Dutch boy names are built to be taken apart. A boy registered as Adrianus answers to Arie all his life, Constantijn wears down to Stijn, and the five-syllable Bartholomeus has been shaved to Mees, now one of the five most-used boys’ names in the Netherlands.
That habit gives this list its shape. You will find the long formal names that go on a birth certificate, the one-syllable calling names families actually use, the Frisian names from the far north, and the Nordic and biblical imports Dutch parents have adopted wholesale. Every entry carries its origin, meaning, pronunciation and where it really stands today.
The numbers deserve a word. Each United States rank below comes from Social Security Administration birth records for 2025 (1), and each Dutch rank comes from the national registration figures published every January. Where a name is too rare for either file to list, we say so instead of inventing a figure.
Five of these names have enough recorded American history to plot together. Abel is the one still climbing, Albert and Anton have been sliding since the First World War, Arie is quietly turning back up, and Abbe has all but vanished from the federal files. The Abbe and Arie lines are their U.S. girls’ records, which is the only series the files hold for Abbe and the larger of the two for Arie.
Popularity at a Glance
The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: Liam, Noah, Levi, Jacob and Jasper.
100 Unique Dutch Boy Names
Every entry below gives the origin, meaning, pronunciation and current standing of one name, ordered A to Z.
Aart
Aart is the Dutch short form of Arnold, which was built from the Old German elements arn, eagle, and walt, power. It is a grandfather name in the Netherlands rather than a nursery one, so an American family would be borrowing it fresh rather than following a trend. If Arnold feels heavy and Arthur feels crowded, Aart sits between them with almost no competition.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Eagle power
- Pronunciation: AHRT
- Variations: Aert, Art, Arend
- Namesakes: Aart van der Leeuw, the Dutch novelist and poet behind Ik en mijn speelman. Aart Staartjes, the Dutch actor and presenter who played Meneer Aart on Sesamstraat.
- Popularity: Aart has never appeared in the U.S. Social Security Administration files, and it is absent from the Dutch top 250 for 2025. It survives mainly among older Dutch and Afrikaans speakers.
Abbe
Abbe belongs to the Frisian north, where it started life as a short form of Adalbert, from adal, noble, and beraht, bright. Older baby-name pages sometimes file it under Hebrew and gloss it as father, which confuses it with the unrelated Semitic abba. The Frisian reading is the one that fits a Dutch list, and it puts Abbe in the same family as Albert and Aldert. Two soft syllables make it easy on a small mouth, and Abe is waiting as the everyday form.
- Origin: Frisian, Dutch
- Meaning: Noble and bright
- Pronunciation: AH-buh
- Variations: Abe, Abbo, Ubbe
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. girls’ names in 2014 at #14,575 (6 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Abel
Abel is the biblical second son of Adam and Eve, and the Hebrew name behind it, Hevel, means breath. That is a startling meaning for a name that reads as calm and steady, and the tension is part of why it has aged so well. The Dutch have their own claim on it through Abel Tasman, whose voyages put the name on maps from Tasmania to the Abel Tasman National Park. Two clean syllables, no spelling argument, and a rank climbing in both countries at once.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Breath
- Pronunciation: AY-buhl
- Namesakes: Abel Tasman, the 17th-century Dutch navigator who charted Tasmania and New Zealand. Abel Tesfaye, the Canadian singer who records as The Weeknd. Abel Kirui, the Kenyan two-time world marathon champion.
- Popularity: #231 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,525 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 43% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Adrianus
Adrianus is the full ceremonial form of Adrian, from the Roman Hadrianus, meaning a man from Hadria on the Adriatic coast. It is the perfect illustration of how Dutch naming actually works: the long Latin form goes in the register, and the family uses a short calling name every day of the child’s life. Six popes have carried the name, including Adrian VI, the only Dutchman ever elected. Choose it if you want a formal name with real weight and a ready-made set of nicknames attached.
- Origin: Latin, Dutch
- Meaning: From Hadria
- Pronunciation: ah-dree-YAH-nus
- Variations: Adriaan, Adrian, Arie, Aris
- Popularity: Adrianus does not appear in the U.S. federal name files or in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. In the Netherlands it lives on paper more than in speech, registered on birth certificates while the child answers to Adriaan or Arie.
Albert
Albert comes from the Germanic Adalbert, adal noble joined to beraht bright, and it has been worn by so many kings and consorts that it reads royal without trying. The name is deep in its trough right now, which is exactly where vintage names sit before they turn around. Two nicknames come free, Al for the plain-spoken version and Bert for the warm one. Dutch families also have Albrecht and Bert as separate options if the full form feels stiff.
- Origin: Germanic
- Meaning: Noble and bright
- Pronunciation: AL-burt
- Variations: Albrecht, Alberto, Elbert, Bert
- Namesakes: Albert Einstein, the theoretical physicist. Albert II, King of the Belgians from 1993 to 2013. Albert Plesman, the Dutch aviation pioneer who founded KLM.
- Popularity: #614 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (461 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.
Aldert
Aldert is Frisian, built from adal, noble, and hard, brave or hardy, which makes it a cousin of Allard and of the German Adelhard. Frisian names travel badly outside the northern Netherlands, and that is precisely their appeal for a family looking for roots without a crowd.
- Origin: Frisian, Dutch
- Meaning: Noble and brave
- Pronunciation: AHL-dert
- Variations: Allard, Adelhard, Aldrik
- Popularity: Aldert has no entry in the U.S. Social Security files and is not in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. It is a Frisian regional name that never crossed over.
Ambroos
Ambroos is the Dutch form of Ambrosius, from the Greek ambrosios, immortal, the same root as the food of the gods. Saint Ambrose of Milan gave the name its long church history, and the Dutch clipped it further to Broos, which is a genuinely charming short form. If you like Ambrose but want a version nobody else at the playground will have, this is the one.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Immortal
- Pronunciation: AHM-brohs
- Variations: Ambrosius, Ambrose, Broos
- Popularity: Ambroos appears in neither the U.S. federal name files nor the Dutch top 250 for 2025. The English form Ambrose is the one with any current traction.
Andries
Andries is the Dutch form of Andrew, which goes back to the Greek andreios, manly. The short form Dries is used so widely in Belgium and the Netherlands that many people meet it first and never learn the full version. It is a plain, unfussy name with no decoration on it, which is a fair description of the culture that kept it alive. Anyone who has spent time in South Africa will recognise it instantly.
Anton
Anton descends from Antonius, an old Roman family name whose original meaning the Romans themselves had already lost. The glosses you see attached to it, priceless or praiseworthy, are later inventions rather than etymology, and a name this good does not need them. What it has instead is reach: Anton works unchanged in Dutch, German, Russian, Swedish and Spanish, which is rare for a two-syllable name. Dutch speakers shorten it to Ton or slide sideways to Teun.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: From the Roman family name Antonius
- Pronunciation: AHN-tawn
- Variations: Antoon, Antonius, Ton, Teun
- Namesakes: Anton Yelchin, the American actor. Anton Chekhov, the Russian playwright and short-story writer. Anton Geesink, the Dutch judoka and Olympic champion.
- Popularity: #1,389 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (132 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 22% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Arie
Arie has two separate stories that landed on the same spelling. In Dutch it is the everyday calling name for Adriaan, which is how most Dutch men named Arie got there. In Hebrew it is a word name, aryeh, lion, which is the reading most American families have in mind. Neither is wrong, and the double origin is part of what makes it travel. Say it in three light beats, AH-ree, not like the English airy.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Diminutive of Adriaan; separately, lion in Hebrew
- Pronunciation: AH-ree
- Variations: Aris, Arieh, Ari
- Namesakes: Arie Luyendyk, the Dutch racing driver and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. Arie Haan, the Dutch footballer of the 1974 and 1978 World Cup sides.
- Popularity: #2,301 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (79 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 95% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Arne
Arne is Scandinavian rather than strictly Dutch, drawn from the Old Norse word for eagle, and it arrived in the northern Netherlands the way most Nordic names did, by water. Its shape is unusual for English speakers, one syllable on the page and two in the mouth, which is worth practising out loud before you commit. Design-minded parents will know it from Arne Jacobsen. If you want the eagle idea in a name that is easier to spell over the phone, Aart and Arnoud carry it too.
- Origin: Old Norse, Scandinavian
- Meaning: Eagle
- Pronunciation: AHR-nuh
- Variations: Arni, Arn, Arnie
- Namesakes: Arne Jacobsen, the Danish architect and furniture designer behind the Egg chair. Arne Slot, the Dutch football manager.
- Popularity: #9,794 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (7 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 30% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Arnoud
Arnoud is the Dutch form of Arnold, from arn, eagle, and walt, power. The spelling looks intimidating and the sound is not: the final d hardens to a t, so it lands as AHR-nowt in two beats. Arno waits as the short form, one of the more usable Dutch nicknames on this list, and the eagle at its root puts it among the nature-inspired names that predate Hawk and Wilder by a thousand years.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Eagle power
- Pronunciation: AHR-nowt
- Variations: Arnout, Arnold, Arend, Arno
- Popularity: Arnoud has no entry in the U.S. federal name files and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. The related Arnold is also thin in the United States now, well below its mid-century peak.
Augustijn
Augustijn is the Dutch form of Augustinus, from Latin augustus, venerable or exalted, and it comes trailing Saint Augustine along with fifteen centuries of theology. What makes it practical rather than ponderous is the Dutch habit of using the tail end of a long name as the calling name. Register Augustijn and you get Stijn, one of the most popular boys’ names in the Netherlands right now, without ever having to explain it. Guus works the same way from the front.
- Origin: Dutch, Latin
- Meaning: Venerable, exalted
- Pronunciation: ow-gus-TAYN
- Variations: Augustinus, Augustine, Stijn, Guus
- Popularity: Augustijn is absent from the U.S. federal files and from the Dutch top 250 for 2025, but two of its short forms are thriving in the Netherlands: Stijn ranked 91st and Guus 19th in 2025.
Bartel
Bartel is a short form of Bartholomeus, which comes from the Aramaic bar Talmay, son of Talmai, a name usually read as furrows. That agricultural sense is genuine, but Bartel is a patronymic rather than an occupational name, so it says son of rather than farmer. The Dutch produced an unusual number of short forms from this one root, and Mees is the version currently near the top of the Dutch charts. Bartel is the road not taken: same biblical name behind it, none of the company.
- Origin: Dutch, Aramaic
- Meaning: Son of Talmai
- Pronunciation: BAHR-tuhl
- Variations: Bartholomeus, Bartels, Bart, Mees
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 1942 at #3,602 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Bas
Bas is the Dutch short form of Sebastian, by way of Bastiaan. It traces back to the Greek city of Sebaste, whose own name meant venerable. Dutch parents have used it as a full legal name for decades rather than a nickname, which is the pattern for most of the short names on this list. For an American family it solves a specific problem: you want Sebastian’s history without four syllables at the dinner table. The vowel is a flat ah, so it rhymes with boss, not with bass the fish.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: From Sebaste, venerable
- Pronunciation: BAHS
- Variations: Bastiaan, Sebastiaan, Sebastian
- Namesakes: Bas Rutten, the Dutch mixed martial artist and UFC heavyweight champion. Bas Dost, the Dutch international footballer.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. girls’ names in 1976 at #9,415 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Berend
Berend is a Dutch and Low German variant of Bernhard, from bern, bear, and hard, brave or hardy. The bear element is the oldest layer of Germanic naming, the animal you named a child after when you wanted him steady rather than quick. Barend is the equally common spelling if the double e looks awkward, and Dutch speakers finish either one with a t sound.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Brave as a bear
- Pronunciation: BAY-rent
- Variations: Barend, Bernhard, Bernard, Berent
- Namesakes: Berend Botha, the South African lock who came up through the Bulls and went on to play club rugby in France for Perpignan.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2024 at #7,843 (10 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Rising in the United States, up 33% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Boudewijn
Boudewijn is the Dutch form of Baldwin, from bald, bold, and wini, friend, and it has been a royal name in the Low Countries since the counts of Flanders. The meaning is unusually warm for a Germanic name, which tends toward spears and rulers; here the promise is loyalty with nerve behind it. English speakers should expect three syllables and a v where the w sits. If that is a stretch, Baldwin is the same name with an easier passport.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Bold friend
- Pronunciation: BOW-duh-vayn
- Variations: Baldwin, Boudewyn, Boud
- Namesakes: Boudewijn, King of the Belgians from 1951 to 1993. Boudewijn Zenden, the Dutch international footballer.
- Popularity: Boudewijn has no U.S. federal record and no place in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. It is best known in Belgium, where a king carried it for forty-two years.
Bram
Bram is the Dutch short form of Abraham, so the meaning it carries is father of many, not the bramble or raven you will see on some name sites. Those glosses come from a different Bram, an unrelated Celtic byname, and they get attached to this one by mistake. The Dutch version is a hard, quick syllable that sounds nothing like its long biblical parent, which is the whole point. It is a single closed syllable, which is why it lands so much harder than Abraham does. There is no shorter form waiting underneath it either, so what you register is what he will be called. It also has a literary claim through Bram Stoker, who was born Abraham and shortened it himself.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Father of many
- Pronunciation: BRAHM
- Variations: Abraham, Braam, Brammetje
- Namesakes: Bram Stoker, the Irish author of Dracula. Bram van Polen, the Dutch footballer.
- 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.
Cas
Cas is the Dutch short form of Casper, which came into Dutch from the Latin Gaspar and probably further back from a Persian word for treasurer. Casper is the name tradition gives to one of the three wise men, so the association is generous rather than spooky, whatever the cartoon ghost did to it in English. As a standalone name Cas has been normal in the Netherlands for a generation. American parents drawn to Cash or Kai will find it lands in the same register with older paperwork behind it.
- Origin: Dutch
- Meaning: Short form of Casper, treasurer
- Pronunciation: KAHS
- Variations: Kas, Casper, Kasper
- Namesakes: Cas Anvar, the Canadian actor and writer who played Alex Kamal in the science fiction series The Expanse.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2024 at #7,868 (10 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Rising in the United States, up 63% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Christoffel
Christoffel is the Dutch form of Christopher, from the Greek Christophoros, bearing Christ. The story attached to it is the one about the giant who carried a child across a river and found the weight impossible, which is why Christopher became the patron of travellers. Dutch speakers cut it to Stoffel, a short form with real character that English speakers almost never encounter. Four syllables is a lot of name, so decide on the calling name before the birth certificate.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Bearing Christ
- Pronunciation: kris-TOF-ful
- Variations: Christopher, Christoffer, Stoffel, Chris
- Popularity: Christoffel has no entry in the U.S. federal name files and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. In South Africa it stays common, carried there by Dutch settlers.
Coen
Coen is the short form of Coenraad, the Dutch Conrad, from kuoni, brave, and rat, counsel. A name that means brave advice is a rarity, since most Germanic names promise force and this one promises judgment. Dutch spelling gives you a choice between Coen and Koen, which sound identical and look quite different on a form, and Americans will read either as cone until they are corrected.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Brave counsel
- Pronunciation: KOON
- Variations: Koen, Coenraad, Conrad
- Popularity: #1,376 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (134 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 29% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Daan
Daan is the Dutch short form of Daniel, which carries the Hebrew sense God is my judge. It is the clearest example on this list of a Dutch habit English speakers rarely copy: taking a long, familiar biblical name, cutting it to one syllable, and registering that as the legal name. The vowel is long, close to the a in father. It does not rhyme with Dan, and that is the correction you will be making for years. Daantje is the affectionate form you will hear from Dutch grandparents. The double a is doing real work in the spelling, and dropping one of them gives you a different name in Dutch rather than a variant. Weigh that before you simplify it for American paperwork, because the simplification is the whole name.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: God is my judge
- Pronunciation: DAHN
- Variations: Daniel, Danny, Daantje
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2003 at #11,226 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Dewitt
Dewitt started as the Dutch surname De Witt, the white, a byname for someone notably fair-haired or fair-skinned. It reached America with New Netherland and stuck around as a first name and surname long after the colony became New York, which is why it reads more Hudson Valley than Amsterdam today. Johan de Witt, the 17th-century Dutch statesman, is the historical anchor. If you like surname first names with genuine paperwork behind them rather than invented ones, this qualifies.
- Origin: Dutch
- Meaning: The white, the fair one
- Pronunciation: duh-WIT
- Variations: De Witt, DeWitt, Dewit
- Namesakes: Dewitt Jones, an American photographer, writer, film director, and public speaker.
- Popularity: #12,510 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 16% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Diederik
Diederik is the Dutch form of Theodoric, built from theod, people, and rih, ruler, and it belongs to the Gothic king who ruled Italy after Rome fell. Three-and-a-half syllables is long for a Dutch boys’ name, which tends toward the terse, and the language solved that centuries ago by producing Dirk. Keeping the full form is a deliberate choice for weight. It is still ordinary in South Africa and Namibia, where Dutch naming stayed conservative longer than in the Netherlands.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Ruler of the people
- Pronunciation: DEE-duh-rik
- Variations: Diederick, Dirk, Theodoric, Dick
- Popularity: Diederik has no entry in the U.S. federal name files and is not in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. Its clipped form Dirk is the version that travelled.
Dion
Dion is a short form of the Greek names built on Dios, the possessive of Zeus, which is where Dionysius and Dionysos both begin. It reached the Netherlands as an international borrowing rather than a native form, and it is filed here as a Dutch-used name rather than a Dutch-made one. Two open syllables give it a musical quality that has served singers well on both sides of the Atlantic. As a unisex name it still leans strongly male in the numbers.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Of Zeus
- Pronunciation: DEE-on
- Variations: Deon, Dionysius, Deion
- Namesakes: Dion DiMucci, the American singer behind Runaround Sue. Dion Dublin, the English footballer and broadcaster.
- Popularity: #1,268 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (155 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 22% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Dirk
Dirk is what happens when Dutch speakers get hold of Diederik and keep only the consonants that matter, and the meaning survives the trim: ruler of the people, from the same Germanic roots as Theodoric. Dutch pronunciation puts a real ee in the middle, so it is closer to deerk than the clipped English version. It is one of the short boy names that sounds tougher than its meaning, which for some families is exactly the appeal.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Ruler of the people
- Pronunciation: DEERK
- Variations: Derk, Diederik, Dirck
- Namesakes: Dirk Nowitzki, the German basketball Hall of Famer. Dirk Bogarde, the British actor. Dirk Kuyt, the Dutch international footballer.
- Popularity: #4,747 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (21 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.
Eduart
Eduart is a Dutch spelling of Eduard, which comes from the Old English ead, wealth or fortune, joined to weard, guard, and eight English kings have carried some version of it. The final t reflects how the language actually devoices the ending, so the spelling is phonetic rather than eccentric. Ed and Edu both work as calling names, and neither needs explaining outside the Netherlands.
- Origin: Dutch, Old English
- Meaning: Wealthy guardian
- Pronunciation: AY-doo-art
- Variations: Edward, Eduard, Edu, Ed
- Popularity: Eduart has no U.S. federal record and no place in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. Eduard is the standard Dutch spelling; Eduart is a regional variant.
Egbert
Egbert joins the Old English ecg, the edge of a blade, to beorht, bright, which makes it one of the more vivid names on this list: a sword catching the light. It came into Dutch through the shared Germanic stock rather than from England, and it stayed respectable there long after English speakers filed it under comic professor. That reputational damage is real, and it is also the reason nobody else will have it. Bert is the escape hatch if the full name proves heavy going.
- Origin: Old English, Dutch
- Meaning: Bright edge
- Pronunciation: EG-burt
- Variations: Ecgberht, Egbrecht, Eggert
- Namesakes: Egbert, King of Wessex from 802 to 839, reckoned by some chroniclers the first king of all England.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2017 at #8,334 (9 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Rising in the United States, up 33% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Elmo
Elmo began as a short form of names ending in the Old German helm, helmet or protection, such as Anselmo and Guglielmo, and it doubles as an Italian shortening of Erasmus. Saint Elmo is the sailors’ saint, and the blue-white electrical glow that sometimes plays around a ship’s mast in a storm still carries his name. That is a genuinely good story sitting behind a name most people now associate with a red puppet. It was ordinary in American files for the first half of the twentieth century and has been almost absent since. Anyone under fifty will hear the puppet first, and there is no spelling of this name that gets around it. Whether that association is a deal-breaker depends entirely on how you feel about sharing.
- Origin: Italian, Germanic
- Meaning: Helmet, protection
- Pronunciation: EL-mo
- Variations: Erasmus, Anselmo, Guglielmo
- Namesakes: Saint Elmo, also known as Erasmus of Formia, the 4th-century martyr and patron saint of sailors.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2023 at #12,781 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Steady in the United States, unchanged over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Espen
Espen is the Norwegian form of Asbjorn, which pairs ass, god, with bjorn, bear. Divine bear is an unusually literal meaning for a name that sounds this light, and the contrast is the draw. It arrived in the Netherlands as a Nordic import alongside Sven, Lars and Viggo rather than growing there, and two even syllables with no silent letters make it one of the easier Scandinavian picks for an English-speaking household.
- Origin: Norwegian, Old Norse
- Meaning: Divine bear
- Pronunciation: ES-pen
- Variations: Asbjorn, Esben, Espin
- Namesakes: Espen Lind, the Norwegian singer-songwriter and producer. Espen Bredesen, the Norwegian Olympic ski-jumping champion.
- Popularity: #3,879 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (28 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.
Fabian
Fabian descends from the Roman clan name Fabius, which Roman writers themselves traced to faba, the broad bean, most likely because an ancestor grew or dealt in them. Pope Fabian and the Fabian Society both borrowed from the same stock, so the name carries a faint reformist air in Britain that it does not have anywhere else. In American use it is strongest in Latino families, where the Spanish stress pattern gives it a different shape. The Dutch spelling is identical and the stress moves to the second syllable, which is worth knowing if Dutch relatives will be saying it. English speakers stress the first, and both are correct in their own language. Smooth, three syllables, and it has never needed a nickname.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: From the Roman family name Fabius, bean grower
- Pronunciation: FAY-bee-un
- Variations: Fabianus, Fabio, Fabien
- Namesakes: Fabian Delph, the English footballer. Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss road cyclist and Olympic time-trial champion.
- Popularity: #468 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (655 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 29% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Fedde
Fedde is Frisian, a short form of the older Germanic names built on fridu, peace, which also produced Frederik and Fokke. Frisian names have had a genuine revival in the Netherlands over the past twenty years, and Fedde is one of the clearest winners of it. The double d is not decorative; it shortens the first vowel and makes the name snap rather than drift. English speakers will find it easier than most names on this list, since it works out to two plain syllables.
- Origin: Frisian, Dutch
- Meaning: Peace
- Pronunciation: FED-uh
- Variations: Feddo, Fokke, Frederik
- Namesakes: Fedde Le Grand, the Dutch DJ and record producer.
- Popularity: Fedde ranked 56th in the Netherlands in 2025, so it is a live, current choice there rather than a heritage one. The Social Security Administration has no record of it in the United States.
Filip
Filip is the continental spelling of Philip, from the Greek philos, friend, and hippos, horse. Alexander the Great’s father carried it, and so did six kings of France and a run of Spanish monarchs, which is a lot of history for a name that still sounds unfussy. The single l and the f mark it as Dutch, Scandinavian or Slavic rather than English. Flip is the Dutch nickname, and it is far more charming than it has any right to be.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Friend of horses
- Pronunciation: FEE-lip
- Variations: Philip, Filippus, Flip, Fillip
- Namesakes: Filip Kostic, the Serbian international footballer. Filip, King of the Belgians since 2013 (Philippe in French).
- Popularity: #2,952 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (42 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 24% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Finn
Finn has two unrelated sources that English spelling has quietly merged. The Irish Finn comes from Fionn, meaning fair or white, and belongs to the mythic hero Fionn mac Cumhaill. The Old Norse Finnr meant a Sami or Finnish person, and that is the strand that reached the Netherlands through Scandinavia. Which one you claim is up to you, because nothing in the spelling settles it. Dutch parents adopted it fast and have kept it in the top ten for years, which is unusual staying power for a one-syllable import. In the United States it has run alongside Finley and Finnegan for a decade without ever being a nickname for either.
- Origin: Irish, Old Norse
- Meaning: Fair, white; also a Sami or Finnish person
- Pronunciation: FIN
- Variations: Fionn, Finnr, Fynn
- Namesakes: Finn Wolfhard, the Canadian actor. Finn Russell, the Scottish rugby international.
- 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.
Floris
Floris is the Dutch form of Florentius, from Latin florens, flourishing. Several counts of Holland carried it in the Middle Ages, which is why it reads as aristocratic rather than botanical to Dutch ears, whatever the root says. English speakers hear the flower first and often assume it is feminine; in the Netherlands it is unambiguously a boys’ name, and a fashionable one. Floor is the everyday short form there, which will need a word of explanation abroad.
- Origin: Dutch, Latin
- Meaning: Flourishing, blooming
- Pronunciation: FLOR-is
- Variations: Florentius, Floor, Florian
- Namesakes: Floris van Dijck, the Dutch Golden Age still-life painter. Floris V, the 13th-century Count of Holland.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. girls’ names in 1957 at #6,378 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Gerben
Gerben welds together two of the hardest elements in the Germanic naming stock, ger, spear, and bern, bear. Nothing about the meaning is gentle, yet the name is soft in the mouth, two light syllables with the stress up front and a Dutch g closer to a throat-clearing ch than to the English hard g.
- Origin: Frisian, Germanic
- Meaning: Spear bear
- Pronunciation: GHER-ben
- Variations: Gerbern, Gerbrand, Gerbe
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 1920 at #4,557 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Gerrit
Gerrit is the Dutch and Frisian form of Gerard, from ger, spear, and hard, brave. It has an unusual double life: a plain, slightly old-fashioned name in the Netherlands and, thanks to a Yankees pitcher, a name a lot of American baseball fans can now spell. The Dutch g is guttural, so a Dutch relative will pronounce it differently from an American one, and both are correct in their own place. Gert is the short form.
- Origin: Dutch, Frisian
- Meaning: Brave with a spear
- Pronunciation: GHER-it
- Variations: Gerard, Gerhard, Gerit, Gert
- Namesakes: Gerrit Cole, the American Cy Young Award-winning pitcher. Gerrit Rietveld, the Dutch architect and furniture designer. Gerrit Bloothooft, the Dutch onomastics researcher who analyses the national name statistics.
- Popularity: #5,689 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (16 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.
Hauke
Hauke is a Frisian name built on the Old German hugu, the seat of thought and feeling, sometimes read alongside hauk, hawk. Both readings suit a name that belongs to the North Sea coast, where Theodor Storm made Hauke Haien the doomed dike-builder of his novella The Rider on the White Horse. English speakers should note the ending, a soft uh rather than a hard ee.
- Origin: Frisian
- Meaning: Heart, mind, spirit
- Pronunciation: HOW-kuh
- Variations: Hauk, Houke, Haukur
- Popularity: Hauke has no entry in the U.S. federal name files and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. It stays in use along the Frisian and North German coast.
Hendrik
Hendrik is the Dutch cognate of Henry, from heim, home, and rih, ruler. Ruler of the home sounds domestic until you remember what a household meant in the early Middle Ages, which was closer to an estate than a kitchen. With Henry near the top of the English-speaking charts and Hendrik still uncommon, this is the version that gets you the same name without the classroom duplication. Henk and Rik are both standard Dutch calling names.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Ruler of the home
- Pronunciation: HEN-drik
- Variations: Henrik, Hendrick, Henk, Rik
- Namesakes: Hendrik Lorentz, the Dutch physicist and 1902 Nobel laureate. Hendrick Avercamp, the Dutch Golden Age painter of winter landscapes.
- Popularity: #2,620 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (50 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 85% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Hennie
Hennie is a diminutive of Hendrik, and it also serves as a short form of the feminine Henriette, which is how it ended up genuinely unisex in Dutch and Afrikaans. In South Africa it is a men’s name almost exclusively, thanks to a generation of rugby players and cyclists. It has the warmth that Dutch diminutives specialise in, the sound of a name used by people who like you. As a legal first name outside the Netherlands it will read as a nickname, which may or may not matter to you.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Ruler of the home
- Pronunciation: HEN-ee
- Variations: Henny, Hennes, Hendrik
- Namesakes: Hennie Muller, the South African rugby captain of the 1950s. Hennie Kuiper, the Dutch cyclist and Olympic road-race champion.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. girls’ names in 1956 at #6,300 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Isaak
Isaak is a continental spelling of Isaac, from the Hebrew Yitzhaq, he will laugh, a name given because Sarah laughed when she was told she would bear a son at ninety. Swapping the final c for a k is a standard Dutch move, the same instinct that turned Jacobus into Jakob. It changes nothing about the sound and quite a lot about how the name looks. Worth knowing before you commit: you will be spelling it out for the rest of his life.
- Origin: Hebrew, Dutch
- Meaning: He will laugh
- Pronunciation: EE-sahk
- Variations: Isaac, Izaak, Isak, Izak
- Popularity: #2,693 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (48 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 49% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Jaap
Jaap is what Dutch speakers do to Jacobus: strip it to one syllable and keep it. The initial J is pronounced like an English y, so it sounds like yahp, which no American will guess from the spelling. In its favour, Dutch public life is full of Jaaps, from footballers to conductors to a NATO Secretary General, which is not bad company for four letters.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Short form of Jacob, holder of the heel
- Pronunciation: YAHP
- Variations: Jacobus, Jaco, Jaapje
- Namesakes: Jaap Stam, the Dutch international defender. Jaap van Zweden, the Dutch conductor and violinist. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Dutch politician who served as NATO Secretary General.
- Popularity: #15,863 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data.
Jaco
Jaco is another short form of Jacobus, and it is the one that travelled best outside the Netherlands, largely through Afrikaans. Two open syllables give it a rhythm the other Jacob shortenings lack, and jazz listeners will hear Jaco Pastorius first, which is a strong association for a name this small. Dutch speakers say the J as a y; English speakers say JAK-oh, and both versions are in circulation.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Short form of Jacobus
- Pronunciation: YAH-koh
- Variations: Jacobus, Jaap, Jako
- Namesakes: Jaco Pastorius, the American bass player who reshaped how the instrument is used in jazz.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2024 at #10,311 (7 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Rising in the United States, up 34% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Jacob
Jacob reaches Dutch through Latin Iacob and Greek Iakob, and behind those stands the Hebrew Yaaqov. It is traditionally read as holder of the heel, because the biblical Jacob was born gripping his twin’s. The Dutch say it with a y at the front and a hard stop at the end, YAH-kop. That is a genuinely different name to the ear, and it is the version a Dutch grandparent will reach for. Jakob with a k is the usual continental spelling, and Jaap and Jaco are the short forms. Its American numbers are falling from a very high peak, so it is now common without being everywhere.
- Origin: Hebrew, Latin
- Meaning: Holder of the heel, supplanter
- Pronunciation: YAH-kop in Dutch, JAY-kub in English
- Variations: Jakob, Jacobus, Jaap, Jaco
- Popularity: #43 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (6,152 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 49% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Jan
Jan is the Dutch form of John, one syllable long and everywhere in Dutch history, from Vermeer to van Eyck. Dutch families pair it constantly with a second element, producing Jan-Peter, Jan-Willem and Klaas-Jan, which is closer to a compound name than to a middle name. The pronunciation is yahn, and the spelling collides with a very common American women’s name, which is the one real obstacle to using it in the United States.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Yahweh is gracious
- Pronunciation: YAHN
- Variations: Johannes, Johan, Jannes, Jantje
- Namesakes: Jan van Eyck, the Flemish painter of the Ghent Altarpiece. Jan Vermeer, the Delft master. Jan Timman, the Dutch chess grandmaster.
- Popularity: #2,731 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (47 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.
Jasper
Jasper comes through Latin Gaspar, and the trail probably leads back to a Persian word for treasurer. Tradition hands the name to one of the three wise men, which is why it appears across medieval Europe with a dozen spellings. Dutch and Frisian speakers kept the J, German and Scandinavian speakers moved to Casper and Jesper. The Dutch first syllable is closer to YAHS than to the English JAS, which is the one thing that will surprise a Dutch relative. In American use the English pronunciation won long ago, so this is a name that travels without argument. It is also a stone, a reddish-brown quartz, so the name arrives with a colour attached.
- Origin: Dutch, Persian
- Meaning: Treasurer
- Pronunciation: YAHS-per in Dutch, JAS-per in English
- Variations: Casper, Kasper, Gaspar, Jesper
- Namesakes: Jasper Johns, the American painter. Jasper Cillessen, the Dutch international goalkeeper.
- Popularity: #129 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (2,804 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 151% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Jelke
Jelke is a Frisian diminutive that sits alongside Jelle and Jelte, and its exact source is genuinely unsettled. The standard onomastic references carry entries for Jelle and Jelte but not for Jelke, so the Latin Julius derivation that circulates on name sites cannot be confirmed and is best treated as folk etymology. What is solid is the family: the Jel- names are Frisian, built from the old element gelt, payment or tribute. Choose it for the sound and the region rather than for a tidy meaning, because there is not one to offer.
- Origin: Frisian
- Meaning: Uncertain; a Frisian diminutive in the Jelle family
- Pronunciation: YEL-kuh
- Variations: Jelle, Jelte, Jelko
- Popularity: Jelke has no U.S. federal record and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. It is a regional Frisian name that has stayed regional.
Jelle
Jelle began as a Frisian short form of names built on gelt, payment or tribute, and it doubles as a Dutch diminutive of Willem, which is where the protector sense attaches. Two origins, one spelling, and Dutch speakers do not particularly distinguish between them. The double l gives it a liquid sound that most Germanic boys’ names avoid. English speakers will want the y at the front and a soft ending, not jell.
- Origin: Frisian, Dutch
- Meaning: Payment, tribute; also a diminutive of Willem
- Pronunciation: YEL-luh
- Variations: Jelte, Jelko, Jille
- Namesakes: Jelle Zijlstra, the Dutch prime minister and central bank president. Jelle Vossen, the Belgian footballer.
- Popularity: Jelle ranked 195th in the Netherlands in 2025, so it is in current use rather than merely traditional. The Social Security Administration has no record of it in the United States.
Johan
Johan is the Scandinavian and Dutch form of Iohannes, the Latin behind every John in Europe, and the meaning that comes with it is Yahweh is gracious. In the Netherlands one bearer overshadows the rest: Johan Cruyff, whose name is close to a national byword. The stress falls on the first syllable in Dutch and the second in Spanish, and both readings are common in the United States. It is the most usable long form on this list for an English-speaking family, since nothing about it needs explaining.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Yahweh is gracious
- Pronunciation: YO-hahn
- Variations: Johannes, Jan, Johann, Yohan
- Namesakes: Johan Cruyff, the Dutch footballer and coach who defined total football. Johan de Witt, the 17th-century Grand Pensionary of Holland.
- Popularity: #572 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (516 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 7% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Joost
Joost is the Dutch form of Iudocus, the Latinised version of the Breton name Iodoc, which meant lord. The gloss just that follows it around comes from confusion with the Latin Justus, a different name entirely, and the mistake has been repeated on name sites for years. Joost belongs to Dutch literature through Vondel, the country’s answer to Shakespeare. It is a single hard syllable with a long vowel, and English speakers reliably get it wrong on the first try.
- Origin: Dutch, Breton
- Meaning: Lord
- Pronunciation: YOHST
- Variations: Joos, Jodocus, Josse, Judoc
- Namesakes: Joost van den Vondel, the 17th-century Dutch poet and playwright. Joost van der Westhuizen, the South African rugby scrum-half.
- Popularity: Joost has no entry in the U.S. federal name files and is not in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. It reads as a name of the older generation in the Netherlands.
Jürgen
Jürgen is the Dutch and German form of George, from the Greek Georgios, built from ge, earth, and ergon, work. It is a farmer’s name at root, which sits oddly with how formal it sounds now. The umlaut is not decorative and cannot be dropped without changing the vowel, so an American family should expect a lifetime of forms that will not accept it. Jurgen without the mark is the usual Dutch spelling and solves that problem.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Farmer, earthworker
- Pronunciation: YOOR-gen
- Variations: Jurgen, Jurriaan, Joris, George
- Namesakes: Jürgen Klopp, the German football manager. Jürgen Habermas, the German philosopher and social theorist.
- Popularity: The Social Security Administration has no record of Jürgen in the United States, so claims that it is especially popular there do not hold up. It is also outside the Dutch top 250 for 2025, where Joris and Jurre carry the same root.
Jurre
Jurre is a Frisian short form, and the honest position on its parentage is that the standard references do not carry a separate entry for it. Dutch usage treats it as a clipping of Jurjen or Jurryt, both of which lead back to George by way of the Frisian north. None of that matters much to Dutch parents, who have pushed it into the top sixty on sound alone. It is short, ends on a soft vowel, and pairs cleanly with almost any surname, which is a fair summary of what the Netherlands currently wants in a boys’ name.
- Origin: Frisian, Dutch
- Meaning: Short form of Jurjen or Jurryt
- Pronunciation: YUR-ruh
- Variations: Jurryt, Jurjen, Joris
- Popularity: Jurre ranked 56th in the Netherlands in 2025, which makes it one of the more current names on this list. It has no entry in the U.S. federal name files.
Kaj
Kaj is the Danish and Frisian spelling of the name English speakers write as Kai, and its origin is genuinely unknown. Sources have proposed Frisian, Greek and Latin parents for it over the years without settling anything, so the earth meaning attached to it on many name sites is a guess rather than a finding. What it does have is a shape: three letters, one syllable, and a j that reads as a y. Among strong baby boy names it is about as compact as they come.
- Origin: Danish, Frisian
- Meaning: Uncertain
- Pronunciation: KY, rhyming with sky
- Variations: Kai, Kay, Cai
- Namesakes: Kaj Munk, the Danish playwright and pastor. Kaj Franck, the Finnish designer.
- Popularity: #12,947 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 29% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Karel
Karel is the Dutch form of Charles, and both descend from the Old German karl, meaning a free man rather than a nobleman, which is a surprisingly democratic root for a name worn by emperors. Charlemagne is Karel de Grote in Dutch, so the association is imperial in one language and plain in another. Carel is the older Dutch spelling and still appears on gravestones. Two syllables, stress on the first, and no silent letters anywhere.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Free man
- Pronunciation: KAH-rul
- Variations: Carel, Carolus, Charles, Karl
- Namesakes: Karel Appel, the Dutch painter and co-founder of the CoBrA movement. Karel Doorman, the Dutch admiral.
- Popularity: #12,966 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, unchanged over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Kees
Kees is the Dutch short form of Cornelis, itself from the Roman family name Cornelius, which Roman writers linked to cornu, horn. It sounds exactly like the English word case, which is either a useful mnemonic or an irritation depending on your view.
- Origin: Dutch, Latin
- Meaning: Horn
- Pronunciation: KAYS
- Variations: Cees, Cornelis, Kors
- Namesakes: Kees van Dongen, the Dutch-French Fauvist painter. Kees Verkerk, the Dutch world champion speed skater.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2022 at #13,353 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Steady in the United States, down 14% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Kilian
Kilian comes from the Irish Cillian, which is usually traced either to Old Irish cell, church, or to ceallach, bright-headed. Saint Kilian carried it from Ireland into Franconia in the seventh century. That is how a Gaelic name ended up thoroughly German and, from there, Dutch. The three spellings in circulation are not interchangeable in every country: Cillian reads Irish, Kilian reads continental, Kylian reads French. Whichever you pick, the numbers say a lot of other parents are picking it too.
- Origin: Irish, German
- Meaning: Church, or bright-headed
- Pronunciation: KIL-ee-un
- Variations: Killian, Cillian, Kylian
- Namesakes: Kilian Jornet, the Catalan mountain runner and ski mountaineer. Saint Kilian, the 7th-century Irish missionary to Franconia.
- Popularity: #1,167 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (177 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 226% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Klaas
Klaas is the Dutch short form of Nicholas, from the Greek nike, victory, and laos, people. Every Dutch child knows the name from Sinterklaas, whose December arrival is a bigger event in the Netherlands than Christmas morning, so this is not a neutral choice there. Outside the Netherlands the association disappears entirely and you are left with a short, blunt name with a good meaning.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Victory of the people
- Pronunciation: KLAHS
- Variations: Claas, Klaus, Nicolaas, Niek
- Namesakes: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, the Dutch international striker. Klaas Bruinsma, the Dutch translator of Frisian literature.
- Popularity: Klaas has no entry in the U.S. federal name files and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. It is now more familiar as part of Sinterklaas than as a name given to babies.
Kornel
Kornel belongs to the Cornelius family, a Roman clan name that ancient writers connected to cornu, horn. The Roman Cornelii produced generals and consuls for four centuries, so there is real history under a name that now looks obscure. Dutch and Afrikaans speakers use Korneel and Kerneels for the same root, and the sound turns inevitable once you have heard it a few times.
- Origin: Latin, Dutch
- Meaning: Horn
- Pronunciation: KOR-nel
- Variations: Korneel, Cornelis, Cornelius, Kerneels
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2008 at #13,700 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Lars
Lars is the Scandinavian form of Laurence, from the Roman Laurentius, meaning a man from Laurentum, a town whose own name probably came from laurus, the laurel. It is not a masculine form of Lara and it has nothing to do with victory, whatever some name sites say; the two names are unrelated. The laurel connection is close enough to victory to explain how the mistake started, since Roman victors wore laurel wreaths. Short, hard, and unmistakably northern. The Dutch use it as a full name rather than an import, and it has sat in the national top hundred for years without ever becoming fashionable. That combination is rarer than it sounds, familiar enough to be spelled right on the first try and uncommon enough that he will not share it.
- Origin: Scandinavian, Latin
- Meaning: From Laurentum, laurel
- Pronunciation: LAHRS
- Variations: Laurens, Lorenz, Laurentius, Lasse
- Namesakes: Lars Ulrich, the Danish drummer of Metallica. Lars von Trier, the Danish film director.
- 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.
Levi
Levi comes from the Hebrew Lewi, most often read as joined or attached. It belongs to the third son of Jacob and Leah, whose descendants became the priestly tribe. It is one of the few names on this list that is genuinely popular in both countries at once, sitting in the top dozen in the Netherlands and the United States in the same year. The denim association does it no harm; Levi Strauss was a real person before he was a label. Expect at least one other in the class.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Joined, attached
- Pronunciation: LEE-vy
- Variations: Lev, Levy, Leevi
- 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.
Lex
Lex is a Dutch clipping of Alexander, taken from the middle of the name rather than the front, which is a distinctly Dutch move, and it means the same thing the full name does, defender of men, in three letters. American ears will hear Lex Luthor, and there is no getting around that; Dutch ears hear a normal man’s name. It is also the Latin word for law, which gives it a second, drier association nobody minds.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Defender of men
- Pronunciation: LEKS
- Variations: Alexander, Alex, Xander
- Namesakes: Lex Schoenmaker, the Dutch footballer and manager. Lex Barker, the American actor.
- Popularity: #2,322 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (60 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.
Liam
Liam is the Irish short form of William, which was assembled from the Old German willo, will or desire, and helm, helmet. Resolute protection is the usual reading. It has aged better than most Germanic compounds, largely because the Irish clipping hides the machinery. Its inclusion on a Dutch list reflects how thoroughly the Netherlands has adopted international names. Liam is not Dutch, and it is the second most popular boys’ name in the country. The trade-off is obvious. He will share it.
- Origin: Irish, Germanic
- Meaning: Resolute protection
- Pronunciation: LEE-um
- Variations: William, Willem, Uilliam
- Namesakes: Liam Neeson, the Irish actor. Liam Gallagher, the English singer.
- Popularity: #1 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (20,818 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 84% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Lodewijk
Lodewijk is the Dutch form of Ludwig, and behind both stands the Frankish Chlodovech, from hlut, famous, and wig, war. Every Louis of France and every Ludwig of Bavaria is the same name in local dress. It is a mouthful in any accent, three syllables with a v hiding in the w, and the Netherlands solves that with Loek. Register the long form and use the short one, which is what Dutch families have always done with names like this.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Famous in battle
- Pronunciation: LOH-duh-vayk
- Variations: Ludwig, Louis, Lodewyk, Loek
- Namesakes: Lodewijk Napoleon, King of Holland from 1806 to 1810. Lodewijk van Deyssel, the Dutch writer and critic.
- Popularity: Lodewijk has no U.S. federal record and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. Its short form Loek is the version in current Dutch use, so the family is alive even if the full name is not.
Luuk
Luuk is the Dutch short form of Lucas, which means a man from Lucania in southern Italy. The double vowel is not a stylistic flourish; in Dutch spelling it marks a long, tight sound that English has no exact match for, somewhere between look and Luke. That is the one thing to weigh before using it abroad, because Americans will default to Luke and the spelling will look like a typo. In the Netherlands it has been a top-twenty name for years. Luc and Luca are the neighbouring forms, and neither carries the specifically Dutch sound. If the spelling is the obstacle, Luca is the compromise most bilingual families land on, though it trades the northern edge for something softer.
- Origin: Dutch, Latin
- Meaning: From Lucania
- Pronunciation: LUUK, with a long tight vowel
- Variations: Loek, Luc, Lucas, Luke
- Namesakes: Luuk de Jong, the Dutch international striker.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2024 at #11,818 (6 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Mads
Mads is the Danish short form of Mathias, from the Hebrew Mattityahu, gift of Yahweh. The d is silent, so it comes out as mass, which is worth saying aloud a few times before you decide, since the written form suggests something else entirely to an English reader. Mads Mikkelsen has done more than anyone to make it recognisable outside Scandinavia. Mats is the Dutch cousin and currently the one Dutch parents actually use.
- Origin: Danish, Hebrew
- Meaning: Gift of Yahweh
- Pronunciation: MASS, with a silent d
- Variations: Mathias, Matthijs, Mats
- Namesakes: Mads Mikkelsen, the Danish actor. Mads Pedersen, the Danish road cyclist and former world champion.
- Popularity: #3,912 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (28 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 182% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Markus
Markus is the continental spelling of Marcus, one of the small set of Roman first names that ordinary Romans actually used, and it is usually traced to Mars, the war god. Two thousand years of continuous use is a strong record for any name. The k spelling marks it as German, Dutch or Scandinavian rather than English, and it changes nothing about the sound. Mark and Marco are both waiting if you want something shorter.
- Origin: Latin, Germanic
- Meaning: From the Roman name Marcus, linked to the god Mars
- Pronunciation: MAR-kus
- Variations: Marcus, Mark, Marc, Marco
- Namesakes: Markus Zusak, the Australian novelist who wrote The Book Thief. Markus Babbel, the German footballer and coach.
- Popularity: #1,336 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (144 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 39% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Meese
Meese is a variant of Mees, itself a short form of Bartholomeus, which comes from the Aramaic bar Talmay, son of Talmai. It shows how far Dutch shortening can go: a five-syllable apostolic name reduced to one, with nothing of the original spelling left. Mees is one of the top five boys’ names in the Netherlands right now, so if you like the sound, use the spelling Dutch parents actually use.
- Origin: Dutch, Aramaic
- Meaning: Son of Talmai
- Pronunciation: MAY-suh
- Variations: Mees, Bartholomeus, Mies
- Popularity: Meese has no U.S. federal record and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. Its standard spelling Mees, however, ranked 5th in the Netherlands, so the sound is extremely current there.
Nicolaas
Nicolaas is the Dutch form of Nicholas, from the Greek nike, victory, joined to laos, people. Saint Nicholas of Myra became Sinterklaas in Dutch and Santa Claus in English, so this is the Christmas name at its source rather than a borrowing from it. Four syllables is long, and the Dutch answer to that is a generous supply of short forms: Klaas, Niek, Nico and Laas all come from here.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Victory of the people
- Pronunciation: nee-koh-LAHS
- Variations: Nicholas, Nikolaas, Klaas, Niek
- Namesakes: Nicolaas Bloembergen, the Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate. Nicolaas Tulp, the Amsterdam surgeon at the centre of Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson.
- Popularity: #11,609 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (6 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 15% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Noah
Noah comes from the Hebrew Noach, rest or repose. That is a quiet meaning for the figure the flood story is built around. It is also the clearest illustration of what has happened to Dutch naming over the past two decades. The most popular boys’ name in the Netherlands is not a Dutch name at all, but a biblical one shared with half of Europe and North America. That is a real trade-off, and worth weighing before you commit. He will never have to spell it, and he will never be the only one.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Rest, repose
- Pronunciation: NOH-uh
- Variations: Noach, Noa, Noak
- Namesakes: Noah Webster, the American lexicographer. Noah Lyles, the American Olympic sprint champion.
- Popularity: Noah has been the most popular boys’ name in the Netherlands for seven consecutive years, given to 883 Dutch boys in 2025 (2). In the United States it ranked 2nd in 2025 with 20,358 boys, about one in every 84.
Olaf
Olaf comes from the Old Norse Aleifr, built from anu, ancestor, and leifr, heir or descendant, so it literally means the one who follows the forefathers. Five kings of Norway carried it, and it is still a serious name across Scandinavia. In English-speaking countries it now belongs to a talking snowman, and the numbers show what that has cost it. Whether that is fatal depends on how long you think children’s films stay in circulation.
- Origin: Old Norse
- Meaning: Ancestor’s descendant
- Pronunciation: OH-lahf
- Variations: Olav, Ola, Olof, Oluf
- Namesakes: Olav V, King of Norway from 1957 to 1991. Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor.
- Popularity: #13,369 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 56% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Olric
Olric belongs to the Ulric family, which goes back to the Old German Odalric, from uodil, inherited land or heritage, and rih, ruler. Name sites often gloss it as wolf ruler, but that meaning belongs to Wulfric, a different name with a different first element.
- Origin: Germanic, Dutch
- Meaning: Ruler of the inheritance
- Pronunciation: OHL-rik
- Variations: Ulric, Ulrich, Ulrik, Odalric
- Popularity: Olric has no entry in the U.S. federal name files and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. Even the parent name Ulrich is uncommon outside German-speaking Europe now.
Oscar
Oscar has two possible parents and no settled answer. The Irish reading joins oss, deer, to carae, friend, and belongs to a warrior of the Fianna. The Old English Osgar means god’s spear, and the two names converged in spelling centuries ago. Sweden gave it a royal career after the Napoleonic era, which is how a Gaelic name ended up on Scandinavian thrones. It has never been out of use in English and is currently doing well in both countries on this page.
- Origin: Irish, Old English
- Meaning: Deer friend; separately, god’s spear
- Pronunciation: OS-kur
- Variations: Oskar, Osgar, Oscarine
- Namesakes: Oscar Wilde, the Irish playwright. Oscar Niemeyer, the Brazilian architect. Oscar Isaac, the American actor.
- 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.
Pascal
Pascal comes from the Late Latin Paschalis, relating to Easter, from Pascha, which itself traces back through Greek and Aramaic to the Hebrew Pesach, Passover. It was originally given to children born during Easter week, a practice that has largely faded while the name stayed. Blaise Pascal put it into mathematics, physics and computing, so a boy will meet his own name in a science class sooner or later. It is common in French and Dutch-speaking Belgium and unusual almost everywhere else.
- Origin: Latin, French
- Meaning: Relating to Easter
- Pronunciation: pas-KAL
- Variations: Paschalis, Pasquale, Pascale
- Namesakes: Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician and philosopher. Pascal Jansen, the Dutch football manager.
- Popularity: #3,636 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (31 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 38% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Pieter
Pieter is the Dutch form of Peter, from the Greek petros, stone, the byname Jesus gave to the apostle Simon. It has been in continuous Dutch use for so long that it is hard to open a book of Dutch history without meeting one, from Bruegel to Zeeman. The short form Piet is a name in its own right there, and it carries a much more casual register. For an American family the appeal is a familiar name in unfamiliar dress, one extra vowel and an entirely different feel.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Stone
- Pronunciation: PEE-ter
- Variations: Piet, Peter, Petrus, Pier
- Namesakes: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the Flemish painter. Pieter Zeeman, the Dutch physicist and 1902 Nobel laureate.
- Popularity: #13,408 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 17% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Pim
Pim is a Dutch diminutive of Willem, which puts it in the same family as Wim and Wil and gives it the William meaning, resolute protection. Nothing in the sound suggests any of that, which is true of most Dutch diminutives; they are chosen for warmth rather than weight. Its absence from American records makes it one of the few names here that would be genuinely new in a US classroom.
- Origin: Dutch
- Meaning: Diminutive of Willem, resolute protection
- Pronunciation: PIM
- Variations: Willem, Wim, Wil
- Namesakes: Pim Verbeek, the Dutch football manager. Pim Fortuyn, the Dutch politician.
- Popularity: Pim ranked 114th in the Netherlands in 2025, so it is in ordinary current use there. The Social Security Administration has no record of it in the United States at all.
Raf
Raf is the Dutch and Flemish short form of Rafael, from the Hebrew Refael, God has healed. Raphael is one of the three named archangels, which gives three letters an unusually large amount of history behind them. It is much more established in Belgium than in the Netherlands, and Raf Simons has carried it into fashion circles well beyond either country. Short, blunt, and easy for English speakers, which is not something you can say about most names on this list.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: God has healed
- Pronunciation: RAHF
- Variations: Rafael, Raphael, Rafe
- Namesakes: Raf Simons, the Belgian fashion designer.
- Popularity: #13,427 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data.
Ravi
Ravi means sun in Sanskrit and is a name of the Hindu sun god, so it is not Dutch by origin at all. It sits on this list because the Netherlands has absorbed it, and its place at 160 in the Dutch rankings says more about modern Dutch naming than most of the traditional entries here do. The sound fits the local pattern almost perfectly: two syllables, open vowels, nothing to shorten. Indian names are travelling well, and this is one of the reasons why.
- Origin: Sanskrit
- Meaning: Sun
- Pronunciation: RAH-vee
- Variations: Ravee, Ravin
- Namesakes: Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitar player and composer. Ravi Zacharias, the Indian-Canadian author.
- Popularity: #1,249 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (160 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 106% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Rik
Rik is what is left when a Dutch speaker keeps only the tail of Hendrik or Frederik, and that tail is the Old German rih, ruler or king, the same element sitting behind Eric. Taking the end of a name rather than the beginning is a habit English has almost entirely lost, which is why Rik looks like a misspelling of Rick to American eyes when the k is the whole point.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Ruler, king
- Pronunciation: RIK
- Variations: Riek, Rick, Hendrik, Frederik
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2022 at #13,909 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Rising in the United States, up 20% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Ruben
Ruben is the continental spelling of Reuben, from the Hebrew Reuven, traditionally read as behold, a son, the words Leah is said to have spoken at his birth. Dropping the second e is what makes it Dutch, Spanish, Scandinavian or Armenian rather than English. It also shifts the stress forward. It is the most widely used spelling worldwide by a comfortable margin. Rubens, the Flemish painter, is the association most Europeans reach for first.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Behold, a son
- Pronunciation: ROO-ben
- Variations: Reuben, Rueben, Rubin
- Namesakes: Ruben Ostlund, the Swedish film director and two-time Palme d’Or winner. Ruben Amorim, the Portuguese football manager.
- Popularity: #480 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (632 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 33% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Ruud
Ruud is the Dutch short form of Rudolf, from the Old German hruod, fame, and wolf. The Old Norse origin some name sites give it is a misattribution; the wolf element is Germanic and the name came into Dutch overland rather than by sea. There is also a Dutch surname Ruud meaning a clearing, which is a separate word that happens to match. Two Dutch footballers made it internationally recognisable, and the vowel is long and tight, closer to the Scottish guid than to rude.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Famous wolf
- Pronunciation: ROOT, with a long tight vowel
- Variations: Rudolf, Rudi, Roelof
- Namesakes: Ruud Gullit, the Dutch footballer and Ballon d’Or winner. Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Dutch striker and manager.
- Popularity: Ruud has no entry in the U.S. federal name files and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. It belongs to the generation of Dutchmen born in the 1960s and 1970s.
Sander
Sander takes the back half of Alexander and keeps the meaning intact, defender of men. The same instinct produced Xander and Zander, and the three are effectively the same name with different first letters. Sander is the version that reads least like a nickname, partly because it doubles as a real Dutch surname and as the name of a freshwater fish. It sits comfortably on a birth certificate without needing Alexander behind it.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Defender of men
- Pronunciation: SAHN-der
- Variations: Alexander, Xander, Zander, Sanne
- Namesakes: Sander Berge, the Norwegian international footballer. Sander Kleinenberg, the Dutch DJ and producer.
- 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.
Sem
Sem is the Dutch form of Shem, the eldest of Noah’s three sons, and the Hebrew word behind it simply means name or renown. Three letters carrying a biblical patriarch is about as efficient as naming gets. The vowel is short and flat, so it rhymes with them, not with seem. Dutch parents have kept it near the top of the charts for years, which suggests the appeal is the sound rather than the scripture. American families will find it reads as a shortening of Samuel even though it is not, and that may be a useful bridge rather than a problem. If you want the biblical line without the weight Samuel or Abraham brings to a classroom register, this is the shortest route to it.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Name, renown
- Pronunciation: SEM
- Variations: Shem, Sam, Semme
- Namesakes: Semmy Schilt, the Dutch kickboxer and four-time K-1 World Grand Prix champion.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2024 at #10,750 (7 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Falling in the United States, down 16% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Sepp
Sepp is the German and Dutch short form of Jozef, from the Hebrew Yosef, he will add. It sounds like a nickname to English ears, functions as a full legal name across the Low Countries and Bavaria, and Sepp Kuss has quietly made it recognisable to American cycling fans.
- Origin: German, Dutch
- Meaning: He will add
- Pronunciation: SEP
- Variations: Sep, Seppe, Jozef, Jef
- Namesakes: Sepp Kuss, the American cyclist and Vuelta a Espana winner. Sepp van den Berg, the Dutch defender.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2012 at #13,877 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Simon
Simon comes through Greek from the Hebrew Shimon, hearing or listening, which is a rare thing for a name to promise. A separate Greek word, simos, flat-nosed, produced a look-alike name in antiquity, and the two have been tangled ever since. Dutch speakers stress the first syllable and use a long ee, so it is a noticeably different name in the two languages. What shifts between them is the stress, not the spelling, and that is an easy thing for a child to correct. It is one of the few names here that works unchanged in English, Dutch, French and German, which matters if the family is spread across more than one of them. Siem is the Dutch short form and ranked 23rd in the Netherlands in 2025.
- Origin: Hebrew, Greek
- Meaning: Hearing, listening
- Pronunciation: SEE-mon in Dutch, SY-mun in English
- Variations: Siem, Simeon, Szymon, Simone
- Namesakes: Simon Stevin, the Flemish mathematician and engineer who introduced decimal fractions to Europe. Simon Bolivar, the Venezuelan independence leader.
- Popularity: #230 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,529 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.
Sjef
Sjef is a southern Dutch short form of Jozef, and the sj at the front is the Dutch way of writing the sound English spells sh, so it comes out as shef. No English speaker will guess that, and every English speaker can say it once told. It carries a strong regional flavour in the Netherlands, the way Seamus does in Ireland, and Jef and Sef are the same name with the spelling smoothed out for anyone outside Limburg.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: He will add
- Pronunciation: SHEF
- Variations: Jef, Sef, Jozef, Zef
- Popularity: Sjef has no U.S. federal record and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. It is a Limburg and Brabant name that stayed in the south.
Sjors
Sjors is the Dutch form of George, arrived at by writing the English pronunciation in Dutch spelling, which is why it looks nothing like its source. Behind it is the Greek Georgios, from ge, earth, and ergon, work. Generations of Dutch children know it from Sjors en Sjimmie, a comic strip that ran for most of the twentieth century.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Farmer, earthworker
- Pronunciation: SHORSS
- Variations: Joris, Sjorsje, George
- Namesakes: Rapper Sjors, the Dutch hip-hop artist from Heerlen known for singles such as Zomer in Nederland.
- Popularity: Sjors has no entry in the U.S. federal name files and is outside the Dutch top 250 for 2025. The related Joris is the standard Dutch form and stays in wider use.
Sky
Sky is the English word, and the word itself came into English from the Old Norse sky, which meant cloud rather than the open air above it. The shift from cloud to firmament happened inside English over several centuries, so the modern meaning is younger than the name. Its Dutch connection is the surname Schuyler, which is what gave English the Skyler spelling. As a nature name it is about as plain as they come, which is either the appeal or the objection.
- Origin: English, Old Norse
- Meaning: Cloud
- Pronunciation: SKY
- Variations: Skye, Skyler, Schuyler
- Popularity: #949 among U.S. girls’ names in 2025 (272 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 29% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Stijn
Stijn is what remains of either Constantijn or Augustijn once Dutch speakers have finished with it. That means it can mean steadfast or venerable depending on which parent you pick. Taking the last syllable of a long Latin name and registering it as a legal first name is a specifically Dutch habit, and Stijn is its clearest success. The ij is a single letter in Dutch and sounds close to the English ay in stain. That spelling will not survive an American form unchanged, which is the main practical obstacle.
- Origin: Dutch, Latin
- Meaning: Steadfast, or venerable
- Pronunciation: STAYN
- Variations: Constantijn, Augustijn, Stein
- Namesakes: Stijn Streuvels, the Flemish novelist. Stijn Schaars, the Dutch international footballer.
- Popularity: Stijn ranked 91st in the Netherlands in 2025, so it is an ordinary current choice there. The Social Security Administration has no record of it in the United States.
Sven
Sven comes from the Old Norse byname Sveinn, which simply meant boy or lad and was used for a young man in service before it became a name. The story linking it to an ancient Swedish tribe called the Saviars turns up on name sites and has no support behind it. Among Viking names it is one of the very few that has never needed anglicising, though Dutch speakers soften the v until it is closer to an f.
- Origin: Old Norse, Scandinavian
- Meaning: Boy, young man
- Pronunciation: SVEN
- Variations: Svend, Svein, Swen
- Namesakes: Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Swedish football manager. Sven Kramer, the Dutch long-track speed skater and Olympic champion.
- Popularity: #3,645 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (31 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 44% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Sverre
Sverre comes from the Old Norse Sverrir, a byname usually read as wild or swinging, and it belongs to one of the more combative kings in Norwegian history, a priest who won a civil war. That is a lot of temperament packed into two syllables. It reached the Netherlands the way the other Nordic names on this list did, through the northern coastal trade rather than through Dutch itself. The rolled r is doing real work here, and English speakers will not manage it.
- Origin: Old Norse
- Meaning: Wild, swinging
- Pronunciation: SVAIR-uh
- Variations: Sverrir, Sverri
- Namesakes: Sverre Sigurdsson, King of Norway from 1184 to 1202.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 1916 at #4,450 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.
Thijs
Thijs is the Dutch short form of Matthijs, which is their Matthew, from the Hebrew Mattityahu, gift of Yahweh. The spelling is the obstacle and the sound is not. The ij is one Dutch letter carrying the ay of stain, the h is silent, and the whole thing rhymes with place. Ties is the same name in a simpler spelling, and it ranked 46th in the Netherlands in 2025.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Gift of Yahweh
- Pronunciation: TAYS, rhyming with place
- Variations: Matthijs, Tijs, Ties, Mathias
- Namesakes: Thijs Zonneveld, the Dutch cyclist and writer.
- Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 2024 at #14,041 (5 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since. Falling in the United States, down 35% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Timo
Timo is the short form of Timotheus, from the Greek time, honour, and theos, god. Timothy has been out of fashion in English for a generation, and Timo sidesteps that entirely by not sounding like it. It is shared across Dutch, German, Finnish and Estonian, two even syllables with nothing to shorten or lengthen, which makes it one of the more portable names on this list.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Honouring God
- Pronunciation: TEE-moh
- Variations: Timotheus, Timothy, Timon
- Namesakes: Timo Werner, the German international footballer. Timo Glock, the German racing driver.
- Popularity: #11,853 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (6 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 44% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Tygo
Tygo is the Dutch form of the Danish Tyge, which scholars Latinised as Tycho and then associated with Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune, an association that is traditional rather than etymological. Tycho Brahe is the reason anyone outside Scandinavia knows the sound. The y spelling is recent and Dutch, and it gives an old name a distinctly modern face.
- Origin: Dutch, Danish
- Meaning: Uncertain; associated with fortune through Tyche
- Pronunciation: TY-goh
- Variations: Tycho, Tyge, Tijgo
- Namesakes: Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer whose observations underpinned Kepler’s laws.
- Popularity: Tygo ranked 239th in the Netherlands in 2025 and has no entry at all in the U.S. federal name files. It is a modern Dutch respelling rather than a historic name.
Van
Van is the Dutch surname particle meaning of or from, the piece that makes Van Gogh mean from Gogh. In the Netherlands it is not a first name at all. American families made it one, partly from Dutch-descended surnames and partly as a short form of Vance and Ivan. So it belongs on this list as a Dutch-flavoured American name rather than a Dutch one. That distinction is worth knowing before you use it, particularly if the Dutch connection is the appeal. Three letters, mid-century confidence, and a good deal of Van Morrison.
- Origin: American, Dutch
- Meaning: Of, from
- Pronunciation: VAN
- Variations: Vann, Vance, Ivan
- Namesakes: Van Morrison, the Northern Irish singer-songwriter. Van Cliburn, the American pianist.
- Popularity: #972 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (236 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 3% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Viggo
Viggo is built on the Old Norse vig, war or battle, which makes it one of the bluntest warrior names still in circulation. It is Danish rather than Dutch by origin and reached the Netherlands with the wider Nordic wave. Viggo Mortensen gave it an English-speaking career it would not otherwise have had. The double g keeps the first vowel short, and the name is at its highest point in American history right now, which is an argument in either direction.
- Origin: Old Norse
- Meaning: War, battle
- Pronunciation: VIG-oh
- Variations: Vigo, Vigge, Wiggo
- Namesakes: Viggo Mortensen, the American actor. Viggo Jensen, the Danish Olympic weightlifter and shooter.
- Popularity: #1,697 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (97 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.
Willem
Willem is the Dutch William, from willo, will, and helm, helmet. It is also the name of the Dutch royal house. Willem of Orange led the revolt against Spain, and Willem-Alexander sits on the throne today. The W is pronounced closer to a V, which gives it more edge than the English version. Wim and Pim are both standard short forms and sound nothing alike. It is the most recognisably Dutch name on this list that an American could still use without explanation.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Resolute protection
- Pronunciation: VIL-um
- Variations: William, Wim, Pim, Willy
- Namesakes: Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands since 2013. Willem de Kooning, the Dutch-American painter. Willem Dafoe, the American actor.
- Popularity: #2,601 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (51 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 22% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Wolter
Wolter is a Dutch variant of Walter, from the Old German walt, rule, and heri, army. The Dutch W lands closer to a V, so it opens quite differently from the English version, and Wouter is the form Dutch parents actually choose today.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Ruler of the army
- Pronunciation: VOL-ter
- Variations: Wouter, Walter, Wolther
- Popularity: Wolter has no entry in the U.S. federal name files and does not appear in the Dutch top 250 for 2025. Wouter is the standard modern Dutch form of the same name.
Xander
Xander is Alexander with the first two syllables removed, a Dutch shortening that English speakers adopted wholesale in the 1990s. The X is doing all the work here: same meaning as Alexander, defender of men, and a completely different register. Zander is the American respelling and Sander the Dutch one, so the family gives you three recognisably different looks for one sound. Among boy names that start with X it is comfortably the most usable.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Defender of men
- Pronunciation: ZAN-der
- Variations: Zander, Sander, Alexander
- Namesakes: Xander Bogaerts, the Aruban-Dutch shortstop and World Series champion. Xander Schauffele, the American golfer and Olympic champion.
- Popularity: #259 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,335 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 40% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
Xavi
Xavi is the Catalan short form of Xavier, which is not Arabic but Basque: it comes from the place name Etxeberria, etxe house and berri new, the village Saint Francis Xavier took his surname from. Its arrival in the Netherlands is almost entirely a football story, and the Dutch ranking tracks a Barcelona midfielder rather than any Iberian community. Catalan pronounces the X as sh. That is the detail most English speakers get wrong.
- Origin: Catalan, Basque
- Meaning: The new house
- Pronunciation: SHAH-vee
- Variations: Xavier, Javier, Xavo
- Namesakes: Xavi Hernandez, the Spanish midfielder and manager who anchored Barcelona’s midfield for two decades.
- Popularity: #1,545 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (112 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.
Yannick
Yannick is a diminutive of Yann, the Breton form of John, so the meaning comes down the same line as Jan and Johan: Yahweh is gracious. It is Breton and French rather than Scandinavian, whatever some name sites claim, and it entered Dutch through Belgium. The double n and the ck both mark it as continental rather than Nordic. Yannick Noah won the French Open with it in 1983 and then had a second career as a singer, which is a reasonable amount of life for one name to carry.
- Origin: Breton, Hebrew
- Meaning: Yahweh is gracious
- Pronunciation: YAH-nik
- Variations: Yannik, Yann, Jannick, Janick
- Namesakes: Yannick Noah, the French tennis champion and singer. Yannick Agnel, the French Olympic swimming champion.
- Popularity: #5,197 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (19 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 29% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.
