Surnames cross over into first names for many reasons, but the most common reason parents give is family. A mother’s maiden name, a grandfather’s surname, a line nobody wanted to let go of. That is how Jackson, Harper and Emerson ended up on birth certificates.
Almost every surname here was built from something concrete. Hereditary names grew out of four things: a parent’s given name (Anderson, Jackson), a job (Miller, Mason, Sawyer), a place (Ashton, Lincoln, Everly), or a nickname for how someone looked (Blake, Reed, Cameron). Most English families had settled on one by 1400.
The 100 names below split into 50 masculine-leaning and 50 in the feminine half, though surnames are unisex by nature and plenty of these cross the line. Each entry gives you the origin, the meaning, the style, and the catch worth knowing before you commit.
Popularity at a Glance
The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: James, Harper, Hudson, Alexander and Jackson.
- James
- Harper
- Hudson
- Alexander
- Jackson
Last Names as First Names for Boys
Many surnames began as a label for whose son someone was, a naming pattern linguists classify as patronymic (1), so handing one back to a child as a first name is rather fitting.
1. Aiken
- Origin: Scottish and English
- Meaning: Little Adam
- Pronunciation: AY-kin
Aiken is a Scottish surname that grew out of Atkin, a medieval pet form of Adam. So the surname started life as a first name, and putting it back on a baby closes a loop that took centuries to come around.
Scottish records more often spell it Aitken, which is worth knowing before anyone fills in a birth certificate. Aiken is the tidier of the two on paper and the one Americans tend to guess correctly on the first try.
2. Ainsley
- Origin: Scottish and English
- Meaning: From Annesley or Ansley
- Pronunciation: AYNZ-lee
Ainsley points at a place rather than a person. It goes back to either Annesley in Nottinghamshire or Ansley in Warwickshire, which is why baby name books hand you three or four different meanings depending on which village the author picked.
British chef Ainsley Harriott is the bearer most people can name, and he has done the name a favor: it reads warm rather than formal. It gets used on both boys and girls in the US, so expect to specify.
3. Alder
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Noble army
Alder doubles as a tree and a name. As a personal name it goes back to the Old English name AEthelhere, meaning noble army, which is a lot of weight for two syllables.
The tree took a different route. Its name traces through Latin to an ancient root tied to red and brown, a nod to the way freshly cut alder turns orange in the air. That makes it a quiet pick for a red-headed baby, and it sits well beside plainer sibling names.
4. Alexander
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Defender of men
The name Alexander is Greek in origin and means defender of men. It earns a spot here because it has run the circuit: a first name that hardened into a surname, then came back around as a first name again.
That double life still shows. Alexander is a common American surname and a steady fixture near the top of the boys’ charts at the same time, which very few words manage at once. It also hands you more nicknames than almost anything else on this list, from Alex to Xander to Sasha.
5. Anderson
- Origin: Scottish, English and Scandinavian
- Meaning: Son of Andrew
Anderson is a Northern European surname starting with A, and it means what it looks like: son of Andrew (2).
If you assume the surname-as-a-first-name habit is a recent invention, Anderson is the argument against it. American families were handing it to sons as far back as the 1800s, and Anders makes a natural short form. Say it with your surname before you commit, though, because a second name ending in son turns the whole thing into a tongue twister.
6. Ashton
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Ash tree town
Ashton is built from the Old English aesc, meaning ash tree, and tun, an enclosure or town. Dozens of English villages carry the name, so a family called Ashton could have come from any one of them.
It arrived in American nurseries as a girls’ name and flipped after Ashton Kutcher got famous, which is a reminder that the gender read on a surname name can turn in a single decade. Ash is the obvious short form and sounds finished on its own.
7. Austen
- Origin: English
- Meaning: From Augustine
Austen and Austin are the same name wearing different clothes. Both are worn-down medieval forms of Augustine, which reaches back to the Ancient Roman name Augustus, meaning great or venerable.
The Austen spelling belongs to Jane, so it puts a novelist rather than a Texas city in people’s heads. It is also the rarer of the two, which means fewer classroom collisions and, with luck, fewer Austin Powers impressions.
8. Baird
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Son of the bard
- Pronunciation: BAIRD (rhymes with haired)
Baird is an anglicized form of Mac an Baird, a Celtic name meaning son of the bard. Bards were not background musicians. In Gaelic society they were trained poets who carried a clan’s history in their heads and could make or wreck a chief’s reputation with a single verse.
That history makes Baird a good fit for a family of writers, musicians, or anyone who talks for a living. One syllable, hard consonants, no nickname needed.
9. Baron
- Origin: English and French
- Meaning: From the noble title
Baron comes straight from the title, which reached English through Norman French from the Latin baro. As a surname it usually marked a man who worked for a baron rather than one who held the rank himself.
After the Norman conquest England took on the French feudal system, and the men who served the king were handed land and the title with it. The name still carries that weight, which cuts both ways. It sounds sure of itself, and it can sound like a lot to hang on a newborn.
10. Barrington
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Settlement of one man’s people
Barrington belongs to the large family of English place names ending in -ington, each marking the settlement of one man’s people. Arrington in Cambridgeshire was Earna’s settlement and Harrington was Haefer’s town, and Barrington was formed the same way.
Producer and rapper JPEGMAFIA was born Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks, which is useful ballast if the name strikes you as stuffy. Barry and Bear both work as short forms, and they pull it in opposite directions.
11. Beck
- Origin: English, Norse and German
- Meaning: Stream, or baker
Beck has two separate roots that landed on one spelling. The English and Scandinavian version comes from bekkr, a word for a stream, and belonged to people who lived beside one. The German version is a form of Becker and means baker.
So a family with Scandinavian roots and a family with German roots can both claim it honestly. It is one syllable, ends on a hard consonant, and needs no shortening, which makes it easy to call across a playground.
12. Bentley
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Bentgrass clearing
Bentley is built from the Old English beonet, a coarse meadow grass, and leah, a woodland clearing. Several English villages carry the name, and every one of them was once a patch of rough grazing.
The obvious catch is the car. Most people will assume that is the reference and there is no spelling that escapes it. If that does not bother you, you get a soft-sounding name with a genuinely rural meaning underneath.
13. Birk
- Origin: Scandinavian and German
- Meaning: Birch tree
Birk is the Scandinavian and German form of the word for birch, a cousin of the English surname Birch, which comes from Old English birce and Old Norse bjork. Birch is a pioneer tree, the first thing to colonize cleared ground, which is not a bad idea to name a child after.
One caution for anyone with British relatives. Berk sounds identical and is British slang for a word we cannot print here, so a UK grandparent may react strangely the first time they hear it.
14. Blake
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Black, or pale
Blake is a variant of the surname Black, and it carries a contradiction. Old English had blac, meaning pale or white, and blaec, meaning dark, and the two words fell together in Middle English. Nobody can now say which one a given Blake family started from.
That ambiguity is part of the appeal. It is a short, clean name that suits a fair baby or a dark-haired one equally. Blake Lively pulled it firmly onto the girls’ side in the US without pushing it off the boys’ side, so it now reads as genuinely unisex.
15. Burkhardt
- Origin: German
- Meaning: From the given name Burkhard
- Pronunciation: BOORK-hahrt
Burkhardt comes from the old German personal name Burkhard, and the surname Borchard is the same name run through a northern German accent. You still hear it in Germany and Switzerland, far more than in the US.
Be honest with yourself about the spelling. It is pronounced BOORK-hahrt, it has two silent-looking h sounds Americans will trip over, and your child will spend a lot of school registrations correcting people. If your family carries the name, that trade may well be worth it. Burke works as a short form.
16. Byron
- Origin: English
- Meaning: At the cattle sheds
- Pronunciation: BY-run
Byron comes from an Old English place name for a farmstead, specifically the barns or cattle sheds a family lived beside. Plain beginnings for a name that now sounds anything but plain.
You may be surprised to find it here at all, because Byron has been established as a first name for so long that the surname stage is easy to forget. Credit the poet: Lord Byron made it sound like a temperament rather than a farmyard.
17. Carson
- Origin: Scottish and Irish
- Meaning: Uncertain, possibly from Courson
The meaning of the Scottish and Irish surname Carson is not settled. The best guess links it to Courson in Normandy, carried north by a Norman family after the conquest, but the trail goes cold before it gets to Scotland.
Carson ticked along quietly as a boys’ name for two centuries before the 1990s pushed it up the American charts. It has the two-syllable, ends-in-n shape that has dominated boys’ names for a generation, which is either the reason to pick it or the reason not to.
18. Chase
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Hunter
Chase is an occupational name from the Middle English chase, meaning the hunt. It belonged to men who hunted for a living, not for sport.
Two US Navy ships have carried the name. The USS Chase (DD-323) was a Clemson class destroyer commissioned just after the First World War, and the USS Chase (DE-158) escorted convoys in the Second. It is one of the few names on this list that is also a verb, which gives it forward motion that most surnames do not have.
19. Emerson
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Son of Emery
Emerson means son of Emery, Emery being a medieval English form of an old German name. The version you often see, son of the ruler, is a step too far removed to be reliable.
Emerson is a popular forename in Brazil, where footballer Emerson Moises Costa went by the single name for his whole career. In the US it now splits fairly evenly between boys and girls, so it is one to test out loud before you decide.
20. Finley
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Son of Fionnlagh
Finley is the anglicized shape of MacFhionnlaigh, meaning son of Fionnlagh. The Gaelic name behind it joins fionn, fair or white, to a second element usually read as warrior or hero.
If you want the original rather than the airport-friendly version, Fionnlagh is still in use in Scotland and Ireland, and Fionn works on its own. Finn is the short form nearly everyone will default to anyway, which is worth knowing before you commit to the longer spelling.
21. Garrett
- Origin: English and Norman
- Meaning: From Gerard or Gerald
Garrett is a medieval English surname drawn from the Norman given names Gerard and Gerald, both of which are built on the old German word for a spear.
Swimmer Garrett Weber-Gale swam the second leg of the 4×100 metre freestyle relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the race the US won by a fingertip, and took a second gold that week. The name is solid without being heavy, and Gary is the only nickname most people reach for.
22. Griffin
- Origin: Welsh and English
- Meaning: Griffin, the beast; or from Gruffudd
Griffin arrives by two roads. In England it began as a nickname referring to the mythological beast with a lion’s body and an eagle’s head. In Wales it is an anglicized form of the Welsh name Gruffudd.
Either way you get a creature that guarded treasure in medieval bestiaries, which is a rare thing for a surname to hand you. Griff is the natural short form, and it has stayed comfortably mid-chart in the US rather than spiking, so it will not date your child to one particular year.
23. Hanson
- Origin: English and Scandinavian
- Meaning: Son of Hann
Hanson is a medieval surname meaning son of Hann, and Hann was a short form of John. So it is a cousin of Johnson, Jackson and Hancock, all built on the same very common medieval first name.
The spelling split happened at immigration desks. When European families brought the name to America, the clerk wrote what he heard, so one branch became Hanson and another became Hansen. If your family has both spellings in its records, that is why.
24. Holden
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Deep valley
Holden comes from Old English hol, meaning hollow or sunken, and denu, a valley. Several English villages sit in exactly that landform and gave the name to the families who farmed them.
The literary weight belongs to Holden Caulfield, narrator of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and readers have argued about him for seventy years. Some see the definitive portrait of teenage alienation, others see a whiny sixteen-year-old. The name itself came up the American charts on the back of Holden Snyder, a romantic lead on the soap opera As the World Turns, which is a much less literary route.
25. Hudson
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Son of Hudde
A Germanic surname, Hudson means son of Hudde.
Hudson is a good example of how strangely names evolve. Hudde was a medieval pet form of Hugh, and Hugh comes from an old German word for heart, mind and spirit. So the modern name is three removes from a word about the inner life, filtered through a nickname and a patronymic. Most Americans hear the river first, which is no bad association either.
26. Jackson
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Son of Jack
Jackson means Jack’s son, with Jack coming from John, which means God is gracious.
In the 2010 US census Jackson was the 19th most frequent surname, held by 708,099 people, while sitting near the top of the boys’ first name charts at the same time. Very few names occupy both lists at that height. Jax and Jack are both waiting as short forms, and the second one takes you back to where the name started.
27. Kendrick
- Origin: English, Welsh and Scottish
- Meaning: Bold ruler, or son of Henry
Kendrick is a British surname with three separate origins, and which one is yours depends on where in the UK the family came from.
The English Kendrick comes from the Old English personal names Cyneric or Cenric, built on cyne, meaning royal. The Welsh one comes from Cynwrig. The Scottish one is a shortening of McKendrick, anglicized from MacEanruig, meaning son of Eanraig, which is the Gaelic form of Henry. Three roads, one spelling, and a name that has picked up real cultural weight in the last decade.
28. Kiefer
- Origin: German
- Meaning: Barrel maker, or pine tree
- Pronunciation: KEE-fer
A German surname, Kiefer, means either barrel maker or pine tree depending on which German word it grew from.
Kiefer Sutherland was named after the American writer and producer Warren Kiefer, who directed his father Donald in his first film. That is a nicer piece of naming history than most celebrity names come with, and it is a decent template if you want to honor a mentor rather than a relative.
29. Kingsley
- Origin: English
- Meaning: King’s clearing
An Old English boy’s name, Kingsley means the king’s clearing in the wood, from a place where land had been cut back from the forest and held by the crown.
It still reads mainly as a boys’ name in the US and the UK, though it has picked up steady use for girls on both sides of the Atlantic. King is the short form parents actually use, which is either the appeal or the problem.
30. Lamont
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Law man
- Pronunciation: luh-MONT
Lamont comes from the medieval Gaelic given name Lagmann, which was borrowed from the Old Norse logmadr, meaning law man. Norse settlers brought the word and the office to the Scottish islands, where a lawman recited and interpreted the law from memory.
Given that history, Lamont is an obvious fit for a family in law enforcement or the courts, and it carries the stress on the second syllable, which sets it apart from the many first-syllable surnames here.
31. Landon
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Long hill
Landon is a variant of Langdon, an English place name built from lang, meaning long, and dun, a hill. The frequently repeated meaning of ridge is close but not quite what the place names say.
Some parents assume Landon is a recent arrival in the surname-as-a-first-name game. It has been in use since the 1600s, so it is older than plenty of names that sound more traditional.
32. Lincoln
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Colony at the lake
Lincoln comes from the Roman name for the English city, Lindum Colonia, which joins a Celtic word for pool or lake to the Latin for colony. The city is still there, and so is the pool it was named for.
The name saw limited but steady American use for two centuries and then took off around the turn of this one, moving from the 800s in the rankings to the top 50 in about twenty years. Linc is the short form, and the presidential association is unavoidable, so decide now whether you want it.
33. Logan
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Little hollow
Logan is a Scottish Gaelic place name from lag, meaning a hollow or pit, with a diminutive ending. So it means little hollow, a dip in the ground rather than anything grand.
Modern parents mostly meet it through Wolverine, who goes by Logan, which gives a soft-sounding name a hard edge it did not earn. It is short, unisex in practice, and one of the few Gaelic names on this list that Americans spell right the first time.
34. Marshall
- Origin: English and Norman
- Meaning: Horse servant
Marshall is a German name in its roots, from elements meaning horse and servant, and it reached English through Norman French. The man who cared for a lord’s horses eventually became the officer who commanded his army, which is quite a promotion for one word.
Marsh is the only short form that really works, so most Marshalls stay Marshall. There are several US towns with the name too, and the gap between them is comic: Marshall, Texas has around 23,000 residents and Marshall, Alaska has a few hundred.
35. Mason
- Origin: English and Norman
- Meaning: Stoneworker
Mason is an occupational surname for a stoneworker, from the Old French masson. Medieval masons were the engineers of their day, the men who worked out how to hold up a cathedral roof.
In 2011 and 2012 Mason was the second most popular boys’ name in the US, kept off the top spot both years by Jacob. That popularity is the one thing to weigh: a name this common stops signalling anything about your family, which is usually the point of a surname first name.
36. Mercer
- Origin: English and Norman
- Meaning: Textile trader
- Pronunciation: MUR-ser
Mercer comes through Old French from the Latin merx, meaning goods or merchandise, and it belonged to traders in fine cloth, silk and small luxuries rather than general shopkeepers.
It shares a root with the English word merchant, so if you want your child steered toward business, this is the name that says so out loud. It also has the soft, unhurried sound of a name people trust, which is not nothing.
37. Merrill
- Origin: English
- Meaning: From Muriel, or pleasant hill
Merrill has travelled all the bases. One branch comes from places meaning pleasant hill. The other comes from the given name Muriel, which began as the Irish girls’ name Muirgel, passed through French and English as Muriel, hardened into the surname Merrill, and is now becoming a first name again.
Merry is there if you want a short form, though Merrill carries fine without one. The round trip is the real appeal: few names have been a girls’ name, then a surname, then a first name again inside a single family tree.
38. Merritt
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Boundary gate
Merritt comes from an Old English place name meaning the boundary gate, the point where one settlement’s land ended and the next began.
It sounds identical to the word merit but has nothing to do with it. Merit comes from the Latin meritum, meaning something earned, and the two only met by accident in English. That happy collision is probably why the name reads as a compliment.
39. Miller
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Grain mill operator
Miller is an occupational surname for the man who ran the grain mill, and in most medieval villages there was only one, which made him a person everyone had to deal with.
If the English spelling does not appeal, the same job produced a name in nearly every European language: the Dutch name Mulder, the Swedish Moller, the German Mueller, the Spanish Molina. Any of them lets you keep the meaning while losing the plainness.
40. Mitchell
- Origin: English
- Meaning: From Michael, or big
Mitchell has two origins and they could hardly be further apart. Most Mitchells descend from the given name Michael, from the Hebrew Mikhael, meaning who is like God. The rest descend from the Middle English michel, meaning big, a plain nickname for a large man.
You hear Mitchell less often than the numbers suggest because it is nearly always shortened to Mitch by the second week of school. If you like the short form, that is a feature.
41. Norris
- Origin: English and Norman
- Meaning: From the north, or nurse
Norris arrived with the Normans and carries two unrelated meanings from Old French. One version means simply from the north, a name for an incomer. The other comes from nurice, a wet nurse or foster mother, and belonged to a household’s nursemaid or her family.
Norris McWhirter and his twin brother Ross founded The Guinness Book of Records. Norris could reportedly recall the details of any record in the book on demand, which is a fitting namesake for a family that likes facts.
42. Parker
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Keeper of the park
Parker was the title of the man who kept the park, back when a park meant a private hunting estate rather than a playground. He managed the deer, the fences and the poachers.
In the early 1800s naming a son Parker was unremarkable, by the 1950s it had nearly vanished, and it has come back strongly for both boys and girls. That kind of round trip is common with occupational surnames and worth remembering: nothing here stays out of fashion forever.
43. Paxton
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Poecc’s town
- Pronunciation: PAK-stun
The meaning of Paxton is honestly unknown, and any book that tells you otherwise is guessing.
You will often see it defined as peaceful town, from the Latin pax and an English tun. That reading is wrong. The place name behind the surname is Poecc’s town, named for a man called Poecc, and what Poecc itself meant has been lost. The pax association is a happy accident rather than a fact, which is fine as long as you know that going in.
44. Peyton
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Paega’s town
- Pronunciation: PAY-tun
Peyton comes from the village of Peyton in Sussex, which was Paega’s town. Like Paxton, it preserves the name of a man nobody can now describe.
Type it into a search engine and quarterback Peyton Manning arrives first, which has kept the name firmly in play for boys in the US even as it has grown more popular for girls. It is spelled Payton about as often, so pick one and expect to repeat it.
45. Reed
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Red
Reed is a spelling of Read, from the Middle English read, meaning red. It was given to people with red hair or a ruddy complexion, most often in the north of England and in Scotland, where the Reid spelling took hold instead.
That makes it a quietly clever pick for a red-headed baby, and one that will not embarrass a forty-year-old the way an on-the-nose name would. The reed plant is a separate word entirely, though the image does the name no harm.
46. Rhett
- Origin: Dutch and English
- Meaning: Advice, counsel
Rhett is an anglicized form of a Dutch surname built on raet, meaning advice or counsel, carried to the American South by Dutch settlers.
Rhett Allain, a physics professor at Southeastern Louisiana University, wrote a piece in 2016 charting the sudden rise of his own name and plotting what he called the Rhettsplosion. Southern-set fiction did most of the work, and the name still reads as unmistakably Southern whichever state you raise your child in.
47. Rockwell
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Rock spring
Rockwell means the rocky spring, and it belonged to families who lived beside one, which in a dry season was the most important feature of a village.
Most Americans will hear Norman Rockwell first, which lends the name a plainspoken, small-town warmth. Rock is the short form, and it is the reason to think twice: it is a lot of swagger to hand a quiet child. Rockwell is also the name of a slab serif typeface designed in 1934, the blocky sort used on posters and packaging, which suits a name this square-shouldered.
48. Sawyer
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Sawer of wood
Sawyer is an Old English occupational surname for a man who sawed wood, usually working in a pair over a pit with one man above the log and one below it.
The job title survives. Logging crews still call a chainsaw operator a sawyer, as do crosscut crews in national parks and concrete cutters on building sites. Very few of these names are still doing active duty as job descriptions, which gives Sawyer a concreteness the place names cannot match.
49. Sullivan
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Descendant of Suileabhan
- Pronunciation: SUL-ih-vun
Sullivan has a complicated history that ends in an odd place. It is the anglicized form of O Suileabhain, meaning descendant of Suileabhan, and Suileabhan itself is usually read as little dark eye. So the modern name means, at two removes, descendant of the little dark eye.
It is one of the most common surnames in Ireland, particularly in Cork and Kerry, so it carries real family weight for Irish American households. Sully and Van both work as short forms, and they land very differently.
50. Thompson
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Son of Thomas
Thompson means son of Tom, and Tom comes from the Aramaic Ta’oma’, which means twin.
Tommy is waiting as the short form, and the name is also spelled Tomson and Thomson. It is rarely used as a first name, which is the argument for it: you get the surname-first-name effect without landing on Jackson or Carson, the same shape and none of the crowding.
Last Names as First Names for Girls
Surnames are gender-neutral by origin, but some have leaned girl for decades and others have not. Not every pick below reads as obviously feminine, and that is the point.
51. Addison
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Son of Addy
Addison means son of Addy, and Addy was a medieval pet form of Adam. The literal reading is a small joke on a girls’ name that nobody minds.
It was a boys’ name until American parents claimed it for girls in the early 1990s. Other countries came late: Canada in 2007, Australia in 2008, and England and Wales not until 2017. Addie is the short form, and it softens a name that can otherwise sound very of-its-decade.
52. Arden
- Origin: English and Celtic
- Meaning: High
Arden comes from English place names built on an old Celtic word meaning high. The Forest of Arden in Warwickshire is the best known of them, and Shakespeare, whose mother was an Arden, set As You Like It there.
A similar-looking Dutch name, Aarden, means clay or earth, which is where the widely repeated potter’s meaning comes from. The two are separate names that happen to rhyme. Actress Arden Cho played Kira in Teen Wolf, which is where most American parents first heard it.
53. Bailey
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Bailiff
Bailey comes from the Middle English baili, meaning bailiff. A bailiff ran a manor’s day to day business and collected what was owed, so the surname belonged to the man everyone in the village knew and few of them liked.
The gender read splits by country. In the US Bailey is now mainly a girls’ name. In most of the rest of the English-speaking world it is still mainly a boys’ name, which is worth knowing if your family is spread across both.
54. Bellamy
- Origin: French and English
- Meaning: Beautiful friend
- Pronunciation: BEL-uh-mee
Bellamy comes from the Old French bel ami and means beautiful friend. It began as a nickname, presumably for someone who was one.
It shortens neatly to Bella if you want the softer version, though the whole point of choosing Bellamy is that it is not Bella. Pretty without being delicate is a hard balance to strike, and these three syllables land somewhere between Bailey and Emily without copying either.
55. Blair
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Plain, field, battlefield
Blair comes from the Gaelic blar, which covers a plain, a field and a battlefield, and several Scottish places carry it. Which sense a given Blair family took it from depends on what happened there.
That battlefield reading makes it a strong pick for families with a military history, especially Scottish ones. It is one syllable, ends on a soft r, and reads as composed rather than sweet, which is why it has held on for decades without ever becoming common.
56. Cameron
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Crooked nose
Cameron comes from the Gaelic cam, meaning crooked, and sron, meaning nose. Clan Cameron took the byname from a chief, and nobody involved seems to have minded.
The unflattering meaning sits oddly against a name that sounds this smooth, which is a good reminder that surnames rarely mean anything flattering. People will argue about whether it is a boys’ name or a girls’ name. It has been both for forty years and the argument has not changed anything.
57. Carlin
- Origin: Irish and English
- Meaning: Uncertain
The roots of Carlin are genuinely contested. One line traces it to the Irish O Cearbhallain, a family of hereditary harpers. Another links it to the Germanic carl, meaning a free man, or the Old English ceorl, meaning a man of low rank, and those two are the same word at different social altitudes.
Whichever you prefer, you get a soft, unhurried name almost nobody else is using. In Scots, a carlin is also an old woman, which some parents will read as a warning and others as a promise.
58. Cassidy
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Descendant of Caiside
An Irish Gaelic name, Cassidy comes from O Caiside, meaning descendant of Caiside. The byname Caiside is usually connected to a word for curly hair.
It shortens to Cass or Cassie, and the Irish spelling Caiside is there if you want the original. The Cassidys were hereditary physicians to the Maguires of Fermanagh, a post that stayed in the family for generations, which is a good deal more interesting than most surname histories.
59. Channing
- Origin: English and Norman
- Meaning: Uncertain
Nobody has pinned down what Channing means. The best guesses run through Norman French and Old English, and none of them has enough behind it to state as fact.
Channing Tatum is the bearer most people picture, but Americans have been quietly moving the name back toward girls for years. It has the two-syllable, ends-in-ing shape that reads as expensive, and it has never been common enough to date.
60. Colby
- Origin: English and Norse
- Meaning: Koli’s farm
Colby comes from English villages built on the Old Norse byname Koli, meaning coal or dark, and byr, a farm or settlement. So it is Koli’s farm, planted by Norse settlers in the north of England.
The cheese is a separate story. Colby cheddar was developed in Colby, Wisconsin in 1885, and the town still holds a festival for it every July. Dairy aisle associations aside, it is a clean unisex surname that works on either side.
61. Darcy
- Origin: Norman French
- Meaning: From Arcy
Darcy is from the Norman French d’Arcy, meaning someone from Arcy in La Manche. The apostrophe fell away somewhere between the conquest and the census.
Jane Austen gave the name its permanent character, and no amount of history will dislodge Mr Darcy from the front of anyone’s mind. That works in the name’s favor for a daughter: it arrives pre-loaded with reserve and self-possession. D’Arcy and Darcey are both live spellings.
62. Devon
- Origin: English and Irish
- Meaning: From Devon, or divine
Devon could come from the English county or be a variant of Devin, and the two have different histories.
The county of Devon was named after the Celtic tribe the Dumnonii, whose name is usually read as of the earth. Devin may come from the Latin divinus, meaning divine or seer, or from the Irish O Damhain, meaning descendant of the fawn. Three plausible roots, one spelling, and a name that has stayed evenly split between boys and girls for decades.
63. Everly
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Boar clearing
- Pronunciation: EV-er-lee
Everly is built from the Old English eofor, meaning wild boar, and leah, a woodland clearing. The place it named was where the boars came out of the trees.
The meaning is rough and the sound is not, which is the whole appeal. It also works as a fresher alternative to Beverly, a name most parents have written off. The Everly Brothers gave it a musical association that has done it no harm at all.
64. Fallon
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Descendant of Fallamhan
Fallon is the anglicized form of the Irish O Fallamhain, meaning descendant of Fallamhan. The byname is usually read as leader or ruler, which gives the name more spine than its soft sound suggests.
The 1980s put a dent in it. Dynasty introduced Fallon Carrington to a lot of American living rooms, and for anyone who watched it the association is still there. Give it another decade and it will read purely Irish again.
65. Flores
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Son of Floro
A Spanish name, Flores means son of Floro, though most people hear the Spanish word for flowers and stop there.
Floro is the Spanish and Portuguese version of Florus, from the Latin for flower. If you like the sound but want something less obviously surname-shaped, Flora and Floro are both real names sitting one step away.
66. Greer
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: From Gregor
Greer is a Scottish surname taken from the given name Gregor, the Scottish form of Gregory. Gregory comes from a Greek word meaning watchful or alert, so the sense of vigilance is real but inherited, not built into Greer itself.
Grier is the alternate spelling and shows up just as often in Scottish records. Either way you get a single syllable that sounds crisp and slightly severe, which is rare in girls’ names and part of why it has quietly persisted.
67. Harlow
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Rock hill, or army hill
Harlow is a habitational name from English places built on a word for rock or army plus a word for hill. Harlow in Essex is the best known of them.
If you want a tough-sounding name for a daughter, this is one of the strongest here, and the army reading gives families with a military background a real reason to choose it. Jean Harlow gave it a glamorous second life that has never quite worn off.
68. Harper
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Harp player
An occupational surname, a Harper was someone who made or played the harp, and in a medieval household that was a paid position rather than a hobby.
Harper Lee proves that surnames as first names are nothing new. She was born in 1926, decades before the trend everyone thinks started in the 1990s. The literary weight is the main draw now, and it has pushed the name high enough on the American charts that your daughter may not be the only one.
69. Hayden
- Origin: English and Irish
- Meaning: Hay valley, or hay hill
Hayden comes from English place names meaning hay valley or hay hill. There is a separate Irish Hayden, anglicized from O hEideain, that arrived by a completely different route.
It peaked for boys in 2007 and for girls the following year, which is about as evenly split as a name gets. You will see it spelled Haydn, Haiden and Haydyn, so expect to spell it out at every appointment for the rest of your child’s life.
70. Hayley
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Hay clearing
Hayley is a variant of Haley, from an English town name meaning hay clearing. It began as a surname and is now so thoroughly established as a first name that most people never think about where it came from.
Hayley Mills was the child star who put it on the map in the 1960s. Hayley Marshall carried it for a newer audience on The Originals and The Vampire Diaries. Between Haley, Hailey, Haylee and Hayleigh there are more spellings in circulation than for almost any other name here.
71. Hester
- Origin: English and Dutch
- Meaning: From Esther
- Pronunciation: HESS-ter
Hester is an old English and Dutch form of Esther, and Esther’s own origin is unsettled. Some trace it to a Persian word for star, others to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
Either way there is a good answer for anyone who says Hester sounds severe. If the root is Ishtar, this is a name tied to a goddess of love and war, which covers most of a toddler’s day. Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter is the association most Americans carry, and she is nobody’s idea of a pushover.
72. James
- Origin: English and Hebrew
- Meaning: Supplanter
James shares a root with the Hebrew name Jacob, and both mean supplanter, a person who takes another’s place.
James has sat in the boys’ top 20 since American records began. What surprises people is that it has been used for girls the whole time too, quietly, never fashionable and never gone. Blake Lively naming a daughter James put a spotlight on a habit that was already a century old.
73. Kennedy
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Descendant of Cennetig
Kennedy comes from the Irish O Cinneidigh, meaning descendant of Cennetig.
Cennetig mac Lorcain was king of the Dal gCais and king of Thomond, the territory that is now roughly County Clare and Limerick, and he was the father of Brian Boru. So the name reaches back to one of the oldest royal lines in Ireland before it ever reached Massachusetts. The American association is the one your child will field questions about.
74. Larkin
- Origin: English and Irish
- Meaning: From Laurence
Larkin began as a medieval pet form of Laurence, which means from Laurentum, an ancient Italian town. There is a separate Irish Larkin, anglicized from O Lorcain, that has nothing to do with it.
It is a quirky alternative to Laura or Lauren, and the lark inside it does a lot of work: people hear a bird whether or not one is there. Rare enough that your daughter is unlikely to meet another, common enough that nobody will ask you to repeat it.
75. Levin
- Origin: English and German
- Meaning: Dear friend
Levin is a relative of the English surname Lewin, which comes from the Old English personal name Leofwine, joining leof, meaning dear or beloved, to wine, meaning friend. A parallel German Levin exists and is a fairly common first name in Switzerland and northern Germany.
In the US it is barely used as a forename at all, which is the argument for it. If you want a rare surname name that still sounds like a name rather than a place, this is one of the few genuinely unclaimed options here.
76. Lowin
- Origin: German
- Meaning: Lioness
Lowin is drawn from the German word for lion, and it is better documented as vocabulary than as a German girl’s name in its own right.
German marks its nouns for gender, and you will see Loew listed among names that mean lion, which is correct as far as it goes. Lowin is the feminine form, so it means lioness rather than lion, and it is the better of the two as a first name for a daughter. The proper German spelling carries an umlaut, which is one more thing to explain at the pediatrician’s office.
77. MacKenzie
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Son of Coinneach
- Pronunciation: muh-KEN-zee
MacKenzie is the anglicized form of the Gaelic MacCoinnich, meaning son of Coinneach, and Coinneach is usually read as handsome or comely.
The z is a historical accident. Older Scots writing used a letter called yogh that printers replaced with z, so the name should really sound like MacKenny and does in parts of Scotland. It gives you Mac, Kenzie and Z as short forms, which is unusual range for one name.
78. Madison
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Son of Maud
Madison is an English surname meaning son of Maud or, in some families, son of Matthew.
Its arrival as a girls’ name is one of the best documented in American naming. The 1984 film Splash had a mermaid pick the name off a street sign as a joke about how unsuitable it was, and within twenty years it was one of the most popular girls’ names in the country. Maddie is the short form a lot of parents are really choosing. The catch is that same run of popularity: Madison held a place in the American top 10 for years before it began sliding, so it now reads as a name with a birth decade attached.
79. Mallory
- Origin: Norman French
- Meaning: Unfortunate
- Pronunciation: MAL-uh-ree
Mallory comes from the Old French maleure, meaning unlucky or unfortunate. It started as a nickname, which raises questions about whoever first wore it.
The most famous bearer went out on his own terms. George Mallory was last seen alive a few hundred feet below the summit of Everest in 1924, and his body was not found until 1999. Whether he reached the top first is still argued about. It is an unusually bittersweet name, and that is exactly why some parents love it.
80. Marley
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Pleasant wood
Marley comes from English places meaning pleasant wood, boundary wood or marten wood, depending on which village a family left.
Mar and Marls both work if you want to shorten it, and the Bob Marley association crosses every border, which is why the name sounds relaxed rather than fussy. The gender read does not travel as well: in the US it lands heavily on girls, while much of the rest of the world still hears a boys’ name.
81. McKenna
- Origin: Irish and Scottish
- Meaning: Son of Cionaodh
McKenna is the anglicized form of Mac Cionaodha, meaning son of Cionaodh, an old Irish personal name usually connected to fire.
Kenna works as a short form and stands up on its own. The name sits close to MacKenzie in sound and in structure, since each pairs the Gaelic mac with an old personal name, so the two read as cousins on a list like this. Cionaodh is usually connected to fire, which gives McKenna a warmth its soft ending does not advertise.
82. Medina
- Origin: Spanish and Arabic
- Meaning: City
- Pronunciation: meh-DEE-nuh
Medina is a Spanish name from the Arabic madina, meaning city, and it entered Spanish during the centuries of Moorish rule.
Spanish colonists carried the name to the Americas, where it was often imposed on indigenous families rather than chosen, so it is worth knowing the history before you use it. Today it is more common in Argentina than in Spain. The three-syllable, ends-in-a shape puts it right in line with current girls’ names.
83. Monroe
- Origin: Scottish and Irish
- Meaning: Mouth of the Roe
Monroe is traditionally explained as the mouth of the Roe, a river in County Derry, from families who crossed to Scotland and took the place with them as a name.
Marilyn Monroe is the association, and it is a heavy one, so this is a name that arrives with a whole persona attached. Worth knowing, though: she was born Norma Jeane Mortenson and took Monroe from her mother’s family, so even the famous bearer was using it as a surname first name.
84. Nieves
- Origin: Spanish
- Meaning: Snows
- Pronunciation: NYEH-ves
Nieves is a Spanish name that means snow, and it works as both a first name and a surname in Spain.
It comes from the religious title Nuestra Senora de las Nieves, Our Lady of the Snows, tied to a Roman legend about a summer snowfall marking out where a church should be built. That gives it a devotional history rather than a weather one, which is worth knowing if you are choosing it for the sound alone.
85. Paisley
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Church
Paisley is a Scottish town name usually traced back through Latin to a word for church or basilica.
The fabric came later. The teardrop pattern is Persian and Indian in origin, but Britain named it after the town because Paisley mills wove so much of it in the nineteenth century. So the name gives you a print, a place and a church all at once, and it is one of the few here that carries a visual with it.
86. Piper
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Pipe player
Piper was a surname for someone who played the pipe, a paid role at fairs, weddings and funerals rather than a pastime.
The English version works far better as a first name than its German cousin Pfeiffer, which means the same thing and is nearly unspellable in the US. Piper Halliwell on Charmed did most of the work in pulling it onto the charts, and it has held on because it sounds cheerful without sounding childish.
87. Raleigh
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Red woodland clearing
- Pronunciation: RAH-lee
Raleigh is a European surname from English place names usually read as the red clearing, though roe deer clearing is also argued for.
Raleigh, North Carolina was named for Sir Walter Raleigh, who organized the Roanoke expeditions and never set foot there himself. The city association makes it read Southern to American ears whatever its English origins. Note that the town says RAH-lee and the man is usually said RAW-lee, so pick your pronunciation early.
88. Reagan
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Descendant of Riagan
Reagan comes from the Irish surname O Riagain, usually read as impulsive, though little king is offered just as often.
Reagan first caught on as a girls’ name after William Peter Blatty’s novel The Exorcist in 1971 and the film that followed in 1973, whose possessed child was called Regan. That is an unusual origin story for a name parents now choose for how wholesome it sounds. The presidential spelling is the one that stuck.
89. Riley
- Origin: English and Irish
- Meaning: Rye clearing
The English Riley comes from Ryley in Lancashire and means the clearing in the rye. There is a separate Irish Riley, from O Raghallaigh, that arrived with completely different families.
The gender read flips at the Atlantic. In the US Riley now leans female. In Ireland, the UK and Australia it is still mainly a boys’ name. If you have relatives on both sides, expect them to hear different things when you say it.
90. Ross
- Origin: Scottish
- Meaning: Promontory, headland
Ross comes from the Scottish Gaelic ros, meaning a promontory or headland, and from the several Scottish places built on that word. The old province of Ross in the far north is the largest of them, and the clan took its name from the district rather than the other way around.
Diana Ross and Betsy Ross between them keep the name in easy reach for American families, one in the record collection and one in the history books. It is plain in the best way: one syllable, no spelling questions, and it sits comfortably next to the longer names it will share a sibling list with.
91. Rowan
- Origin: Irish and English
- Meaning: Rowan tree, or red-haired
Rowan has two roots that suit each other. One is the tree, which gave surnames like Rowntree to people who lived beside one. The other is the Irish O Ruadhain, descendant of the red-haired one, from the same word that colors the tree’s berries.
In European folklore the rowan was a protective tree, planted by doors to keep bad luck out, and its wood was used for spindles and walking sticks for the same reason. Very few names give you a plant, a color and a piece of folk protection at once.
92. Shelley
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Clearing on a bank
Shelley comes from English place names for a clearing on a ledge or bank, the kind of shelf of flat ground that made a farm possible on a slope.
Shelly is the simpler spelling, and Shell is the short form nobody plans on and everybody uses. The reason to pick it is Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein at nineteen and, by most accounts, invented science fiction in the process. That is a rare thing to hand a daughter along with a name.
93. Sloan
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Raid, expedition
Sloan is an anglicized Irish surname built on a word for a raid or war party, from O Sluaghadhain.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation runs one of the oldest research fellowships in the United States, and a long list of its recipients have gone on to Nobel prizes, so the name carries an academic association alongside the Irish one. Sloane with an e is the more common spelling for girls and reads slightly more polished.
94. Sorrell
- Origin: French and English
- Meaning: Yellow brown
- Pronunciation: SOR-uhl
Sorrell comes from the Old French sor, meaning yellow brown, and it was a nickname for someone with hair that color. The same word gives us sorrel, the horse coat between chestnut and tan.
There are at least four live spellings, Sorrel, Sorrell, Sorel and Sorrelle, so choosing this name means committing to a lifetime of corrections. It is also a herb, which some parents like and others find distracting.
95. Stockard
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Uncertain
- Pronunciation: STOK-erd
Stockard is one of the harder names here to pin down. It is usually traced to a Dutch or Low German word for striking with a stick, though an English origin in stocc, meaning a tree stump or post, is at least as likely.
Actress Stockard Channing is the reason anyone knows it as a first name, and she carries it well. Award-nominated on stage and screen, she is still best known as Rizzo in Grease, which is a strange fate for a name this patrician. Stocky is not a nickname anyone should attempt.
96. Tatum
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Tata’s homestead
Tatum is a variant of Tatham, a village in Lancashire, and the Tat part is the Old English personal name Tata. So it means Tata’s homestead. The frequently quoted meaning, bringer of joy, has no evidence behind it.
Tatum O’Neal remains the youngest person ever to win a competitive Academy Award, taking Best Supporting Actress at ten for Paper Moon in 1974. The name has the crisp consonants and open ending that American parents keep reaching for, and it works equally well on a boy.
97. Taylor
- Origin: English and Norman
- Meaning: Tailor
Taylor comes from the Old French tailleur, meaning tailor, which in turn comes from a Latin verb meaning to cut.
Taylor Swift was named after the singer-songwriter James Taylor, which makes her a rare case of a surname first name chosen for a specific person rather than a family line. If you like that idea, it is a clean way to honor a musician, a writer or anyone else without landing on their first name.
98. Teagan
- Origin: Irish
- Meaning: Poet
- Pronunciation: TEE-gun
Teagan grew out of Tadhg, an Irish name meaning poet, which is also the root behind Teague and Tighe.
There is a separate Welsh Tegan, from teg meaning fair or lovely, and the two get mixed up constantly. Both are real, neither is wrong, and which one you mean will decide whether you spell it with an a or an e. It has been a steady presence in the American top few hundred for years without ever spiking.
99. Tempest
- Origin: English and Latin
- Meaning: Storm
Tempest comes from the Latin tempestas, meaning storm, and arrived in English as a Norman surname for someone with a stormy temper.
Shakespeare gave it the association most people carry, and The Tempest supplies Miranda and Ariel as sibling names if you want to build a theme. Gamers may reach for the ship in Mass Effect: Andromeda instead. It is the boldest name on this list, and it does not soften, so choose it knowing your daughter will be introducing herself as Tempest at sixty.
100. Winslow
- Origin: English
- Meaning: Wine’s hill
Winslow is an Old English girl’s name from a place name meaning the hill belonging to Wine, Wine being an Old English personal name. The often repeated friendly hill reading comes from confusing that name with the word for friend.
Winnie is the short form, and it is what will make this long, formal name workable on a small child. Winslow Homer is the bearer to know: he painted the American coast better than anyone before or since, and his seascapes are what most people picture when they hear the name.
When Last Is First
Picking a surname for a first name can feel like a very current decision, but it is one of the older habits in English naming. Families have been passing down a mother’s maiden name or a grandfather’s surname for generations, long before anyone called it a trend.
Two things are worth settling before you commit. Decide how you feel about the gender read, because most of these names sit on the line and a few of them will flip during your child’s lifetime. And say the whole name out loud, first and last together, because two surnames in a row can start to sound like a law firm.
Past that, it is your child and your call. A name that carries your family inside it is a good enough reason on its own, whether it reads as brand new or a hundred years old.
