is easy for a small child to say back to you.

8. Beau

• Origin: French, used in English and Dutch
• Meaning: Beautiful, handsome
• Pronunciation: BOH
• Variations: Bo
• Namesakes: Beau Wilkes, son of Ashley and Melanie in Gone with the Wind
• Popularity: #60 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5,165 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 274% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Beau means beautiful in French and was adopted as a given name in English only from the middle of the 20th century, which makes it younger than it feels.

Margaret Mitchell used it in Gone with the Wind in 1936, and the American South took it from there.

Beau is used almost entirely for boys in the United States. In the Netherlands it swings the other way and is far more common on girls, so the gender reading depends on which side of the Atlantic you are standing on.

It reached #60 in America in 2025. One syllable, no spelling debate once people see it written, and the streamlined Bo waiting if the French spelling feels like too much.

9. Bede

• Origin: Old English
• Meaning: Possibly prayer, from Old English bed
• Pronunciation: BEED
• Variations: Baeda
• Namesakes: Saint Bede the Venerable, 8th-century historian and Doctor of the Church
• Popularity: Does not rank in the United States

Bede is the modern form of the Old English Baeda, probably related to the Old English word bed, meaning prayer. It rhymes with need, which surprises people who expect two syllables.

One man carries the whole name. Bede the Venerable was an 8th-century Northumbrian monk who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, effectively inventing English history as a subject, and he is a saint in several branches of Christianity as well as a Doctor of the Church.

That is a lot of gravity for four letters. It also means the name has never been fashionable, never dated, and will not be shared with anyone in your son’s year group.

10. Bertie

• Origin: English
• Meaning: Bright, from the Old German element beraht
• Pronunciation: BUR-tee
• Variations: Bert, Albie, Herbie
• Popularity: #8,955 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (11 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 142% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Bertie is a diminutive of Albert, Herbert and any other name carrying the element bert, which comes from Old German beraht and means bright. It has been a stand-alone name in Britain for well over a century.

Where the two-syllable version reads playful, the parent names read formal, so Bertie gives you both at once. Albert on the birth certificate and Bertie at home is the traditional arrangement, and plenty of British families still run it that way.

It last charted in the United States in 1911. Everything about it says warm and slightly old-fashioned, which is precisely what most parents hunting for cute boy names are after.

11. Blaze

• Origin: Modern English
• Meaning: A variant of Blaise reshaped by the English word blaze
• Pronunciation: BLAYZ
• Variations: Blaise, Blas, Biagio, Balázs
• Namesakes: Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and philosopher
• Popularity: #781 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (326 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 18% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Blaze is the modern English respelling of Blaise, pushed toward the fire word by ordinary English spelling instinct. The original Blaise comes from the Latin cognomen Blaesus, meaning lisping or stammering, so the fiery reading is a happy accident rather than the true meaning.

The older name has serious bearers behind it: Saint Blaise, a 4th-century Armenian martyr, and Blaise Pascal, whose work runs from probability theory to the Pensées. If you like the sound but want the history, Blaise is right there.

Blaze also gives you a route into Slavic naming, since it corresponds to Vlasiy in the Russian name tradition. At #781 in the United States in 2025 it is used but not common.

12. Bram

• Origin: English and Dutch
• Meaning: Short form of Abraham, father of many
• Pronunciation: BRAM
• Variations: Abraham, Abe, Abram
• Namesakes: Bram Stoker, Irish author of Dracula
• Popularity: #2,422 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (56 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 18% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Bram is the Dutch short form of Abraham, and in the Netherlands it is a top 20 name in its own right rather than a nickname. In English it is rarer and reads as deliberate.

Bram Stoker gave it its literary weight. Beyond writing Dracula, he spent nearly three decades as business manager of Henry Irving’s Lyceum Theatre in London, which makes the name a quiet nod for theatre families as well as horror ones. One syllable, no silent letters, and a full name behind it if your son ever wants something longer on a diploma.

13. Brogan

• Origin: Modern English, from Irish
• Meaning: No definition recorded; often linked to Irish bróg, meaning shoe
• Pronunciation: BROH-gan
• Variations: Brogán
• Popularity: #3,388 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (34 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 63% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Brogan is usually explained as coming from the Gaelic word bróg, meaning shoe, and the Irish form Brogán does exist as a rare given name. Behind the Name records no confirmed definition for it, so treat the shoe story as the popular reading rather than settled fact.

As a sound it fills the same space as Logan without the crowding. Two syllables, a hard opening, a soft landing, and an Irish surname feel that suits a modern American birth certificate.

Fair warning: it will be shortened to Bro. Some families lean into that and some quietly steer toward Brogie instead.

14. Buck

• Origin: English
• Meaning: Male deer, from Old English bucc
• Pronunciation: BUK
• Popularity: #1,993 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (76 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 150% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Buck began as an English nickname meaning exactly what the word means, a male deer, from Old English bucc. It has never pretended to be anything more elaborate.

In America it ran as a given name until the 1940s, faded, then flickered back briefly in the late 1970s and early 1980s before dropping out of the top 1,000 in 1982. Right now it is unclaimed territory. It is a cowboy name, a nature name and a nickname all at once, which is a rare combination. On a small boy it is comic in the best way, and it stays wearable on a grown man.

15. Cam

• Origin: English and Vietnamese
• Meaning: From Cameron, meaning crooked nose; in Vietnamese, orange or to be content
• Pronunciation: KAM
• Variations: Cameron, Kam, Kameron
• Popularity: #1,395 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (131 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 88% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Cam is the English short form of Cameron, a Scottish surname built from Gaelic cam, crooked, and sròn, nose. The literal reading is unflattering and nobody has cared about that for several centuries.

It is also a Vietnamese name used for boys and girls, meaning either orange, the fruit, or to pledge and be content, depending on the character behind it. That gives Cam a genuine second life rather than a borrowed one, which matters if your family sits across both traditions.

As a stand-alone name it barely registers in American statistics, while Cameron sat at #76 in 2025. Most Cams are Camerons at school and Cams everywhere else.

16. Cash

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From an occupational surname for a box maker, from Norman French casse, meaning case
• Pronunciation: KASH
• Variations: Kash
• Namesakes: Johnny Cash, American country musician
• Popularity: #287 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,181 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 10% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Cash does not mean money, whatever the spelling suggests. It comes from an occupational surname for a box maker, from Norman French casse, meaning case, which traces back to Latin capsa. The English word for money arrived at the same Latin root by a separate path.

Johnny Cash is why the name feels like a whole personality before the child arrives. Nothing else needs saying. It ranked #287 in the United States in 2025, so it is well used without being everywhere. Parents who like it usually like that it needs no nickname at all.

17. Chidi

• Origin: Igbo
• Meaning: God exists, from Chi, God, and dị, is
• Pronunciation: CHEE-dee
• Variations: Chukwudi, Chuks
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2023 at #12,563 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Falling in the United States, down 17% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Chidi is an Igbo name built from Chi, meaning God, and dị, meaning is, so the whole name states that God exists. Names of this shape are common in Igbo families and each one carries a full sentence rather than a single adjective.

The longer form is Chukwudi and the affectionate short form is Chuks, so a Chidi has room to move in either direction as he grows. For families with Igbo heritage it is an obvious choice, and for anyone else it is a two-syllable name that American mouths handle easily on the first try.

18. Chip

• Origin: English
• Meaning: A diminutive of Charles or Christopher; also from a chip off the old block
• Pronunciation: CHIP
• Popularity: #4,274 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (24 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 428% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Chip works as a short form of Christopher or Charles, and it also comes straight from the phrase a chip off the old block, said of a son who takes after his father.

That second origin is why it often replaces Junior in American families. It says the same thing with more affection and less paperwork.

It last charted in 1978, so it now reads as a period piece from mid-century America rather than a current choice. On a small boy that is exactly the appeal.

19. Clem

• Origin: English, from Latin
• Meaning: Merciful, gentle, from Clemens
• Pronunciation: KLEM
• Variations: Clement, Clément, Clemente, Clemens
• Namesakes: Saint Clement I, the third pope and an Apostolic Father
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2017 at #8,286 (9 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Rising in the United States, up 67% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Clem is the diminutive of Clement, the English form of the Roman name Clemens, which means merciful and gentle. Very few boys’ names lead with kindness, and this one does it without sounding fragile.

Fourteen popes have used the name, starting with Saint Clement I, the third pope and one of the Apostolic Fathers. It became rare in England after the Reformation, was revived in the 19th century, and slipped out of American use again in 1969.

The short form is the friendlier half of the pair. Clement on the certificate and Clem at home gives you the history and the warmth together.

20. Cosmo

• Origin: Italian and English, from Greek
• Meaning: From Cosmas, from Greek kosmos, meaning order, world, universe
• Pronunciation: KAHZ-moh
• Variations: Cosimo, Cosmas, Cosme, Kosma
• Namesakes: Cosimo de’ Medici, founder of Medici rule in Florence
• Popularity: #1,934 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (80 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 236% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Cosmo goes back through the Italian Cosimo to the Greek Kosmas, from kosmos, meaning order, world and universe. The saint behind it, Cosmas, was martyred in the 4th century with his twin brother Damian, and the pair are the patron saints of physicians.

It reached Britain by an unusually specific route. The second Duke of Gordon named his son after his friend Cosimo III de’ Medici in the 18th century, and the anglicized Cosmo stuck. The earlier Cosimo de’ Medici, who founded the family’s rule in Florence, is the reason the name reads Renaissance rather than merely Italian.

It has been out of the American top 1,000 since 1926. The only real drawback is the magazine, and that fades fast once people hear it on an actual child.

21. Dai

• Origin: Welsh
• Meaning: A diminutive of Dafydd, the Welsh form of David
• Pronunciation: DYE
• Variations: Dafydd, Dewi
• Namesakes: Dafydd ap Gwilym, the 14th-century Welsh poet
• Popularity: #15,447 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 33% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Dai is the Welsh diminutive of Dafydd, which is the Welsh form of David. It is pronounced to rhyme with eye, not with day, and that trips up almost everyone the first time.

Behind it sits a name with real Welsh weight. Dafydd ap Gruffydd was a 13th-century ruler and Dafydd ap Gwilym is generally counted the finest Welsh poet of the Middle Ages, so the Welsh name carries centuries rather than a trend.

Three letters and one syllable make it about as portable as a name gets. Expect to correct the pronunciation for the first few years and then never again.

22. Dante

• Origin: Italian
• Meaning: A medieval short form of Durante, meaning lasting
• Pronunciation: DAHN-tay
• Variations: Durante, Donte
• Namesakes: Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy
• Popularity: #308 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,104 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 1% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Dante began as a medieval Italian short form of Durante and became a full name because one man made it unforgettable. Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri, known to everyone as Dante, wrote the Divine Comedy in the early 14th century.

English speakers say DAHN-tay, Italians say DAHN-teh, and the American variant spelling Donte exists as well. Whichever you use, the name arrives with a personality already attached: serious, a little dramatic, definitely not shy.

It ranked #308 in the United States in 2025, which is the comfortable middle. Familiar enough that nobody blinks, uncommon enough that it still means something.

23. Dexter

• Origin: English
• Meaning: One who dyes, from an Old English occupational surname; also Latin dexter, meaning right-handed or skilled
• Pronunciation: DEK-ster
• Variations: Dex
• Popularity: #693 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (393 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 2% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Dexter has two meanings stacked on top of each other. The surname is occupational and means one who dyes cloth, and it happens to coincide with the Latin word dexter, meaning right-handed or skilled. Both readings are true; only the first is the actual source.

Modern parents meet it through a cartoon laboratory or a very dark television drama, which is a strange pair of associations for one name to carry. Neither has dented its use.

It sat at #692 in the United States in 2025. Dex is the obvious nickname and it does most of the work on a toddler, which is why the full name survives so well on a grown man.

24. Ebbe

• Origin: Danish and Swedish
• Meaning: A short form of Asbjørn
• Pronunciation: EB-buh
• Variations: Asbjørn
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 1918 at #4,344 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.

Ebbe is the Danish short form of Asbjørn, and it is genuinely popular in Scandinavia right now, ranked #20 in Denmark and #27 in Sweden in 2025. The Swedish name day falls on 6 March.

It is one of the rare cute boy names that reads soft and rugged at once, which is what draws parents who otherwise gravitate toward nature-inspired names. The feminine equivalent, Ebba, is at least as well used across the same countries.

In America nobody will guess the spelling. Brace for Ebbie, Abby and the occasional Ebay, and then enjoy having a name almost nobody else in the room has heard.

25. Eben

• Origin: English, from Hebrew
• Meaning: Short form of Ebenezer, meaning stone of help
• Pronunciation: EB-en
• Variations: Ebenezer
• Popularity: #3,874 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (28 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 40% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Eben is the short form of Ebenezer, which comes from the Hebrew Even Haezer, meaning stone of help, and began life in the Old Testament as the name of a monument rather than a person.

Charles Dickens then handed the long form to Ebenezer Scrooge in 1843 and effectively removed it from circulation for a century and a half. Ebenezer is now most widespread in English-influenced parts of Africa, particularly Ghana, where the Dickens association simply never took hold.

Eben carries none of that baggage. It is short, soft and squarely in the old-fashioned-sounding names category without dragging the ghost of Christmas past behind it.

26. Egil

• Origin: Norwegian, from Old Norse
• Meaning: A diminutive of names beginning with agi, meaning awe or fear
• Pronunciation: AY-geel
• Variations: Egill, Ove, Uwe
• Namesakes: Egill Skallagrímsson, the warrior-poet of Egil’s Saga
• Popularity: Last ranked #87 in Norway in 1971

Egil comes from Old Norse Egill and is a diminutive of names built on the element agi, meaning awe or fear. That is a heavier meaning than most cute boy names carry, and it is balanced by an unexpectedly gentle sound.

Its most famous bearer is the semi-legendary 10th-century Viking of Egil’s Saga, who was both a fearsome fighter and a serious poet. The saga is one of the great works of Icelandic literature and it keeps the name in circulation across Norway and Iceland.

The Icelandic spelling is Egill, and the related forms Ove in Denmark and Sweden and Uwe in Germany come from the same root.

27. Eli

• Origin: Hebrew
• Meaning: Ascension
• Pronunciation: EE-lie
• Variations: Ely, Eeli
• Namesakes: Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin
• Popularity: #104 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (3,418 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 7% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Eli comes from a Hebrew root meaning to ascend, giving the sense of ascension. In the Old Testament, Eli was the high priest at Shiloh who raised and mentored the young Samuel.

Eli Whitney is the American bearer most people can name. His cotton gin gets the headlines, but his real contribution was standardizing manufacture so that customers received a consistent product, an idea that reshaped the whole century after him.

At #104 in the United States in 2025 it is popular without being top ten. Two syllables, no nickname required, and it works equally well as a short form of Elijah or Elias if you want a longer version on paper.

28. Emerson

• Origin: English
• Meaning: Son of Emery
• Pronunciation: EM-er-sun
• Variations: Emersyn, Emmerson
• Namesakes: Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher
• Popularity: #122 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (2,241 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 62% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Emerson is a surname meaning son of Emery, and Emery is the English form of the old Germanic Emmerich, built on an element meaning ruler. Follow that chain and you can tell your son he is technically a little prince.

Ralph Waldo Emerson supplies the intellectual half. His essays are still the standard American statement of self-reliance, which gives the name a backbone that most surname-names lack.

It now leans female in the United States, ranked #122 for girls against #254 for boys in 2025, so it reads unisex rather than masculine. Em and Emmy are shared territory; Ems and Emer are less contested.

29. Ferdi

• Origin: English, from Germanic
• Meaning: From Ferdinand, meaning peace or journey plus boldness, daring
• Pronunciation: FER-dee
• Variations: Ferdinand, Ferdy, Nando
• Namesakes: Ferdinand Magellan, who led the first expedition to circumnavigate the earth
• Popularity: Ferdinand last charted in the United States at #985 in 1971

Ferdi is the short form of Ferdinand, which is built from Gothic elements meaning boldness or daring joined to one that reads as either peace or journey. Both readings are current, so the name means something close to bold peace or bold journey depending on which scholar you follow.

The Visigoths carried it into Spain and Portugal, European royal houses adopted it, and Ferdinand Magellan attached it to the first voyage around the world. Nando is the Spanish and Italian short form if Ferdi feels too northern.

Ferdinand fell out of the American top 1,000 in 1971. Ferdi has never been common there at all, which makes it a genuinely fresh pick with a heavyweight name standing behind it.

30. Finn

• Origin: Irish, also used in English, Dutch and German
• Meaning: From Fionn, the Irish mythological hero
• Pronunciation: FIN
• Variations: Fionn, Fynn
• Namesakes: Fionn mac Cumhaill, leader of the Fianna in Irish legend
• Popularity: #206 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,702 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 100% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Finn is the usual anglicized spelling of the Old Irish Fionn, the hero known in English as Finn McCool, who led the Fianna and, in legend, built the Giant’s Causeway. It is also a working name in Dutch and German.

As a sound it is close to perfect for a small child: one syllable, no consonant cluster, and impossible to shorten or lengthen into something you did not choose. Fionn is there if you want the Irish spelling and are prepared to defend it at every appointment.

It ranked #206 in the United States in 2025, so your son will not be the only Finn in his year but he will not be one of five either. Mark Twain also gave the surname to Huckleberry, which does the name no harm at all.

31. Flynn

• Origin: English, from an Irish surname
• Meaning: From Ó Floinn, descendant of Flann, meaning blood red
• Pronunciation: FLIN
• Variations: Flann, Flannán
• Namesakes: Errol Flynn, Australian-born Hollywood actor
• Popularity: #828 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (299 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 86% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Flynn is the anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Floinn, meaning descendant of Flann. Flann itself is an Irish name meaning blood red, and it belonged to a 9th-century high king of Ireland, so the redhead connection runs all the way down.

That makes it a neat pick for a child with a red-haired parent, though nobody checks. Errol Flynn supplied the swashbuckling half of the reputation and Disney’s Flynn Rider handed it to a new generation in 2010.

At #827 in the United States in 2025 it is a real name that almost nobody uses. That combination is hard to find.

32. Gabe

• Origin: English, from Hebrew
• Meaning: From Gabriel, meaning God is my strong man
• Pronunciation: GAYB
• Variations: Gabriel, Gabi, Gaby
• Popularity: #4,591 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (22 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 53% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Gabe is the short form of Gabriel, built from Hebrew elements meaning strong man or hero and God, usually rendered as God is my strong man. Gabriel is the archangel who carries messages in Hebrew, Christian and Islamic tradition.

The full name is a fixture, ranked #37 in the United States in 2025. Gabe on its own last charted in 1905, which means practically every Gabe you meet is officially a Gabriel.

That is the useful arrangement. The long form covers the formal moments and the short one carries the everyday, and both are already familiar to everyone who hears them.

33. Gage

• Origin: Modern English, from Old French
• Meaning: Measure or pledge
• Pronunciation: GAYJ
• Popularity: #973 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (235 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 71% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Gage comes from an Old French surname with two possible senses: measure, for an assayer who checked weights, or pledge, for a moneylender. Either way it is an occupational name for someone people trusted with numbers.

Its arrival as a given name is unusually easy to date. It was almost unknown until the 1989 film of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, then climbed to a peak of #136 in 2003 before drifting back down.

It ranked #973 in the United States in 2025, so it is on its way out of the top 1,000. If you liked it in 2003 and dropped it because it felt overused, that objection has expired.

34. Gus

• Origin: English, from Latin
• Meaning: From Augustus, meaning exalted or venerable
• Pronunciation: GUS
• Variations: Augustus, Angus, Gust, Guus
• Namesakes: Augustus, the first Roman emperor
• Popularity: #1,331 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (145 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 51% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Gus is the short form of Augustus or Angus. Augustus comes from Latin augeo, to increase, and means exalted or venerable; the Roman senate awarded it to Octavian in 26 BC, and it then became a title for emperors, empresses and favoured members of the imperial family.

The month of August grew from the same root, so Gus is a quietly apt pick for a boy born in it.

Augustus sat at #407 in the United States in 2025 while Gus itself last scraped the top 1,000 in 2018. Most parents choose the long form and use the short one, which is how it has always worked.

35. Hamnet

• Origin: Archaic English
• Meaning: A diminutive of Hamo, from a Germanic element meaning home
• Pronunciation: HAM-net
• Variations: Hamo, Hamon, Heino
• Namesakes: Hamnet Shakespeare, son of William Shakespeare
• Popularity: Does not rank in the United States

Hamnet is an archaic English diminutive of Hamo, the Norman form of Haimo, from a Germanic element meaning home. The Normans brought the parent name to Britain and the diminutive stayed local.

One boy owns it. Hamnet Shakespeare, the playwright’s only son, died at eleven in 1596, and scholars have long argued that the loss shaped Hamlet. Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel put the name back in front of a large readership.

It is a grave choice and parents should know the story before using it. What it offers in return is a name with genuine Elizabethan roots that no other child in the country is carrying.

36. Harvey

• Origin: English, from Breton
• Meaning: From Old Breton elements meaning iron or battle plus eager, keen, blazing
• Pronunciation: HAR-vee
• Variations: Harvie, Hervey, Hervé
• Namesakes: Saint Hervé, the 6th-century Breton hermit and patron saint of the blind
• Popularity: #251 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,381 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 233% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Harvey comes from the Breton name Haerviu, built from Old Breton elements meaning iron or battle joined to one meaning eager, keen or blazing. Breton settlers brought it to England after the Norman Conquest.

It went quiet after the late medieval period and was revived in the late 18th century, and the 1944 Mary Chase play Harvey, about a man and his six-foot imaginary rabbit, gave it a permanent streak of gentle comedy.

It ranked #251 in the United States in 2025 and is far more common in Britain, where it has been a top 100 fixture for years. Harv is available; most families never bother.

37. Henning

• Origin: German, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish
• Meaning: A diminutive of Henrik, meaning home ruler
• Pronunciation: HEN-ning
• Variations: Henrik, Henrike
• Popularity: #10,057 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (7 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 2% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Henning is the Scandinavian and German diminutive of Henrik, which means home ruler. That puts it in the same family as Henry, Heinrich and Enrico without sounding like any of them.

It is common enough across Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany to feel established, and rare enough in English-speaking countries to feel like a discovery. Its Norwegian peak was #91 in 1999.

The double N gives it a soft landing, which is why it reads warm rather than formal. It is a useful compromise if the family has a Henry every second generation and you would rather not add another.

38. Herb

• Origin: English, from Old German
• Meaning: From Herbert, meaning bright army
• Pronunciation: HURB
• Variations: Herbert, Herbie, Bert, Bertie
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 1993 at #8,013 (6 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.

Herb is short for Herbert, which comes from Old German heri, meaning army, and beraht, meaning bright. The Normans brought it to England, where it displaced the Old English equivalent Herebeorht.

The nickname is where the charm lives. Herb is plain and warm, and Herbie takes it straight into affectionate territory, helped along by a certain Volkswagen. Some people will think of the plants first. That is not a problem so much as a bonus, since it gives the name a soft, kitchen-table quality that the formal Herbert never had.

39. Howie

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From Howard, of disputed origin
• Pronunciation: HOW-ee
• Variations: Howard
• Namesakes: Howard Hughes, American industrialist and aviator
• Popularity: #4,770 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (21 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 57% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Howie is the diminutive of Howard, and Howard’s origin is genuinely contested. It may come from the Anglo-Norman Huard, itself from the Germanic Hughard built on elements meaning mind, heart and brave; or from the Anglo-Scandinavian Haward, from Old Norse Hávarðr, meaning high defender; or from Middle English ewehirde, meaning ewe herder.

Three plausible sources and no consensus is unusual, and it means you can pick whichever story you like best without misleading anyone.

Howard slipped to #937 in the United States in 2021 and Howie has never charted on its own. The nickname is doing all the work here, and it does it well.

40. Hugo

• Origin: Old German, used across Europe
• Meaning: Mind, heart, spirit
• Pronunciation: HYOO-goh
• Variations: Hugh, Huey, Ugo, Huw, Hugues
• Namesakes: Victor Hugo, author of Les Misérables
• Popularity: #378 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (837 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 19% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Hugo is the Old German form of Hugh, from a root meaning mind, thought and spirit. It is one of the few names that works unchanged in Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, French, English and Scandinavian, which makes it a genuinely international choice.

Victor Hugo is the bearer everyone knows, and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables between them have kept the name in print for two centuries.

It ranked #377 in the United States in 2025 and is far higher across Europe. The related forms give you options: Hugh in English, Huw in Welsh, Ugo in Italian, Hugues in French.

41. Husayn

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: A diminutive of Hasan, meaning handsome, good
• Pronunciation: hoo-SAYN
• Variations: Husain, Hussain, Hussein, Hüseyin, Hossein
• Namesakes: Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad; King Hussein of Jordan
• Popularity: #3,605 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (31 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 133% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Husayn is an Arabic name and a diminutive of Hasan, which is why it is usually glossed as handsome. The diminutive form softens the parent name rather than shrinking it.

Its bearer matters enormously. Husayn ibn Ali was the son of Ali and the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, and his death at Karbala is a defining event in Islamic history and central to the Sunni and Shia split. King Hussein of Jordan carried the same name into the 20th century.

Spellings vary by region: Husain and Hussein in Arabic, Hüseyin in Turkish, Hossein in Persian. Choose the one that matches your family’s tradition rather than the one that looks tidiest in English.

42. Iggy

• Origin: English, from Late Roman
• Meaning: From Ignatius, of unknown Etruscan origin, later linked to Latin ignis, meaning fire
• Pronunciation: IG-ee
• Variations: Ignatius, Ignacio, Ignazio
• Namesakes: Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits; Iggy Pop, American musician
• Popularity: #8,500 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (9 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 71% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Iggy is the diminutive of Ignatius, which comes from the Roman family name Egnatius. Its meaning is unknown and its origin is Etruscan, and the spelling was later adjusted to resemble the Latin ignis, meaning fire, so the fiery reading is a later gloss rather than the true source.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuits in the 16th century and the third bishop of Antioch carried the name in the second, so it has serious history behind the playful sound.

Then there is Iggy Pop. Born James Newell Osterberg Jr, he founded The Stooges and is routinely called the godfather of punk, which is where most people’s association actually starts.

43. Ike

• Origin: English, from Hebrew
• Meaning: From Isaac, meaning he will laugh, he will rejoice
• Pronunciation: IKE
• Variations: Isaac, Izzy
• Namesakes: Dwight D. Eisenhower, nicknamed Ike
• Popularity: #2,460 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (55 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 6% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Ike is the English diminutive of Isaac, from the Hebrew Yitzhak, meaning he will laugh or he will rejoice. The Old Testament ties it to Abraham’s laughter when God promised that the elderly Sarah would bear a son.

Its most famous bearer was not an Isaac at all. Dwight D. Eisenhower was called Ike after the opening sound of his surname, and the 1952 campaign slogan I Like Ike made it a household word.

It peaked in America in the 1880s and dropped out of the top 1,000 by the late 1950s. Meanwhile Isaac ranked #47 in 2025, so the long form is thriving and the short one is sitting unused.

44. Ivo

• Origin: Germanic, used across Europe
• Meaning: Originally a short form of names beginning with iwa, meaning yew
• Pronunciation: EE-voh
• Variations: Yvo, Yves, Yvon, Erwan, Iwo
• Namesakes: Saint Ivo of Kermartin, patron saint of lawyers
• Popularity: #7,370 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (11 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 41% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Ivo began as a short form of Germanic names built on the element iwa, meaning yew, though some scholars trace it to a cognate Celtic element instead. It is used in German, Dutch, Czech, Italian, Portuguese, Estonian and Latvian.

In the Balkans it does something different and stands in for Ivan, the Slavic form of John, which means God is gracious. So the same three letters mean yew in Prague and God is gracious in Zagreb.

The related French forms Yves and Yvon and the Breton Erwan come from the same root. Ivo ranked #395 in the Netherlands in 2025 and remains a genuine rarity in the United States.

45. Jack

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From Jackin, a medieval diminutive of John, meaning God is gracious
• Pronunciation: JAK
• Variations: Jake, Jackie, John
• Namesakes: Jack London, Jack Kerouac, Jack Nicklaus
• Popularity: #15 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (8,748 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 8% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Jack comes from Jackin, a medieval English diminutive of John, with some early influence from the French Jacques, the form of James that grew out of Jacob.

John means God is gracious and Jacob means supplanter, so both readings are floating around behind the name.

It became so ordinary in medieval England that it turned into a common noun for a man, which is why English still has jack-o’-lantern, lumberjack and jack of all trades. Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack and Jill come from the same familiarity.

It ranked #15 in the United States in 2025 and has been a top ten fixture in Britain and Ireland for decades. This is the safe, warm, no-explanation-needed end of the cute boy names list.

46. Jaska

• Origin: Finnish
• Meaning: A diminutive of Jaakko, the Finnish form of Jacob
• Pronunciation: YAHS-kah
• Variations: Jaakko
• Popularity: Jaakko last ranked #44 in Finland in 2007

Jaska is the Finnish pet form of Jaakko, which is the Finnish form of Jacob and James. Finnish diminutives are unusually blunt and this one turns a long biblical name into two crisp syllables.

The parent name has a genuine place in the Finnish calendar, with 25 July kept as Jaakko’s name day, and it ranked #44 in Finland in 2007. The Y sound at the front is the only obstacle for English speakers, and it is a small one. Say it once and most people have it.

47. Jep

• Origin: Archaic English
• Meaning: From Geoffrey, meaning peace joined to a disputed first element
• Pronunciation: JEP
• Variations: Geoffrey, Geoff, Jeff
• Namesakes: Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales
• Popularity: #7,914 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (10 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 9% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Jep is an old English nickname for Geoffrey, sitting alongside Geoff and Jeff. Geoffrey came over with the Normans and combines Old German fridu, meaning peace, with a first element that scholars variously read as a Geat, a territory or a foreigner. It may well be several names that merged.

Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote the chronicle that gave Europe King Arthur, and Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, so the parent name is one of the foundations of English literature.

Jep is the useful option when a family expects a Jeffrey and you would rather not have one. It gives you the family link without the 1970s office energy.

48. Jesse

• Origin: Hebrew, biblical
• Meaning: Possibly gift or existence, from Yishai
• Pronunciation: JES-ee
• Variations: Jessie, Jessy, Jessé
• Namesakes: Jesse Owens, Olympic sprinter; Jesse James, American outlaw
• Popularity: #184 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (2,002 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 31% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Jesse comes from the Hebrew Yishai, usually read as gift or existence. In the Old Testament, Jesse is the father of David, who became king of the Israelites, and Christian art traces the line from him to Jesus in the image known as the Tree of Jesse.

It came into English use after the Protestant Reformation and is now equally at home in Dutch and Finnish.

The American bearers pull in opposite directions. Jesse Owens won four golds in Berlin in 1936; Jesse James robbed trains. The name ranked #184 in the United States in 2025 and carries both without strain.

49. Jonty

• Origin: British English
• Meaning: From Jonathan, meaning Yahweh has given
• Pronunciation: JON-tee
• Variations: Jonathan, Jon, Jonny
• Popularity: Last ranked #950 in England and Wales in 2015

Jonty is the British diminutive of Jonathan, which comes from Hebrew elements meaning Yahweh has given. It is a genuine given name in Britain and South Africa rather than an invention, and it last charted in England and Wales at #950 in 2015.

It reads sweeter than Johnny and slightly posher, which is either the appeal or the objection depending on your ear. Cricket fans will hear a fielder; nobody else will hear anything at all.

Two practical notes. It looks close to jaunty in print, and it is one of the names that suits a six-year-old more comfortably than a sixty-year-old. Jonathan on the certificate solves both.

50. Jude

• Origin: English, biblical
• Meaning: From Judah, meaning praise
• Pronunciation: JOOD
• Variations: Judah, Judas
• Namesakes: Saint Jude the Apostle; the Beatles’ Hey Jude
• Popularity: #155 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (2,384 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 27% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Jude is the English form of Judah, which means praise.

The Ancient Hebrew name Judah became the Ancient Greek name Judas, and English New Testaments then adopted Jude specifically to separate the second apostle named Judas from Judas Iscariot.

Saint Jude wrote the shortest epistle in the New Testament and is the patron of hopeless causes. Thomas Hardy used the name for Jude the Obscure in 1895, and Paul McCartney wrote Hey Jude in 1968 for Julian Lennon, which is where most modern parents first met it.

It ranked #155 in the United States in 2025. One syllable, four letters, and no nickname needed.

51. Kai

• Origin: Frisian, German and Scandinavian; also Hawaiian
• Meaning: Uncertain, possibly a Frisian diminutive of Gerhard or Nicolaas; sea in Hawaiian
• Pronunciation: KYE
• Variations: Kay, Kaj, Cai
• Popularity: #93 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (3,768 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 135% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Kai is one of the genuinely multinational cute boy names, and its northern European meaning is uncertain.

Behind the Name reads it as a possible Frisian diminutive of Gerhard, Nicolaas, Cornelis or Gaius, which would give it senses ranging from spear to victory of the people to rejoice.

Hans Christian Andersen used it for the boy in The Snow Queen in 1844, and that story carried it out of Germany and Scandinavia into the English-speaking world in the late 20th century.

In Hawaii kai is simply the word for sea, which is the association most American parents have. It ranked #93 for boys in the United States in 2025, and the spellings Kay, Kaj and Cai are all live in their home countries.

52. Kelsey

• Origin: English
• Meaning: Cenel’s island, from the Old English name Cenel, meaning fierce, plus eg, island
• Pronunciation: KEL-see
• Variations: Kelsea, Kelsi, Kelsie, Kelcey
• Popularity: #814 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (335 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 54% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Kelsey comes from town names in Lincolnshire meaning Cenel’s island, built from the Old English personal name Cenel, meaning fierce, and eg, meaning island. It is usually shortened in print to fierce island, which is snappier but drops the man it belonged to.

It started out on boys and has moved decisively the other way. In 2025 it ranked #814 for American girls, while its last boys’ appearance in the top 1,000 was #930 back in 1996.

That does not make it unusable for a son, but it does make it a deliberate choice rather than a neutral one. Kel is the natural short form and reads male more clearly than the full name does.

53. Kip

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From a nickname, probably from kipper, a male salmon
• Pronunciation: KIP
• Popularity: #1,626 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (104 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 263% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Kip comes from an English nickname, most likely from kipper, the word for a male salmon in spawning season. It is a fishing name rather than a fish name, which is a small but pleasing distinction.

It had a good run in America from the 1940s through the 1980s, peaking at #379 in 1965, and it dropped out of the top 1,000 after 1984. That timing gives it a distinctly preppy, station-wagon flavour. Three letters, one syllable, nothing to spell out. It is the sort of name that sounds like a nickname for something longer and never needs to be.

54. Kyle

• Origin: English, from a Scottish surname
• Meaning: From Gaelic caol, meaning narrows, channel, strait
• Pronunciation: KILE
• Popularity: #509 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (594 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 65% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Kyle comes from a Scottish surname taken from place names, all of which trace back to Gaelic caol, meaning narrows, channel or strait. Think of the Kyle of Lochalsh, and you have the geography the name describes.

It climbed steadily through the second half of the 20th century, entered the American top 50 in the 1990s, and has been falling since. In 2025 it sat at #508.

That decline is worth reading as an opportunity. Kyle now sounds settled rather than trendy, and the Irish name Cáel, which draws on the same Gaelic root caol, is a rarer route to the sound. The feminine form Kyla follows the same pattern.

55. Lalo

• Origin: Spanish
• Meaning: From Eduardo, the Spanish form of Edward
• Pronunciation: LAH-loh
• Variations: Eduardo, Edu
• Namesakes: Lalo Alcaraz, creator of the syndicated comic strip La Cucaracha
• Popularity: #7,995 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (10 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 98% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Lalo is the Spanish diminutive of Eduardo, which is the Spanish form of Edward. Spanish nicknames often bear no visible relation to the parent name, and this is one of the more extreme examples.

Lalo Alcaraz is the bearer most Americans have encountered without realizing it. He created La Cucaracha, the first nationally syndicated politically themed Latino comic strip, hosted the KPFK radio show Pocho Hour of Power, and worked as a cultural consultant on Pixar’s Coco.

Eduardo ranked #410 in the United States in 2025. Lalo does not chart at all, which makes it the rare nickname that is genuinely uncommon.

56. Lars

• Origin: Scandinavian
• Meaning: From Laurence, meaning from Laurentum
• Pronunciation: LARS
• Variations: Lorens, Laurits, Laurens, Lorenz
• Namesakes: Lars Krutak, American anthropologist and host of Tattoo Hunter
• Popularity: #1,897 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (83 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 5% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Lars is the Scandinavian form of Laurence, which comes from the Roman name Laurentius, meaning from Laurentum, a city south of Rome. It is a top name across Norway, Sweden and Denmark and has been for generations.

The anthropologist Lars Krutak has spent his career documenting indigenous tattooing across more than fifty societies and hosted the ten-part Discovery Channel series Tattoo Hunter, which is an unusually specific claim to fame for a name this common in its homeland.

It ranked #90 in Norway in 2025 and last touched the American top 1,000 in 1984. One syllable, no ambiguity, and it ages from a toddler to a professor without adjustment.

57. Levi

• Origin: Hebrew, biblical
• Meaning: Possibly joined, attached
• Pronunciation: LEE-vye
• Variations: Lewi, Leevi, Lévi
• Namesakes: Levi, third son of Jacob and ancestor of the Levite tribe
• Popularity: #12 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (9,642 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 70% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Levi is usually read as joined or attached. In the Old Testament, Levi was the third son of Jacob and Leah and the ancestor of the Levites, the tribe that supplied the priests of ancient Israel, and the name entered English use after the Protestant Reformation.

Pronunciation splits by region. Most English-speaking countries say LEE-vye; Dutch, Hebrew and much of continental Europe say LEH-vee. Both are correct, and you will hear both if you travel.

It ranked #12 in the United States in 2025, so this is a genuinely popular pick rather than a hidden one. The Finnish form Leevi is a quieter route to the same sound.

58. Linus

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: From Linos, from linon, meaning flax
• Pronunciation: LIE-nus
• Variations: Linos, Lino, Linas
• Namesakes: Linus Pauling, twice a Nobel laureate; the second pope; the Peanuts character
• Popularity: #1,913 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (82 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 12% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Linus comes from the Greek Linos, from linon, meaning flax. In Greek legend, Linus was a son of Apollo and a musician, and the second pope after Saint Peter carried the name in the first century.

Linus Pauling is the modern reason to love it. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the chemical bond and the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning against nuclear weapons testing, and he remains the only person to have won two unshared Nobels.

Charles Schulz then gave the name to a small boy with a blanket and a philosophical streak, which is either a help or a hindrance depending on how you feel about Peanuts. It last charted in America in 1940 and is popular in Sweden and Germany today.

59. Luca

• Origin: Italian and Romanian
• Meaning: From Lucas, meaning man from Lucania
• Pronunciation: LOO-kah
• Variations: Lucas, Luke, Lukas, Lucca
• Namesakes: Luca della Robbia, Florentine Renaissance sculptor
• Popularity: #14 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (8,759 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 321% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Luca is the Italian and Romanian form of Lucas, which goes back to Luke and means person from Lucania, a region of southern Italy.

Some scholars connect Lucania itself to the Latin lux, meaning light, which is why the name is often glossed as bringer of light. That reading is a step removed from the source, but it has stuck.

Luca ranked #14 in the United States in 2025 and sits in the top ten across Germany, Hungary, New Zealand and Scotland. Luca della Robbia, whose glazed terracotta reliefs are still on Florentine walls, gives it an artistic pedigree to match.

60. Lugh

• Origin: Irish mythology
• Meaning: Probably from Lugus, a Celtic god
• Pronunciation: LOO
• Variations: Lú, Lug, Lleu
• Namesakes: Lugh Lámfada, hero-king of the Tuatha Dé Danann
• Popularity: #13,165 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data.

Lugh is probably the Irish form of Lugus, a god worshipped across the Celtic world, and it is pronounced simply LOO. In Irish mythology, Lugh Lámfada led the Tuatha Dé Danann against his own grandfather Balor and the Fomorians, and killed Balor by putting a stone through his enormous eye.

He was king, warrior and craftsman at once, associated with the arts, light, storms and a streak of trickery, and Roman writers matched him to Mercury. The harvest festival Lughnasadh is named for him and is still marked at the start of August.

The Welsh equivalent is Lleu. Three letters on paper, one sound out loud, and about as much mythology per syllable as any name in Europe.

61. Manny

• Origin: English, from Hebrew
• Meaning: From Emmanuel, meaning God is with us
• Pronunciation: MAN-ee
• Variations: Emmanuel, Manuel, Manu
• Popularity: #3,221 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (37 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 28% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Manny is the short form of Emmanuel, from Hebrew elements meaning with and God, so God is with us. Emmanuel ranked #179 in the United States in 2025, which keeps the long form firmly in circulation.

The nickname is unusually versatile. It also serves the German Manfred, which pairs strength with peace, the Spanish name Manuel, and the Finnish name Manu.

That means a Manny can come from four different naming traditions and nobody has to explain anything. Few short forms cover that much ground.

62. Marley

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From a place name meaning pleasant wood, boundary wood or marten wood
• Pronunciation: MAR-lee
• Variations: Marlee, Marleigh, Marly
• Namesakes: Bob Marley, Jamaican singer and songwriter
• Popularity: #322 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (950 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 5% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Marley comes from an Old English place name that scholars read three ways: pleasant wood, boundary wood or marten wood. All three describe the same kind of edge-of-the-forest spot, so the disagreement is smaller than it looks.

Bob Marley is the reason the name travels. It reads warm and musical before anyone thinks about etymology, and it is one of the few surname-names with a genuinely global figure behind it.

The gender split varies by country. In France it is used almost entirely for boys, in Britain it leans male with exceptions, and in the United States it is overwhelmingly female, ranked #322 for girls against #942 for boys in 2025.

63. Martie

• Origin: English, from Latin
• Meaning: From Martin, from Martis, the genitive of Mars
• Pronunciation: MAR-tee
• Variations: Martin, Marty, Martinus
• Namesakes: Saint Martin of Tours, patron saint of France
• Popularity: #16,420 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 58% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Martie is a diminutive of Martin, which comes from the Roman name Martinus, itself from Martis, the genitive form of Mars, the Roman god of war. The connection is grammatical rather than devotional, which is how most Roman names worked.

Saint Martin of Tours turned the meaning inside out. A 4th-century soldier who cut his cloak in half for a freezing beggar and later became bishop, he is the patron saint of France and the reason the name spread across Europe.

Martin ranked #335 in the United States in 2025 while Martie itself is essentially unused. Marty is the more common spelling of the same nickname, so this is the softer, rarer version of a familiar sound.

64. Max

• Origin: German and English, from Latin
• Meaning: From Maximilian or Maxim, from Latin maximus, meaning greatest
• Pronunciation: MAKS
• Variations: Maximilian, Maxim, Maxwell, Maks
• Namesakes: Max Planck, physicist; Max Weber, sociologist
• Popularity: #180 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (2,025 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 19% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Max is short for Maximilian or Maxim, both of which go back to the Latin maximus, meaning greatest. In English it also covers Maxwell, which means Mack’s stream, with Mack being the English form of the Scandinavian Magnus, and Magnus also means great.

So every route to Max arrives at the same place, and the informal English word max sits on top of the pile as a bonus.

It works unchanged in German, English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Dutch, Czech, Russian, French and Catalan, which is close to a record. It ranked #180 in the United States in 2025, and Max Planck and Max Weber cover the intellectual end.

65. Micha

• Origin: German and Dutch, from Hebrew
• Meaning: Who is like Yahweh
• Pronunciation: MEE-khah
• Variations: Micah, Micaiah
• Popularity: #4,489 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (23 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 13% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Micha is the form of Micah used in the Greek and Latin Old Testament for the man in the Book of Judges, and it survives today as a living given name in German and Dutch. It ranked #201 in the Netherlands in 2025.

The meaning is a question rather than a statement. Micah is a contracted form of Micaiah, built from Hebrew elements that ask who is like Yahweh, and Yahweh was the name used for God in the ancient kingdom of Israel.

Michael asks the same question with the general word for God in place of the name.

The Dutch pronunciation MEE-khah has a soft guttural in the middle that English speakers usually flatten to a K. Micah is the spelling if you want the American reading, and it ranked #90 there in 2025.

66. Milo

• Origin: English and Germanic
• Meaning: The Old German form of Miles
• Pronunciation: MY-loh
• Variations: Miles, Myles, Mylo
• Popularity: #119 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (2,974 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 252% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Milo is the Old German form of Miles, revived as an English name in the 19th century, with some influence from the classical Milo of Croton, the wrestler who reputedly carried a bull across a stadium.

It ranked #119 in the United States in 2025 and has been climbing steadily for two decades. It is also strong across Europe, and the sound survives the crossing intact in France, England and Finland alike.

Miles and Myles are the same name wearing a different coat, so a family split on spelling has an easy compromise. Milo is the warmer of the two by some distance.

67. Nate

• Origin: English, from Hebrew
• Meaning: From Nathan or Nathaniel, meaning he gave
• Pronunciation: NAYT
• Variations: Nathan, Nathaniel, Nat
• Namesakes: Nathan Hale, American Revolutionary officer
• Popularity: #1,748 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (93 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 18% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Nate is the short form of Nathan or Nathaniel, both built on a Hebrew element meaning he gave. In the Old Testament, Nathan is the prophet who confronted King David over Bathsheba, one of the few people in scripture to tell a king he was wrong and survive it.

Nathan Hale, hanged as a spy in 1776 at twenty-one, is the American bearer schoolchildren meet first. Nathan ranked #63 in the United States in 2025 while Nate rarely charts alone. That is the usual arrangement for a nickname this settled: everyone knows one, almost nobody is officially one.

68. Newt

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From Newton, meaning new town
• Pronunciation: NOOT
• Variations: Newton
• Namesakes: Isaac Newton, physicist and mathematician
• Popularity: #7,073 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (12 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 97% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Newt is short for Newton, an English surname from a place name meaning new town. Given how many English villages were once a new town, the surname turns up everywhere, and Isaac Newton attached it permanently to gravity and calculus.

The nickname has a life of its own. Newton Knight, the Mississippi farmer who led an armed revolt against the Confederacy, is the subject of the 2016 film The Free State of Jones, and J. K. Rowling gave the name to Newt Scamander, magizoologist.

It also coincides with a small amphibian, which most children will consider a feature. Newton dropped out of the American top 1,000 in 1957 and Newt has never been in it.

69. Niko

• Origin: Finnish, also Croatian, Slovene, Georgian and German
• Meaning: From Nicholas, meaning victory of the people
• Pronunciation: NEE-koh
• Variations: Nicholas, Nico, Nik, Nikica
• Popularity: #325 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,046 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 200% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Niko is the Finnish form of Nicholas and a short form of it in Croatian, Slovene, Georgian and German. Nicholas comes from the Greek Nikolaos, built from nike, meaning victory, and laos, meaning people.

It is a genuine top five name in Croatia, ranked #5 in 2025, and it sat at #325 in the United States the same year. Its name day is 6 December in both Croatia and Finland, which is Saint Nicholas’s day and therefore also, indirectly, the ancestor of Santa Claus.

The K spelling gives it a modern, slightly athletic edge that Nicholas has lost. Nico is the German and Italian version if you prefer the softer ending.

70. Oscar

• Origin: Irish and Old English
• Meaning: Deer friend, or possibly God’s spear
• Pronunciation: AHS-ker
• Variations: Oskar, Óscar
• Namesakes: Oscar Wilde, Irish writer; Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect
• Popularity: #223 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,620 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 26% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Oscar has two competing origins and no settled answer. It may come from Old Irish oss, meaning deer, and carae, meaning friend, giving deer friend; or from the Old English Osgar or Old Norse Ásgeirr, in which case it means God’s spear and arrived in Ireland with Viking settlers.

Its spread across continental Europe is easier to trace. James Macpherson’s 18th-century Ossian poems made it fashionable, and Napoleon liked it enough to push it as a middle name for his godson, who later became King Oscar I of Sweden.

Oscar Wilde and Oscar Niemeyer between them cover wit and concrete. The name ranked #223 in the United States in 2025 and is a top ten fixture in Britain and Scandinavia.

71. Otto

• Origin: German
• Meaning: From Audo, a short form of names meaning wealth, fortune
• Pronunciation: AHT-oh
• Variations: Udo, Odo, Ottó, Ottone
• Namesakes: Otto von Bismarck, German chancellor; Otto the Great, Holy Roman Emperor
• Popularity: #277 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,241 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 294% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Otto is the later German form of Audo, originally a short form of Old High German and Old Frankish names beginning with an element meaning wealth or fortune. It has been a royal name in Germany since the 10th century, starting with Otto the Great.

Otto von Bismarck unified Germany in 1871, and the name became notably popular among German immigrants to the United States at the end of that century, which is why it turns up so often on American family trees from the 1880s and 1890s.

It ranked #277 in the United States in 2025 and is climbing. It reads the same forwards and backwards, which is the sort of detail a five-year-old will find deeply satisfying.

72. Pau

• Origin: Catalan and Occitan
• Meaning: From Paul, meaning small, humble; also the Catalan word for peace
• Pronunciation: POW
• Variations: Paul, Pol, Pablo
• Popularity: #6,353 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (14 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 50% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Pau is the Catalan and Occitan form of Paul, which comes from the Latin paulus, meaning small or humble. It also happens to be the Catalan word for peace, so the name carries a second meaning in its own language.

That double sense is why it is so heavily used in Catalonia, where it ranked #9 in 2024 and #46 across Spain as a whole. It is a genuinely current name there rather than a heritage one. English speakers will read it as POW, which is the correct pronunciation. Three letters, one syllable, and a considerably more interesting name than Paul.

73. Percy

• Origin: English, from Norman French
• Meaning: From the Norman town of Perci
• Pronunciation: PUR-see
• Variations: Percival, Perce
• Namesakes: Percy Bysshe Shelley, English Romantic poet
• Popularity: #1,279 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (154 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 101% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Percy began as a place name, given to people from the Norman town of Perci, and passed into England as the surname of one of its great noble families. It became a given name because other families used it in their honor.

It also works as a short form of Percival, the Arthurian knight whose name means hard spear, and in the 17th century it did duty as a nickname for boys called Peter or Piers.

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote Ozymandias and married Mary Shelley, which is a strong literary claim for a name that also belongs to a small green tank engine. It dropped out of the American top 1,000 in 1988 and is climbing again in Britain.

74. Remi

• Origin: French
• Meaning: From Remigius, from Latin remigis, meaning oarsman
• Pronunciation: REM-ee
• Variations: Rémi, Rémy, Remy, Remigio
• Popularity: #145 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (2,023 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 700% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Remi is the anglicized spelling of the French Rémi, which comes through Remigius from the Latin remigis, meaning rower or oarsman. Saint Remigius baptised Clovis, the first king of the Franks, which is why the name never left France.

It can also stand as a short form of the biblical Remiel, a variant of Jeremiel meaning God will have pity, so there is a second and quite different route to the same three syllables.

In the United States the spelling Remy ranked #408 for boys and #718 for girls in 2025, which makes it lean male but not decisively. Ratatouille did the name no harm at all.

75. Rolo

• Origin: English, from Old French
• Meaning: From Rollo, meaning famous wolf
• Pronunciation: ROH-loh
• Variations: Rollo, Roul, Rolf, Rudolf
• Namesakes: Rollo the Ganger, first Duke of Normandy
• Popularity: Rollo last charted in the United States at #804 in 1898

Rolo is a variant of Rollo, and the trail back is worth following. Rollo is the Latinized form of the Old French Roul, which comes from the German Rolf, itself a contracted form of Hrodulf or Rudolf, built from elements meaning fame and wolf.

The historical Rollo was an exiled Viking who took Normandy by force in the 10th century and became its first duke, making him a direct ancestor of William the Conqueror and of every English monarch since.

Rollo last charted in America in 1898. British readers will think of the chocolate first, and there are worse associations for a cute boy name to carry.

76. Rufus

• Origin: Ancient Roman
• Meaning: Red-haired
• Pronunciation: ROO-fus
• Namesakes: William II Rufus, king of England, nicknamed for his red hair
• Popularity: #4,019 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (27 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 8% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Rufus is a Roman cognomen meaning red-haired in Latin. Cognomina started as personal nicknames attached to one individual, sat after the forename and family name, and were eventually inherited from father to son whether or not the hair color came with them.

It appears in the New Testament, where Paul greets a Rufus in his letter to the Romans, and several early saints carried it. William II of England was known as William Rufus for exactly the reason you would expect.

It last charted in the United States in 1988. It is the sort of name that suits a redhead perfectly and a dark-haired boy just as well, since almost nobody knows the meaning.

77. Ryan

• Origin: English, from an Irish surname
• Meaning: From Ó Riain, descendant of Rían, traditionally little king
• Pronunciation: RY-un
• Variations: Rian
• Namesakes: Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling, Canadian actors
• Popularity: #99 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (3,532 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 50% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Ryan comes from the Irish surname Ó Riain, meaning descendant of Rían.

Rían is traditionally read as little king, from Irish rí meaning king plus a diminutive ending, though the meaning of the root itself is not certain.

It took off in the United States after the 1970 film Ryan’s Daughter and stayed in the top 20 for more than thirty years. It has been used for girls since the 1960s as well, ranked #712 for them in 2025, often in the feminine spelling Ryann.

At #99 for boys in 2025 it has settled into the comfortable band where a name is instantly recognisable and no longer everywhere. Rian is the Irish spelling if you want the original.

78. Ryker

• Origin: Modern English
• Meaning: Probably from the German surname Riker, from Low German rike, meaning rich
• Pronunciation: RY-ker
• Variations: Riker, Ryder
• Popularity: #183 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (2,003 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 90% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Ryker is a modern name with a probable rather than proven origin. The likeliest source is the German surname Riker, from the Low German rike, meaning rich, and the name’s rise in English owes far more to its sound than to its history.

That sound is the point. It slots between Ryan and Ryder, both already established, and inherits the momentum of both without being either.

It ranked #182 in the United States in 2025, which is higher than most parents assume. If you want something that feels invented but is not, this is the one.

79. Sander

• Origin: Dutch, Estonian, Danish and Norwegian
• Meaning: From Alexander, meaning defender of man
• Pronunciation: SAHN-der
• Variations: Alexander, Xander, Zander, Alex
• Popularity: #3,030 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (41 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 45% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Sander is a Dutch form of Alexander, which comes from Greek elements meaning to defend and man. It is also used in Estonia, Denmark and Norway as a name in its own right, not a nickname.

It is genuinely popular in the north: #37 in Norway in 2025, #4 in Estonia in 2000, and a steady presence as a boy name in Denmark and Belgium. Its name day falls on 11 September in Estonia and 18 March in Norway.

The modern respellings Xander and Zander cover the same sound with more visual drama. Sander is the quieter option and the one with a real country behind it.

80. Scotty

• Origin: English and Scottish
• Meaning: From Scott, meaning a person from Scotland
• Pronunciation: SKAH-tee
• Variations: Scott, Scottie
• Popularity: #1,399 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (131 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 33% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Scotty is the diminutive of Scott, a surname meaning a person from Scotland or a speaker of Scottish Gaelic, from the Latin Scoti. Scott ranked #534 in the United States in 2025, down a long way from its 1970s peak.

The best namesake is not a person. Scotty is the nickname of RSM P2523.8, a Tyrannosaurus rex found in Saskatchewan in August 1991 by a high school principal named Robert Gebhardt and excavated over the following two decades.

A 2019 study made it the largest T. rex yet found, about 13 meters long, though the margin over Sue at the Field Museum is only around five percent and palaeontologists still argue about it.

Scotty was also 23 to 27 years old when it died, among the oldest known. For a family with a dinosaur enthusiast, that is a strong pitch.

81. Shai

• Origin: Hebrew
• Meaning: Gift; also a Hebrew diminutive of Isaiah
• Pronunciation: SHY
• Variations: Shay, Isaiah
• Popularity: #1,032 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (215 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 262% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Shai is a Hebrew name meaning gift, and it doubles as a Hebrew diminutive of Isaiah. It is used for boys and girls in Israel and reads gender-neutral in English too.

There is a second Shai from an entirely different world. In Ancient Egyptian mythology, Shai was the personification of fate, the figure who determined the length of a life. The two names are unrelated and the coincidence is a good one.

It last touched the American top 1,000 at #977 in 2023. Four letters, one syllable, and the only thing anyone will get wrong is assuming it rhymes with day.

82. Shiloh

• Origin: Hebrew, biblical
• Meaning: Possibly tranquil
• Pronunciation: SHY-loh
• Variations: Shilo
• Popularity: #281 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (1,098 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 104% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Shiloh started as a place, the town in the hill country where the Israelites kept the Ark of the Covenant, and its meaning is usually given as tranquil. It became a personal name much later.

The prophetic line in Genesis is the reason it carries so much weight. Different translations render it as he that is to be sent, until tribute comes to him, and until he whose right it is comes, and many readers take all three as pointing to the Messiah. Others read it simply as the place name.

It ranked #278 for boys and #281 for girls in the United States in 2025, which is about as evenly unisex as a name gets. Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, born in 2006, is why the modern usage took off.

83. Shug

• Origin: Scottish
• Meaning: From Hugh, meaning mind, thought, spirit
• Pronunciation: SHUG, rhyming with hug
• Variations: Hugh, Huey, Hughie
• Popularity: Hugh last ranked #732 in the United States in 2025

Shug is a Scottish name and a diminutive of Hugh, which comes from a Proto-Germanic root meaning mind, thought and spirit. In Scotland it is what a Hugh actually gets called, in the way an English Robert becomes Bob.

Hugh reached England with the Normans and became widespread after Saint Hugh of Lincoln in the 12th century. It ranked #732 in the United States in 2025, so the parent name is quietly still in use.

It rhymes with hug, which is most of the charm. There is also an obsolete English slang verb to shug, meaning to wriggle about inside your clothes to relieve an itch, which is the sort of thing you only learn by looking a name up.

84. Taj

• Origin: Arabic, Urdu and Pashto
• Meaning: Crown
• Pronunciation: TAHJ
• Namesakes: Taj Gibson, American basketball player
• Popularity: #1,667 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (100 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 5% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Taj means crown in Arabic and is used in Urdu and Pashto as well, for boys and for girls. The Taj Mahal takes its name from the same word, so the association most English speakers already have is the right one.

Taj Gibson played college basketball for the USC Trojans and was taken 26th overall by the Chicago Bulls in the 2009 draft, going on to a long professional career across several franchises. It last charted in America at #995 in 2010. One syllable that means crown is a lot of value for three letters.

85. Tate

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From a surname derived from the Old English name Tata
• Pronunciation: TAYT
• Popularity: #194 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,862 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 75% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Tate comes from an English surname built on the Old English personal name Tata. It is often glossed as cheerful, and while that reading is widespread the underlying Tata is better described as a nursery name of the sort families invent and then keep.

The related Nordic Tado and Frisian Tade sit in the same family and mean something close to daddy, which is where the warm reading comes from. It ranked #193 in the United States in 2025. Four letters, no nickname, and it works on a toddler and a thirty-year-old without any adjustment at all.

86. Theo

• Origin: English, German, Dutch and Scandinavian
• Meaning: From Theodore, meaning gift of God
• Pronunciation: THEE-oh
• Variations: Theodore, Theobald, Ted, Teddy
• Namesakes: Theodore Roosevelt, US president
• Popularity: #82 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (3,945 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 834% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Theo is the short form of Theodore, Theobald and any other name starting with Theo, so its meaning depends on which one you have in mind. Theodore is Greek theos plus doron and means gift of God; Theobald means bold people; Theodoric means ruler of people.

Theodore itself is having an extraordinary run. It ranked #4 in the United States in 2025 and has never once left the American top 1,000, which almost no name manages.

Theo stands alone at #82, so it is a full name in its own right rather than only a nickname. Ted and Teddy are the alternatives if you want the softer end.

87. Tilo

• Origin: German
• Meaning: A variant of Till, from a diminutive of Dietrich, from an element meaning people
• Pronunciation: TEE-loh
• Variations: Till, Thilo, Dietrich
• Namesakes: Till Eulenspiegel, the trickster of German folklore
• Popularity: Does not rank in the United States

Tilo is the German variant of Till, which comes from the medieval Low German Tielo, a diminutive of Dietrich and related names built on Old High German diota, meaning people. Thilo is the third spelling of the same name.

Because it descends from Dietrich, it works as an affectionate nod to anyone in the family called Derrick, Richard, Frederick or Terry, all of which carry the same ric element meaning ruler.

Till Eulenspiegel, the practical joker of German folklore, is the name’s most famous bearer and the reason it carries a mischievous streak in Germany that English speakers will not detect at all.

88. Toivo

• Origin: Finnish and Estonian
• Meaning: Hope
• Pronunciation: TOY-vo
• Variations: Tõivo
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 1930 at #4,500 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.

Toivo is the Finnish word for hope used directly as a name meaning hope. Finnish and Estonian both use it, with Estonia spelling it Tõivo, and its name day falls on 4 June in both countries.

It is not a museum piece. It ranked #15 in Finland in 2025, which puts it squarely in the current top twenty there, while in the United States it last charted in 1918.

Toivo Suursoo, born in Tallinn in 1975, became the first Estonian-born player drafted into the NHL when the Detroit Red Wings took him 283rd overall in 1994. He never signed an NHL contract but played professionally across Europe and North America until 2012.

89. Tucker

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From an occupational surname for a cloth fuller
• Pronunciation: TUK-er
• Popularity: #181 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (2,008 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 21% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Tucker is an occupational surname for a cloth fuller, from the Old English tucian. A fuller cleaned and thickened raw wool by pounding or stamping on it, which removed the oils and dirt and left a denser fabric. The process was called tucking in the west of England, so the workers became tuckers.

It is one of the more physical name meanings on any list of cute boy names, and one of the least obvious, since almost nobody guesses the trade from the word.

It ranked #181 in the United States in 2025. Tuck is the natural short form and it is a good one.

90. Ty

• Origin: English
• Meaning: A short form of Tyler, Tyson and other Ty names
• Pronunciation: TIE
• Variations: Tyler, Tyson, Tyrone
• Popularity: #813 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (306 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 62% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Ty began as a short form of Tyler, Tyson, Tyrone and anything else beginning with those two letters, and it has been a name in its own right for decades.

If you want short, it does not get shorter. Two letters, one syllable, nothing to spell out, nothing to shorten further, and no obvious way to turn it into a joke.

It ranked #810 in the United States in 2025, so it is used without being common. The longer forms are all available on the birth certificate if you would rather leave your son the option.

91. Wasi

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Broad-minded, liberal, learned
• Pronunciation: WAH-see
• Namesakes: Wasi Shah, Pakistani poet and broadcaster
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2016 at #14,086 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.

Wasi is an Arabic name meaning broad-minded, liberal and learned, and it is counted among the ninety-nine names of Allah, where it carries the sense of all-encompassing. That gives it real standing in Muslim families rather than being merely a pleasant word.

Wasi Shah, the Pakistani poet, screenwriter, journalist and talk show host, is the best-known modern bearer. His romantic Urdu poetry has a following well beyond Pakistan. Two syllables, both of them easy for English speakers, and a meaning that most parents would happily wish on a child.

92. Wemba

• Origin: Anglo-Saxon
• Meaning: Belly, from Old English wamb
• Pronunciation: WEM-bah
• Popularity: Extremely rare; no modern ranking

Wemba is a rare Anglo-Saxon byname from Old English wamb, meaning belly. Bynames like this were handed out for physical characteristics, so somewhere in early England there was a man everyone knew by his stomach.

It made the jump from nickname to given name, which most bynames never did, and then all but disappeared. Behind the Name files it under body parts, alongside a small handful of similarly blunt Anglo-Saxon coinages.

It is a genuinely funny name and it works both before and after a baby arrives, which is more than most on this list can claim.

93. Wes

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From Wesley, meaning west meadow
• Pronunciation: WES
• Variations: Wesley
• Namesakes: John Wesley, founder of Methodism; Wes Craven, film director
• Popularity: #716 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (376 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 212% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Wes is short for Wesley, which comes from an English surname taken from a place name meaning west meadow, from Old English west and leah, a woodland clearing.

The surname became a first name largely in honor of John Wesley, who founded Methodism in the 18th century, and Wesley ranked #52 in the United States in 2025.

Wes charted separately at #715 the same year, which is unusual for a nickname and shows how well it stands alone. Wes Craven, who directed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, supplies the other half of the association.

94. Wiebe

• Origin: Frisian and Dutch
• Meaning: From Wigberht, from the Old German element wig, meaning war
• Pronunciation: VEE-buh
• Variations: Wibo, Wiebke
• Popularity: Last ranked #496 in the Netherlands in 2013

Wiebe is a Frisian and Dutch name, originally a short form of Wigberht and other names beginning with the Old German element wig, meaning war. The soft sound and the hard meaning make an odd and rather appealing pair.

It is pronounced VEE-buh, with a V at the front and a swallowed final syllable, which will confuse anyone who does not speak Dutch or a related Germanic language. Wibo is the diminutive and Wiebke the feminine form.

It last charted in the Netherlands at #496 in 2013 and has never registered in the United States, so an American Wiebe would be a genuine one-off.

95. Wyatt

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From the medieval given name Wyard or Wyot, from Old English Wigheard
• Pronunciation: WY-ut
• Namesakes: Wyatt Earp, American lawman
• Popularity: #38 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (6,480 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 13% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Wyatt comes from a surname built on the medieval given name Wyard or Wyot, which goes back to the Old English Wigheard. The elements mean war and hardy, so brave in battle is a fair reading.

Wyatt Earp put it on the map. The gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881 lasted about thirty seconds and has been filmed more times than most wars.

The name hovered around #500 through the 1800s, faded, then took off in the 1990s and reached #38 in the United States in 2025. It is one of the few genuinely Western names that never sounds like a costume.

96. Yanni

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: From Yannis, meaning Yahweh is gracious
• Pronunciation: YAH-nee
• Variations: Yannis, Giannis, Ioannis, Yianni
• Namesakes: Yanni, Greek-American composer
• Popularity: #5,594 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (17 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 11% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Yanni is the diminutive of Yannis, the Greek form of John, a name beginning with Y that goes back to Hebrew elements meaning Yahweh is gracious. Giannis and Ioannis are the same name in different transcriptions.

The Greek-American composer Yanni is the reason most Americans know it. His Live at the Acropolis concert film became one of the best-selling music videos ever made and ran repeatedly on PBS through the 1990s.

Yannis last charted at #495 in France in 2021 and #996 in England and Wales in 2017. In America the whole family of spellings remains uncommon, which is part of the appeal.

97. Yasha

• Origin: Russian
• Meaning: From Yakov, the Russian form of Jacob and James
• Pronunciation: YAH-shah
• Variations: Yakov, Jacob, James
• Popularity: #14,870 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (6 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 14% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Yasha is the Russian diminutive of Yakov, which is the Russian and Bulgarian form of Jacob and therefore also of James. Russian pet forms tend to soften a name considerably, and this one turns a heavy biblical name into something you would call a small child.

It is also the title of an award-winning Japanese manga by Akimi Yoshida, published in twelve volumes and adapted for Japanese television in 2000, so the name has an unexpected second audience.

Nothing about it is common in English-speaking countries. If you want a name that sounds tender without sounding invented, this is a strong candidate.

98. Zac

• Origin: English, from Hebrew
• Meaning: From Zachary, meaning God remembers
• Pronunciation: ZAK
• Variations: Zachary, Zach, Zack, Zak
• Namesakes: Zachary Taylor, US president
• Popularity: #3,237 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (37 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 8% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Zac is a short form of Zachary, the usual English form of Zacharias, built from Hebrew elements meaning remember and Yahweh, so God remembers. It became common in English after the Protestant Reformation.

Zachary ranked #216 in the United States in 2025, well down from its 1990s peak but comfortably in use. Zachary Taylor, the twelfth president, is the historical bearer.

Of the four spellings, Zac and Zach are the most common. Zak is fine too, though it is worth knowing that in some languages zak is a word for a shroud, the waxed cloth used to wrap a body.

99. Zane

• Origin: English
• Meaning: From a surname of unknown meaning
• Pronunciation: ZAYN
• Variations: Zayne
• Namesakes: Zane Grey, American author of Western fiction
• Popularity: #324 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,051 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 4% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Zane comes from an English surname whose meaning has never been established. It was a surname first and a given name second, and the switch is easy to date.

Pearl Zane Grey, the American writer who effectively invented the popular Western novel, dropped his first name and used his middle one, which came from his mother’s maiden name. Riders of the Purple Sage did the rest.

It ranked #324 in the United States in 2025. Four letters, a Z at the front, and no history to explain, which is exactly what some parents are looking for.

100. Zeke

• Origin: English, from Hebrew
• Meaning: From Ezekiel, meaning God will strengthen
• Pronunciation: ZEEK
• Variations: Ezekiel
• Namesakes: Ezekiel, Old Testament prophet
• Popularity: #803 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (311 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 114% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Zeke is the short form of Ezekiel, from Hebrew roots meaning God will strengthen. Ezekiel was one of the major Old Testament prophets, and his book is the one with the wheels within wheels and the valley of dry bones.

The two names are moving in opposite directions and both are in use. Ezekiel ranked #61 in the United States in 2025 and Zeke ranked #800 the same year, so the short form stands alone without being crowded.

There is also a Seattle hardcore punk band called Zeke, formed in 1992 and often compared to Motörhead, whose songs have turned up on video game soundtracks. It is a small thing, but it keeps the name from feeling purely biblical.

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FAQs

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It’s in His Name

Cute is not a permanent category. A name that suits a two-year-old has to survive a classroom, a job application and a fifty-year-old man, and the ones that manage all four usually have a longer form waiting in reserve.

If you want something familiar, Jack, Levi, Asher, Wyatt and Beau are all inside the United States top 60 and need no explaining. If you want something nobody else has, Chidi, Lugh, Wemba, Wasi, Bede and Hamnet are still unused in America.

Say your shortlist out loud with your surname a few times before you decide. That test settles more arguments than any list can.