There was a time when nerd and geek were insults. Now they are labels people claim on purpose, and the names have followed: Cassian climbed from #968 in the U.S. in 2021 to #479 in 2025, and Lyra, unranked before 2015, reached #435.
Below are 100 nerdy and geeky baby names out of science, gaming, comics, and science fiction, with the scientists, coders, and characters behind them. Most entries give the origin and meaning, plus a note on how the name wears day to day.
Some hide in plain sight, like Alice, Isaac, and Evelyn. Others, like Ashildr, Hypatia, and Éowyn, announce themselves at the first roll call of the school year.
Popularity at a Glance
The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: Oliver, Evelyn, Miles, Isaac and Logan.
100 Nerdy and Geeky Names for Boys & Girls
1. Aldous
Aldous is probably a diminutive of the Old English names that began with the element eald, meaning old, and it is said AWL-dus.
Aldous Huxley (1894 to 1963) gave the name its dystopian pedigree with Brave New World in 1932, well before George Orwell published 1984. It has never been common in the U.S., so it lands as bookish rather than borrowed from a trend, and it shortens neatly to Al.
2. Alfred
Alfred comes from the Old English boy’s name Ælfræd, which means elf counsel.
This is an excellent choice for both the old man chic trend in baby names and as a nod to Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and the founder of the Nobel Prize organization. It also can be a name to honor Alfred Werner of coordination chemistry fame. If you’re into comics, you might know it as the name of Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth.
3. Alice
Alice comes from the Germanic name Adalheidis, meaning noble type.
This is the geeky pick that hides in plain sight. Alice in Wonderland supplies the literary halo, Alice Abernathy leads the Resident Evil films, Alice Angel is the first female character in Bendy and the Ink Machine, and Alice is also the name of a programming language. Be aware that it is no longer a rarity: Alice ranked #65 in the U.S. in 2025, up from #87 ten years earlier.
4. Alistair
Alistair is the anglicized form of the Scottish name Alasdair, which came in turn from the Greek Alexandros, meaning defending man.
Few names collect this many fandoms at once. There is Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who, the grey warden Alistair in Dragon Age, the near-identical Alastor Moody in Harry Potter, and Alistair Smythe in Spider-Man. Al and Ali do the everyday work, and the extra i in the Scottish spelling is the detail to settle before the birth certificate.
5. Allana
Allana is a variant of Alana, the feminine form of Alan, a name whose meaning is uncertain.
Star Wars readers know Allana as the daughter of Jacen Solo and Tenel Ka in the Legends novels, which makes her Han and Leia’s granddaughter and a Jedi in the making raised under a false name. Almost no one outside the fandom will hear anything but a softer spelling of Alana, which is what makes it a good stealth pick.
6. Arthur
Arthur could be from the Celtic elements of bear and king, or from the Roman family name, Artorius, which is of unknown meaning.
Arthur C. Clarke is not only one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, but he was also a futurist, science writer, and received multiple awards for his work popularizing science.
7. Arwen
Arwen means noble maiden in Sindarin, one of the Elvish languages J.R.R. Tolkien built from scratch.
In The Lord of the Rings, Arwen is the half-elven daughter of Elrond who gives up immortality out of love for Aragorn. It has never once appeared in the U.S. top 1,000, so it stays a quiet signal that other Tolkien readers will catch immediately while everyone else simply hears a pretty two-syllable name.
8. Ashildr
Ashildr is a variation of the Old Norse name Áshildr, built from elements meaning god and battle.
In the ninth series of Doctor Who, Ashildr is a Viking girl who dies defending her village from an invading alien race, until the Doctor revives her with alien tech and accidentally makes her immortal. It is a lot of consonants for a preschooler, so plan on Ash as the working version.
9. Aston
Aston comes either from the Old English name Æðelstan, meaning noble stone, or from the surname meaning east town.
Most people will assume you named a baby after the car. Chemistry families get the better story: Francis Aston built the mass spectrograph and used it to identify 212 naturally occurring isotopes, which is a quiet tribute that only the lab crowd will decode.
10. Barbara
Barbara is a late Roman name from the Greek barbaros, meaning foreign.
Nothing about it looks geeky until you meet the bearers. Barbara McClintock won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for showing that genetic material is not fixed in place, and Barbara Eden played television’s best known genie in the 1960s. Barb reads no-nonsense, Babs reads playful, and the full name has been out of fashion long enough to sound deliberate.
11. Bethesda
Bethesda is a Hebrew name meaning house of kindness or house of mercy.
The studio took its name from Bethesda, Maryland, where it started in 1986, and its best known game series is Fallout. It also publishes The Elder Scrolls, The Evil Within, and Wolfenstein. That makes Bethesda a fitting pick from the gamer baby names shelf, and it shortens to Beth when you want the reference to stay quiet.
12. Blaise
Blaise is derived from the Roman name Blasius, meaning lisping.
Math families get Blaise Pascal, the source of Pascal’s triangle, Pascal’s law, Pascal’s wager, and the early mechanical calculator that carries his name. Keep the s spelling and the French connection stays legible; drop it and you have Blaze, which sounds like a motocross rider.
13. Blanche
Blanche is a medieval French nickname meaning white or fair.
This one is for the Pokemon Go crowd. Blanche leads Team Mystic, whose trainers hold that a calm, analytical read of a fight beats charging in. The name carries an old French polish that suits the character, and it is rare enough now that a classroom is unlikely to hold two.
14. Brienne
Brienne is a variant spelling of Brianne, the feminine form of Brian. Its exact meaning is unknown, though it may come from the Celtic bre, meaning hill.
Brienne of Tarth is the reason the name now reads as gentle and formidable in the same breath, and readers of Game of Thrones will have opinions about her ending. Bree and Bri are waiting if the full three syllables feel heavy on a toddler.
15. Calem
Calem is a modern form of the later Latin name Columba, meaning dove.
In Pokemon X and Y, Calem is the male player character and becomes your rival if you choose to play as Serena, so the two make a natural pairing for twins. It sits close enough to Callum to pass without comment, which is the point of a stealth pick.
16. Carol
Carol is an English girl’s name derived from the Germanic Karl, which means army and warrior.
Those roots suit Carol Danvers, who first appeared in Marvel comics in March 1968 and went on to become Captain Marvel. The name currently reads as a grandmother’s, which is precisely the stage a vintage name passes through before it comes back.
17. Cassian
Cassian comes from the Roman family name Cassianus, a derivative of Cassius, from a Latin word meaning empty or vain.
Andor turned Cassian Andor from a supporting player in Rogue One into the lead of two seasons of television, from its September 2022 premiere to the finale in May 2025. Other parents noticed. Cassian first cracked the U.S. top 1,000 in 2021 at #968 and had climbed to #479 by 2025, so treat it as rising rather than rare.
18. Cecelia
Cecelia is a variant of Cecilia, which comes from the Latin family name Caecilius, meaning blind.
Astronomy families get the strongest namesake: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin first proposed that stars are composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. Readers of The Hunger Games will place Cecelia as the female tribute from District 8 in the 75th Games. Decide early which spelling you want, since Cecilia with an i is the far more common form.
19. Cecil
Cecil comes from the Welsh name Seisyll, which came from the Roman name Sextus, meaning sixth in Latin.
It sounds studious before you attach any fandom to it, and Final Fantasy players have their own reasons to like it. The name has been out of American circulation for decades, so a Cecil today reads as an old soul rather than an old man.
20. Chadwick
Chadwick is an Old English surname meaning the settlement belonging to Chad.
If T’Challa is a bigger swing than you want to take, Chadwick honors the actor who played him, Chadwick Boseman, without asking a child to carry a king’s name. It also gives you two very different nicknames, since Chad and Wick pull in opposite directions.
21. Cordelia
This is a bad translation of the Welsh name Creudylad or Creurdilad, meaning either heart, create, or sacred object.
Cordelia is the loyal youngest daughter in Shakespeare’s King Lear, and it is also the innermost known moon of Uranus, one of a set of Uranian moons named after Shakespeare characters. Four anime series carry a character called Cordelia as well: Romeo x Juliet, Gosick, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, and Diabolik Lovers. Fans of the television shows Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer will recognize the name from Cordelia Chase. It wears like Amelia or Ophelia, and it shortens to Cora or Delia.
22. Deanna
Deanna is an English name taken from either Diana, meaning divine, or Dean, meaning valley.
Deanna Troi, the half-human, half-Betazoid ship’s counselor on Star Trek: The Next Generation, is why the name suggests emotional intelligence. She serves most of the series as a lieutenant commander and is promoted to commander in season seven after passing the bridge officer’s exam. If you are going for the full tribute, her surname is spelled Troi.
23. Deckard
Deckard is an Old German name that may mean roofer.
Rick Deckard hunts replicants in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and in the film it became, Blade Runner, and the story’s refusal to confirm what he actually is gives the name its unsettled edge. Deck handles the playground.
24. Desmond
Desmond is an anglicized form of the Gaelic word Deasmhumhain, meaning South Munster, and is used for people from that area of Ireland.
Desmond Morris is a zoologist and ethologist famous for his book The Naked Ape, in which he looks at humans as a species. Also, Desmond is the player character in the Assassin’s Creed series.
25. Dexter
Dexter comes from an Old English occupational surname for a person who dyes cloth, and it doubles as a Latin word meaning right-handed or skillful.
Part of why it reads as nerdy is that it hides inside poindexter, but it also belongs to a cartoon boy genius with a secret lab and to television’s most sympathetic serial killer, so it carries cute and sinister in the same four letters. Dex is one of the best short forms here.
26. Dmitriy
This is the Russian, masculine evolution of the Greek name, Demeter. Demeter was the goddess of agriculture, whose name meant “mother earth.”
Dmitriy Mendeleev was the Russian chemist who formulated the Periodic Law and laid out the periodic table, predicting elements that were yet to be discovered.
27. Doris
Doris is an ancient Greek name meaning Dorian woman.
Doris Lessing wrote the Canopus in Argos science fiction sequence, which critics disliked and she defended anyway, and in 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The name has been out of use long enough that it now reads as a deliberate choice rather than an inherited one.
28. Ender
Ender means very rare in Turkish, where it is an established given name rather than an invention.
Minecraft players will think of Endermen first, but the name earns its spot through Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and its child tactician, Andrew Ender Wiggin. It is short, it needs no nickname, and nobody will ask you to spell it twice.
29. Erasmus
Erasmus comes from the late Greek name Erasmios, which means beloved.
Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles, was a physician and poet who wrote at length about natural history, sketched early ideas about descent with modification, and argued that girls should be taught science and finance. It is a substantial name for a small person, so say Ras and Ez out loud before you commit.
30. Erwin
Erwin developed from the Ancient Germanic name Hariwini, built from elements meaning army and friend.
Erwin Schrödinger won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the wave equation that carries his name, though his cat, the thought experiment about an animal both alive and dead until someone looks, is the part everyone can quote at a party. The German spelling keeps the physics visible.
31. Euler
Euler is an occupational surname from Middle High German meaning potter.
Leonhard Euler sits on every short list of the greatest mathematicians and two constants carry his name, e and the Euler-Mascheroni constant. Expect to correct people, because the surname does not sound the way English speakers assume, which is a fair trade for a science tribute that stays invisible to anyone who skipped calculus.
32. Evelyn
Evelyn traces back to the Ancient Germanic element Avi, which may mean desired.
Evelyn Boyd Granville was the second African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from an American university, and she went on to work on celestial mechanics and trajectory computation for the Apollo missions. It is the most familiar name on this list, which makes it the least conspicuous way to put a mathematician on a birth certificate.
33. Evey
This name is an evolution of Eve, which comes from the Hebrew name, Chawwah, meaning to breathe.
Evey Hammond is the protagonist of the graphic novel series V for Vendetta, published by DC Comics. An important point that my daughter Evey frequently has to make is that this name is not to be confused with the Pokemon species Eevee.
34. Felicity
Felicity derives from the Latin Felicitas and means good luck or intense happiness.
Felicity Smoak starts out as a hacker for hire and becomes the technical center of the Arrow universe, and the codename she eventually takes, Overwatch, is the one fans quote back. It is a cheerful and slightly formal name that shortens to Flick or Fliss when the full four syllables are too much.
35. Finnick
Finnick was invented for The Hunger Games, so there is no etymology to trace.
Finnick Odair won the 65th Games and turns out to be far more than the showman the Capitol sells, which suits parents who care more about a character’s arc than a hero’s introduction. It also lets you use the sound of the very popular Finn without landing on the same name as three other children in the room.
36. Florence
Florence comes from the Latin Florens, meaning flourishing or prosperous.
Florence Nightingale is remembered for nursing, but she was also a serious statistician who designed a proportional diagram to make her case about preventable deaths in military hospitals. Flo, Flossie, and Ren are all available, and the full version has the sound of a name that has already come back.
37. Galen
Galen is a modern form of the Greek name Galenos, meaning calm. It also belongs to the ancient physician Galen, whose writings shaped Western medicine for centuries.
Star Wars gives it a second life through Galen Erso, the engineer pressed into designing the Death Star who hid a fatal flaw in its reactor for the Rebellion to find. Medicine and rebellion in five letters is a rare combination.
38. Genji
In Chinese, Genji means gold, and in Japanese it can read as two beginnings.
Overwatch players know Genji as the shuriken throwing cyborg ninja nearly killed by his brother Hanzo, and he turns up in Heroes of the Storm with the added X-Strike ability. There is a literary reference too, since The Tale of Genji is often called the first novel ever written.
39. Guinevere
Guinevere comes from the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, which means white phantom.
Arthur’s queen is the obvious reference, but Dungeons and Dragons players will also hear Guenhwyvar, the magical black panther who fights alongside Drizzt. The best argument for a long name is the short ones inside it, and this one hides Gwen, Vera, and Ginny.
40. Hattie
Hattie is a short form of Harriet, meaning army, ruler, leader, or power.
Hattie Scott Peterson was the first African American woman to earn a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. She went on to work for the USGS as a survey and cartographic engineer.
41. Hogarth
Hogarth developed from Hoggard, an Old English surname for a pig herder.
Hogarth is the restless, clever boy who befriends the title character in Ted Hughes’s The Iron Man: A Children’s Story in Five Nights, retitled The Iron Giant in North America and adapted into the animated film. The surname also belongs to the satirical painter William Hogarth, so the name arrives with a childhood classic and an art history footnote attached.
42. Hu
Hu is an archaic Chinese name meaning wattle, historically given to boys and now used for girls as well.
Hu Qiheng led China’s National Computing and Networking Facility from 1987 to 1996 and was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for her part in connecting the country to the internet. Hu is her family name rather than her given name, but as a first name in English it is one syllable, impossible to forget, and certain to be misheard as Hugh at least once a week.
43. Hypatia
Hypatia comes from the Ancient Greek hypatos, meaning highest or supreme, and it is said hy-PAY-shuh.
Hypatia of Alexandria, daughter of the mathematician Theon, taught mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy in what was then Roman Egypt, and she is the earliest woman mathematician whose work is documented in any detail. The name has an unhurried, formal sound and no obvious nickname, which suits its namesake.
44. Idris
This Arabic name means interpreter, and it is also a Welsh name meaning enthusiastic lord.
Most people will hear Idris Elba. Programmers hear two other things: Idris, the Unix-like real-time operating system of the 1980s, and Idris the language, a purely functional language with dependent types that Edwin Brady released in 2007 and named after the singing dragon in Ivor the Engine. Very few names come with a Welsh pedigree and a proof assistant.
45. Inara
Inara belongs to Hittite mythology, where she is a daughter of the storm god Tarhunna who helps him defeat the dragon Illuyanka. The meaning of the name itself is unknown.
For most people it is the “I” name of Inara Serra, the composed, self-possessed companion aboard Serenity in Firefly. Between a dragon fighting goddess and the calmest character on that ship, it carries more weight than its soft sound suggests.
46. Inez
Inez is the anglicized form of the Spanish Inés, which came from the Greek hagnos, meaning chaste.
Anne Inez McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction, for the novella Weyr Search in 1968, and the first woman to win a Nebula Award, for Dragonrider in 1969. Both came out of her Pern dragon books. Inez is short, has the retro sound that is circling back into fashion, and honors a writer who broke two ceilings in two years.
47. Irene
This comes from the ancient Greek name, Eirene, meaning peace.
Irene Fischer was a geodesist who produced the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) 1960 World Geodetic System, now known as the Fischer Ellipsoids, which mapped the size and shape of the Earth. Also, it’s the first name of Irène Joliot-Curie, who, with her husband, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for the discovery of artificial radioactivity.
48. Irmgard
Irmgard is a shortened form of the German name, Irmingard, which means whole, universal, or enclosure.
Irmgard Flugge-Lotz was a German engineer and pioneer in automatic control theory. She was the first female professor at Stanford University, and the first woman engineer to be elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
49. Isaac
Isaac comes from the Hebrew name Yitzchaq, which means he will rejoice.
A traditional name with quiet nerd credentials, Isaac belongs to both Isaac Newton and Isaac Asimov, whose Three Laws of Robotics still frame the way people argue about artificial intelligence. Asimov is the spelling to get right. Because the name stays in steady use, the reference never announces itself.
50. Jareth
Jareth was created for the 1986 film Labyrinth, so it has no history before that.
Jareth is the powerful king of the goblins in the Jim Henson movie, and David Bowie playing him is most of the reason the name has lasted. It sits between Jared and Gareth in sound, so expect it to be misheard as both.
51. Jean-Luc
Jean-Luc joins the French forms of John and Luke, which mean God is gracious and from Lucania.
You can say it is a nod to French heritage. Everyone will assume Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the Enterprise, and they will be right. The practical question is the hyphen, since American forms and school databases handle it inconsistently.
52. Jesse
Jesse is from the Hebrew name Yishai, meaning gift.
Jesse Custer is the hard-drinking Texas preacher of Garth Ennis’s Preacher, published by DC’s Vertigo imprint, who ends up sharing his body with a creature called Genesis and goes looking for God to file a complaint. The name reads plain and Western, which is a useful disguise for a comic that is anything but.
53. Jessica
Jessica was probably coined by Shakespeare for The Merchant of Venice, most likely from the Hebrew name Yiskah, meaning to behold.
Marvel’s Jessica Jones gains superhuman strength and resistance to mind control after a chemical exposure, then spends her time as a private investigator instead of a hero. If you want the most low-profile nerd name here, this is it.
54. Jorah
Jorah is an evolution of the Ancient Hebrew name, Yorah, which means either rain or he teaches.
At the center of ancient naming traditions is the belief that the name you give bestows characteristics upon your child. If this is the case, Jorah, the loyal, moral, and fierce defender in Game of Thrones, is a sterling choice.
55. Joss
Joss is short for Jocelyn, which is from the Germanic Gauzlin, meaning of the Goths.
Joss Whedon is responsible for television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Serenity. He’s co-written movies from Toy Story to The Cabin in the Woods. Then there’s Marvel comics, Sugarshock! And Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.
56. Kaidan
Kaidan is a modern English name from the long run of names ending in a den or dan sound.
Kaidan Alenko is the loyal and occasionally divisive squadmate in the Mass Effect games, and whether he lives comes down to the choice you make on Virmire. Think about the spelling now, because Kaden, Caden, Kayden, and Kaiden are all in circulation and yours will be corrected often.
57. Kara
This name is either from Italian and meaning beloved or from a Turkish Ottoman name meaning courageous.
Kara Zor-El was meant to protect her cousin Kal-El during and after his journey to Earth but was knocked off course. Twenty-four years later, she made it to Earth, where her cousin had become Superman, and she became Supergirl.
58. Keiko
Keiko is a Japanese name that can mean celebrated child, depending on the characters used to write it.
Star Trek fans know Keiko Ishikawa as the botanist who marries Miles O’Brien and gives birth to their daughter Molly in Ten Forward, with Worf pressed into service as an unlikely emergency midwife. It is three clear syllables, has no competing spellings in English, and belongs to a character who is a working scientist rather than a sidekick.
59. Leeloo
Leeloo comes from the French pet name Lilou, a short form for names carrying the lee sound.
In The Fifth Element, Leeloo is the supreme being rebuilt from one surviving hand and played by Milla Jovovich. Her full name, Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat, is best left in the film. The short version is sweet on a baby and unmistakable to anyone who has seen the movie.
60. Lei
Lei is both Hawaiian, where it means flowers, garland, or child, and Chinese, where the feminine reading is bud.
Marvel readers will recognize Lei Ling as Aero, the Shanghai architect who can bend air to her will. One syllable, one spelling, and it pairs with almost any surname, which is rarer than it sounds.
61. Leliana
Leliana was created for a video game, and its likely roots are the Italian Lelia, of unknown meaning, or Liliana, from the lily.
It is a two-for-one name: in Dragon Age Leliana is the bard who becomes a spymaster, and in Magic: The Gathering the spelling Liliana belongs to a necromancer who heals as readily as she raises the dead. Lee and Lia are the ready-made short forms.
62. Leonard
Leonard is a Germanic name meaning brave lion.
It is a double bill for a Trekkie who games: Leonard Nimoy gave Star Trek its most quoted character, and Leonard Boyarsky helped create Fallout and later Diablo III. Nimoy is the spelling people get wrong. Leonard also hands you Leo, which has been fashionable for a decade, so the formal version can stay on the paperwork.
63. Logan
The name Logan comes from a Scottish Gaelic surname meaning little hollow.
Wolverine’s real name is the obvious draw, but Warhammer 40,000 players will hear Logan Grimnar, the Great Wolf who leads the Space Wolves. The name is common enough now that nobody will guess the reference unless you volunteer it.
64. Lyra
Lyra most likely comes from the lyre, the ancient stringed instrument, and it is also a constellation in the northern sky.
Lyra Belacqua leads His Dark Materials, Lyra is the female protagonist of Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, and the anime Fullmetal Alchemist has a Lyra of its own. The rarity argument no longer holds, though: Lyra did not appear in the U.S. rankings at all before 2015 and had reached #435 by 2025.
65. Magnus
Magnus is a late Latin name that means great.
Magnus is the name of the centaur who escorts Bethany Harrison from the forest in Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World. While the game is no longer available, Magnus remains a cool nerd name. It’s also the name of the main character in the Magnus Chase series by Percy Jackson creator, Rick Riordan.
66. Maurits
Maurits is the Dutch form of the Latin name Maurus, which means dark skinned or Moorish.
Maurits Cornelis Escher spent a career on tessellations, impossible staircases, and drawings that argue with your eyes, and his work is now more widely reproduced than that of most Old Masters. The Dutch spelling is the whole point, since Maurice and Morris carry none of the association.
67. Maya
Maya turns up in three traditions at once: it means illusion in Sanskrit, good mother in Greek and Roman mythology, and water in Hebrew.
The geeky reading is the software. Maya is the 3D animation package behind the effects in films from Ice Age to Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones, and it is still a studio standard for character animation and modeling. Nobody will question the name itself, which is the advantage of hiding a reference inside a familiar one.
68. Maz
Maz was created for Star Wars, so it carries no meaning outside the films.
Maz Kanata runs the castle on Takodana in The Force Awakens, reads people better than anyone else in the room, and puts the lightsaber in Rey’s hands. One crisp syllable makes it a real alternative to the longer Star Wars names, and it gives a wise old lady in training something to grow into.
69. Miles
This name comes from the Germanic name Milo, meaning gracious.
Sonic the Hedgehog’s two-tailed sidekick is Miles “Tails” Prower, a pun on miles per hour. Sonic is a hard sell as a baby name, but Miles carries the reference quietly and reads as a jazz name to everyone who misses it.
70. Morrigan
Morrigan comes from the Old Irish Mór Ríoghain, meaning great queen, the name of a goddess tied to fate, war, and death.
In Dragon Age, Morrigan is the witch raised apart from other people by her mother, guarded with strangers and at home in the wild. It is a weighty name with easy short forms in Mo and Rigan, and anyone who knows the mythology will hear it as gothic.
71. Motoko
Depending on the characters used to write it, Motoko is a Japanese name meaning unadorned child, origin child, fundamental child, or resource child.
Major Motoko Kusanagi is the cyborg field commander of Public Security Section 9 in Ghost in the Shell, the franchise Masamune Shirow started in 1989 and one of the works every later cyberpunk story borrows from. Get the title right, since Ghost in the Machine is something else entirely.
72. Nicola
Nicola developed from the ancient Greek name Nikolaos, which means victory of the people. It is a boy’s name in Italy and a girl’s name in Britain.
Most people will think of Nikola Tesla, spelled with a k, which is close enough for a tribute and far enough that you never have to explain yourself. Nicky and Nico both work as short forms, and Nico suits either gender.
73. Nyota
Nyota means star in Swahili.
Everybody recognizes Lieutenant Uhura, the Enterprise communications officer who speaks more languages than the rest of the bridge combined, but only committed Star Trek fans know her first name is Nyota, which went unspoken on screen for decades. That is the ideal shape for a nerdy name: an everyday word in one language and an inside reference in one fandom.
74. Oberon
Oberon is Shakespeare’s version of Auberon, which came from the Ancient Germanic Alberich, meaning elf ruler.
He is the fairy king of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a near-identical spelling belongs to a prince in Game of Thrones, and Oberon is also the second largest moon of Uranus. Then there is the nickname Obi, which settles it for a Star Wars household.
75. Oliver
Evolved from the Old Norse name Áleifr, Oliver means ancestor’s descendant.
If Bruce Wayne is not your favorite billionaire with a secret identity, consider Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, who swaps gadgets for archery and a shorter temper. One caution: Oliver is extremely common in the U.S. right now, so the reference may end up being the only distinctive thing about it.
76. Peggy
Peggy began as Meggy, a pet form of Margaret, which comes from the Greek margarites, meaning pearl.
Marvel fans get Agent Peggy Carter, who outranks and outthinks most of the men around her and goes on to help found SHIELD. The name has the 1940s sound that suits her, and putting Margaret on the birth certificate leaves a child room to choose Meg, Maggie, or Peggy later.
77. Peregrine
Peregrine comes from the Late Latin name Peregrinus, which means traveler or pilgrim.
The hobbit Peregrin Took joins the fellowship in The Lord of the Rings, the falcon of the same name is the fastest animal on the planet, and Peregrine White was the first English child born to the Pilgrims in what is now the U.S. Pippin and Perry keep a formal name livable.
78. Quill
Quill is usually explained as a short form of the Roman Aquila, meaning eagle, though as a modern first name its history is thin.
With Quinn now common, Quill is the road less traveled, and it is the surname of Peter Quill, better known as Star-Lord of Guardians of the Galaxy. It also comes with the writer’s association built in, which is unusual in a name of one syllable.
79. Quinn
Quinn is the anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Cuinn, meaning descendant of Conn, a name that itself means chief.
If you like Harley Quinn more than you like Harley, Quinn alone does the work. It genuinely goes both ways, and the numbers show it: in 2025 Quinn ranked #97 for girls and #466 for boys in the U.S.
80. Raiden
Raiden is a regional reading of Raijin, the Japanese god of thunder and storms.
Gamers get two of them: the cyborg ninja from Metal Gear Solid and the thunder god who defends Earth in Mortal Kombat. Either way it makes a loud statement, and it sits comfortably beside familiar names like Aiden and Kaiden without actually being one of them.
81. Rhodes
Rhodes is from the Old English surname meaning from the cleared lands in the woods.
In the Marvel cinematic universe, Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes of the U.S. Air Force starts out as a liaison with Stark industries and ends up as War Machine. If James doesn’t appeal, then Rhodes is undoubtedly a less expected alternative.
82. Ripley
Ripley combines the Old English ripel, meaning a strip of land, with leah, meaning clearing.
Ellen Ripley of the Alien films turned this surname into a first name, and she still sets the standard for a science fiction lead who survives on competence rather than destiny. It has never ranked in the U.S. top 1,000, so it stays genuinely unusual for a girl or a boy.
83. Rosalind
Rosalind comes from Germanic elements meaning horse and gentle, later reinterpreted through the Latin rosa linda, or pretty rose.
Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray crystallography produced the images that made the structure of DNA readable, and her work on RNA and virus structure stands on its own merits. Shakespeare gave the name a second life as the sharpest character in As You Like It. Roz is the nickname, and it has bite.
84. Rose
Rose began as a Norman form of the Germanic name Hrodohaidis, meaning famous type, and was later understood as the flower.
Doctor Who fans hunting for a girl’s name have fewer good options than they deserve, and Rose Tyler is the pick of them: a shop assistant from a London estate who changes the ninth and tenth Doctors more than they change her. It also works as a middle name that never dates.
85. Ruby
Ruby comes from the gemstone, whose name traces to the Latin ruber, meaning red.
Yukihiro Matsumoto named his open source, object-oriented language Ruby after a colleague’s birthstone, and it went on to run a generation of web applications through Rails. RWBY viewers have their own Ruby Rose. Short, warm, and an unusually elegant inside joke for a programmer parent.
86. Sarah
In Hebrew, the name Sarah means princess, noblewoman, or lady.
It is the quietest pick here, attached to two of the most durable characters in the genre: Sarah Connor spends the Terminator films preparing her son for a war he never asked for, and Sarah Lyons leads Lyon’s Pride in Fallout 3. The reference never needs explaining, which is exactly the appeal.
87. Selina
Selina comes from the Ancient Greek word for moon.
Selina Kyle is Catwoman, and the push and pull with Batman works because one of them is a committed hero and the other is in it for the thrill of the job. Mind the spelling: Selena with an e is more common in the U.S. and points at an entirely different namesake.
88. Steve
Steve is a short form of Stephen, from the Greek Stephanos, meaning wreath or crown.
Wonder Woman fans get Steve Trevor, the pilot with no powers who makes himself useful anyway, and Marvel readers get Steve Rogers. Two of the most straightforwardly decent characters in comics share the plainest name in the room, which is probably the point.
89. Thalia
Thalia comes from the Greek name Thaleia, which means to blossom.
Thalia was one of the Muses, the goddess of comedy and festivity, and in Percy Jackson and the Olympians Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, calls down lightning. Mythology plus a series children are still reading is a strong pairing, though people will ask which pronunciation you use.
90. Theo
Theo can be short for the Greek Theodore, meaning gift of God, or for Theobald, from Ancient Germanic elements meaning bold people.
In The Lord of the Rings, Théoden is King of Rohan, a fictional ruler often compared with Theodoric I of the Visigoths, who died in the battle that stopped Attila the Hun. Know how far this one has traveled, though: Theo ranked #405 in the U.S. in 2015 and #82 in 2025, so it is a top 100 name now rather than a quiet one.
91. Tobias
Tobias is a Greek form of the Hebrew name, Toviyyah, meaning God is good.
Fans of Harry Potter will know the father of Severus Snape is the muggle, Tobias Snape. Meanwhile, if Star Wars is more your thing, then Tobias Beckett can serve as your inspiration. Or if you’re more of a nerdy comedy type of parent, Tobias on Arrested Development served up plenty of dorky laughs as he tried to join the Blue Man Group.
92. Tormund
Tormund is a modern form of the Ancient Scandinavian name, Þórmundr, meaning thunder and protection.
Tormund Giantsbane is the red-bearded Wildling who openly displays his adoration of Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones. A raucous and lovable warrior, he’s righteous in his advocacy for the Wildlings and loyal to those he loves and respects.
93. Trillian
Trillian is the nickname of Tricia Marie McMillan, whose given name Patricia comes from the Latin name Patricius, meaning nobleman.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Trillian is a mathematician and astrophysicist who leaves an Islington party with Zaphod Beeblebrox instead of Arthur Dent, which turns out to be the better decision by a wide margin. Two hard science credentials and the best exit in comic fiction, all in one name.
94. Victor
Victor is a Roman name meaning victor or conqueror.
For horror readers it is the best covert geek baby name that begins with V, because Victor Frankenstein, not the creature, is the doctor in Mary Shelley’s novel. It is classical, dignified, and almost nobody at the pediatrician’s office will make the connection.
95. Wade
Wade has unclear origins in Old English, coming either from wada, meaning to go, or wæd, meaning a ford.
Wade Winston Wilson is Deadpool, and while the alias is not something to write on a birth certificate, the given name underneath it is perfectly wearable. It is short, blunt, and has a mid-century American sound that is due for another turn.
96. Westley
Westley comes from the Old English for a place at the west meadow.
It is a play on Wesley, itself a solid choice for the Star Trek household, and with the extra t it belongs to Buttercup’s one true love in The Princess Bride. As you wish makes a fine family motto.
97. Willamina
Willamina comes from the Germanic name Willahelm, from elements meaning desire and helmet, and it is a shorter spelling of Williamina.
Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming, spelled with the extra i, was the Scottish astronomer who helped build the system for classifying stars by their spectra, cataloged thousands of them, and was the first to identify the Horsehead Nebula. Mina Harker of Bram Stoker’s Dracula gives the short form its other life. Either spelling gets you Mina or Willa.
98. Winston
Winston is an Anglo-Saxon name built from words for joy and stone.
Winston Smith keeps the forbidden diary at the center of George Orwell’s 1984, which is bleak but literate, while Overwatch players get Winston the scientist gorilla, which is not bleak at all. Churchill is the third association and the one strangers will name first.
99. Xavier
Xavier is taken from the Basque place name Etxeberria, which means the new house.
As the surname of the X-Men’s Professor X, it is the most quietly powerful pick on this list, and it was genuinely rare in the U.S. before the 1940s. It is not rare now: Xavier ranked #108 in 2025, so plan on your child sharing it with someone in the year group.
100. Éowyn
In Old English, Éowyn means horse joy, a name J.R.R. Tolkien built for the language of Rohan, and it is said AY-uh-win.
Éowyn is the niece of King Théoden who is told to stay home and mind her uncle while everyone else rides to war, goes in disguise anyway, and cuts down the Lord of the Nazgûl at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. The accent mark is optional in English use; the pronunciation question is not, so expect to answer it often.
