100 Short Boy Names With Meanings and Pronunciations

Short boy names get dismissed as nicknames. Sam, Jack, and Ben really are shortened forms, so the suspicion is fair, but it is not the whole story.

Plenty of the names below are complete in themselves. Some are ancient, some are still charting in the U.S. top 50, and a few are so rare you will be spelling them out at every appointment.

Here are 100 of them, each with its origin, meaning, pronunciation, and style, plus current popularity figures wherever a real one exists. We also flag the one name on this list we would quietly steer you away from.

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Popularity at a Glance

The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: Luke, Miles, Beau, Gael and Jude.

100 Short Names for Boys With Meanings

These 100 short boy names come from a dozen languages and about fifteen centuries. Every one runs from two to six letters, and every one has its origin, meaning, and pronunciation attached.

1. Ace

• Origin: English, from the card and dice term for the one
• Meaning: One, or of the highest rank
• Pronunciation: AYS
• Popularity: #164 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025, per U.S. Social Security Administration data.

Ace is an English boy’s name meaning of the highest rank, borrowed from the playing card that beats everything else on the table. It reads as confidence in three letters, which is why it has climbed steadily out of nickname territory and onto birth certificates.

It is not only English. In Macedonia, Ace is a pet form for boys named Aleksandar, itself a form of Alexander, meaning defender of man. American parents used it 164th most often in 2025, so your son will meet a few others but will not be one of five in his class.

2. Al

• Origin: English, a short form of longer Al- names
• Meaning: Depends on the full name behind it
• Pronunciation: AL
• Namesakes: Al Pacino (Alfredo), Al Gore (Albert), Al Capone (Alphonse), Al MacInnis (Allan)

Al is the shortest way into a whole shelf of names, and almost every famous Al was christened something longer. Al Pacino was born Alfredo, Al Gore is an Albert, Al Capone was Alphonse, and hockey defenseman Al MacInnis is an Allan.

That history is the argument for using it as a nickname rather than a legal first name. Give a boy Alfred, Alan, or Alistair and Al arrives free, with a formal version still waiting for him at his first job interview.

3. Alf

• Origin: Old Norse
• Meaning: Elf
• Pronunciation: ALF
• Variations: Alv, Alfr

Alf is an Old Norse name meaning elf, and it comes with one of the better legends attached. A king named Alf proposed to a woman called Alfhild, who disguised herself as a warrior to avoid the match, then had to fight him. She was impressed enough by his skill that she married him anyway.

The name is still in ordinary use across Norway and Sweden. In English-speaking countries it carries a comic afterimage from the 1980s sitcom, so it works best on parents who find that funny rather than fatal.

4. Alp

• Origin: Turkish
• Meaning: Hero, brave one
• Pronunciation: ALP

Alp is a Turkish name meaning hero, and it was a title before it was a first name, used for warriors in the early Turkic states. It still reads as strong rather than sweet.

One warning for anyone with German-speaking relatives. In German folklore an Alp is a creature that sits on a sleeper’s chest and gives them nightmares, which is where the word Alptraum comes from. The two words are unrelated in origin, but the association is there.

5. Anh

• Origin: Vietnamese
• Meaning: Hero or brave, and also petal or flower depending on the character used
• Pronunciation: AHN

Anh is a Vietnamese name whose meaning shifts with the character written for it, covering hero, brave, petal, and flower. It is the most common given name in Vietnam and works for boys and girls alike.

Vietnamese families usually pair it inside a longer compound name, so Anh rarely stands alone at home. In an English-speaking classroom it stands alone very comfortably, since there is nothing to spell out and nothing to shorten.

6. Ant

• Origin: English, a short form of Anthony
• Meaning: Priceless or inestimable, from Anthony
• Pronunciation: ANT
• Namesakes: Ant Clemons, Grammy-nominated R&B singer and songwriter

Ant is a short form of Anthony and its variants, used far more in Britain than in the United States. Singer-songwriter Ant Clemons carries it professionally, and his debut EP was nominated for Best R&B Album at the 2021 Grammys.

The obvious drawback is the insect, which a six-year-old will discover within about a week of school. Parents who like the sound but not the playground tend to put Anthony on the certificate and use Ant at home.

7. Aodh

• Origin: Old Irish
• Meaning: Fire
• Pronunciation: AY or EE in Ireland, UH or YOO in Scotland
• Variations: Aed, Aodhan, and the anglicized Hugh
• Namesakes: Several high kings of Ireland bore it, along with figures throughout Irish mythology

Aodh comes from Old Irish Aed, meaning fire, and it was one of the most-used names in early Ireland. Several high kings answered to it, and it is scattered all through the mythology.

It is also the reason so many Irish and Scottish families have a Hugh. Aodh was traditionally anglicized as Hugh, and the surnames Hayes, Hughes, McKee, and Magee all trace back to it.

Four letters, one sound, and almost nobody outside Ireland gets it right on the first try. Expect to say it out loud at every appointment.

8. Art

• Origin: English and Irish, with two separate roots
• Meaning: Bear, or bear king
• Pronunciation: ART
• Variations: Arthur, Arturo

Art has two roots that landed in the same place. It is a short form of the English Arthur and of the Spanish and Italian Arturo, both read as bear king, and it is separately a standalone name in some Celtic languages meaning bear.

It sounds like a man in a cardigan doing the crossword, in the best possible way. Art Garfunkel, Art Blakey, and Art Tatum have all kept it in circulation without ever making it trendy.

9. Ash

• Origin: Old English
• Meaning: Ash tree
• Pronunciation: ASH

The English name Ash comes straight from the tree. It started as a surname for someone who lived near ash trees, then crossed over into first-name use, which is the usual path for English nature names.

It doubles as the short form of Ashley, Ashton, and Asher, so it can be a nickname or the whole name. Pokemon gave it a generation of recognition, and it has been quietly unisex ever since.

10. Baal

• Origin: Ancient Hebrew, via Greek
• Meaning: Lord, master
• Pronunciation: BAHL

Baal is the Greek form of the Ancient Hebrew name Ba’al, a title meaning lord or master that was given to many gods, chiefly Hadad, the god of rain, storms, and thunder.

That is a lot of ancient history for four letters. The name’s later religious associations make it a bold pick rather than a sweet one, and most families will read this entry as a piece of history rather than a shortlist candidate.

11. Badr

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Full moon
• Pronunciation: BAH-dr

Badr is an Arabic name meaning full moon, which is about as good as a one-syllable meaning gets. It is technically gender-neutral but used far more often for boys.

Even in the Arab world it is not common, so it carries the rare-but-recognizable quality that is hard to find in short names. English speakers usually manage it on the second attempt.

12. Baer

• Origin: Limburgish
• Meaning: Noble and bright
• Pronunciation: BAHR
• Variations: Bert

Baer is a Limburgish name meaning noble and bright, and it grew out of Albert. That makes it a useful escape hatch for anyone who feels obliged to name a son after a family Albert but cannot face writing Albert on the certificate.

13. Bao

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Treasure, precious, or jewel, and in some characters honor or praise
• Pronunciation: POW

Bao is a Chinese name that can mean treasure, precious, jewel, or rare, and shifts again to honor or praise depending on which character is written.

It is pronounced POW rather than BAY-oh, which trips up most English speakers exactly once. In the U.S. it now competes for attention with the steamed bun, which parents either find charming or disqualifying.

14. Beau

• Origin: French
• Meaning: Beautiful, handsome
• Pronunciation: BOH
• Popularity: #60 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (5,165 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 274% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Beau is simply the French word for beautiful, and it has become one of the most-used short names in America. It ranked 60th among U.S. boys born in 2025, well inside the range where your son will meet another one.

Usage splits by country. In the U.K. and the Netherlands it is treated as gender-neutral, in the U.S. it is almost entirely a boys’ name, and in France it is barely used as a name at all.

15. Bede

• Origin: Old English
• Meaning: Prayer
• Pronunciation: BEED
• Namesakes: The Venerable Bede, English monk and historian, born around 673

Bede is an Old English name that probably means prayer, and it belongs almost entirely to one man. The Venerable Bede was a Northumbrian monk who wrote the first real history of the English church.

He also worked on the moon’s effect on tides and on how the shape of the Earth changes the length of daylight, which is a strange amount of science for the eighth century. The name is rare enough now that it reads as a deliberate choice rather than a family one.

16. Björn

• Origin: Old Norse
• Meaning: Bear
• Pronunciation: BYURN
• Variations: Bjorn, Bjørn
• Namesakes: Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA, and tennis champion Björn Borg
• Popularity: The unaccented Bjorn sits just inside the U.S. top 1,000 for boys born in 2025

Björn is Old Norse for bear, and it is still ordinary across Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Two famous Swedes carried it into American living rooms at the same time: Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA and tennis player Björn Borg, which is why the name flared in the U.S. in the late 1970s.

It never went away entirely. The unaccented spelling Bjorn crept back into the U.S. top 1,000 for boys born in 2025, low down but present.

The umlaut is the practical question. U.S. record systems do not all accept it, so check with your state before the birth certificate is filed.

17. Blaine

• Origin: Scottish Gaelic, by way of a surname
• Meaning: Yellow
• Pronunciation: BLAYN

Blaine took the long way around. Blaan was a Scottish forename built on the Gaelic word for yellow, it hardened into a surname, the surname was anglicized to Blaine, and then the surnames-as-first-names trend sent it back the other way.

American parents used it heavily through the 1980s and 1990s. It has since dropped out of the U.S. top 1,000, which makes it a rare thing: a name that feels familiar without being current.

18. Blair

• Origin: Scottish Gaelic
• Meaning: Field, plain, or battlefield
• Pronunciation: BLAIR

Blair is a Scottish name meaning field, plain, or battlefield, depending on which sense of the Gaelic root you follow. It is a boys’ name in Scotland and has drifted toward girls in the U.S., largely thanks to television.

Anime fans will meet a different Blair. In Soul Eater she is a black cat with magic powers who casts pumpkin-shaped explosions, which is not a sentence most name entries get to include.

19. Blaise

• Origin: French, from the Latin Blasius
• Meaning: Lisping or stammering
• Pronunciation: BLAYZ
• Variations: Blase, Biagio, Blas
• Namesakes: Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and inventor

Blaise is a French name from the Latin Blasius, and the honest meaning is lisping. Nobody uses it for the meaning. They use it for Blaise Pascal, who built the first working mechanical calculator at eighteen to help his tax-collector father with the arithmetic, and who has a programming language and a unit of pressure named after him. The name still reads as clever, which is a rare thing for a short name to manage.

20. Blake

• Origin: Old English
• Meaning: Black, or pale
• Pronunciation: BLAYK
• Popularity: #316 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,080 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 58% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Blake is an Old English name that means black, or possibly the exact opposite. Scholars cannot separate the Old English blac, meaning black, from blac, meaning pale, because the two words collapsed into one spelling.

It ranked 316th for U.S. boys born in 2025 and still gets used for girls too, so it is not a name that will mark your son out. It travels well, spells itself, and has no obvious nickname, which some parents count as a feature.

21. Blythe

• Origin: Old English
• Meaning: Kind, joyous, cheerful
• Pronunciation: BLYTH

Blythe is an Old English name meaning kind, joyous, or cheerful, from the same root as the word blithe. It is one of the few short names whose meaning is purely a mood.

The spelling with a Y usually reads as a surname or a girls’ name in America, so a boy called Blythe will be correcting people. The literary trail runs through Shelley’s To a Skylark, which opens with a hail to a blithe spirit, and on to Noel Coward’s play of that name.

22. Boyce

• Origin: English, from a Norman French surname
• Meaning: Wood, or dweller by the wood
• Pronunciation: BOYSS

Boyce is an English name meaning wood, taken from a Norman surname for someone who lived beside one. It had a real run in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. It has been off the U.S. top 1,000 for decades now, which is exactly why it appeals to parents hunting for something that sounds established without sounding current.

23. Boyd

• Origin: Scottish, from a clan surname
• Meaning: Yellow or fair, though the meaning is disputed
• Pronunciation: BOYD

Boyd is a Scottish name usually read as yellow or fair, but the etymology is genuinely contested. The competing theory says it marked someone from the Isle of Bute, which in Scottish Gaelic is Bhoid.

Either way it is a clan name with a castle behind it, and it has the blunt one-syllable sound that Scottish surnames do so well. It is not in the current U.S. top 1,000, so it is quiet without being strange.

24. Bram

• Origin: Dutch and English, a short form of Abraham
• Meaning: Father of many
• Pronunciation: BRAM in English, closer to BROM in Dutch and German
• Namesakes: Bram Stoker, author of Dracula

Bram is the short form of Abraham, so the meaning that comes with it is father of many. In the Netherlands it is an ordinary name; in English-speaking countries it still reads as a find. Bram Stoker did most of the work of making it usable in English, and the Dracula association has aged into something closer to cachet than baggage. Note that Dutch and German speakers say it more like BROM than BRAM, so your son may get two versions of his own name depending on the room.

25. Bran

• Origin: Welsh and Irish
• Meaning: Raven
• Pronunciation: BRAN
• Namesakes: Bran Ferren, former head of research and development at Walt Disney Imagineering

Bran is a Welsh and Irish name meaning raven, and it belongs to Bran the Blessed, a giant king in the Mabinogi whose severed head kept talking for years after his death. Irish legend has its own Bran, a hound.

The modern association is harder to escape. Game of Thrones handed the name to a character most viewers have opinions about, and that will be true for the next decade at least. If you can live with it, the raven meaning and the Welsh mythology underneath are worth a lot.

26. Brent

• Origin: Old English, from a place name
• Meaning: Steep hill, or burnt
• Pronunciation: BRENT
• Namesakes: Brent Spiner, who played Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Old English name Brent probably means steep hill, though a second theory reads it as burnt, from land cleared by fire. It arrived as a surname and a place name before anyone used it up front.

Brent Spiner is the bearer most people can name, having played Data across The Next Generation, four films, and Picard. The name has dropped off the U.S. top 1,000, so it now sounds like somebody’s dad rather than somebody’s son, which is usually the last stop before a comeback.

27. Brice

• Origin: French and English, from the Latin Bricius
• Meaning: Speckled or freckled
• Pronunciation: BRYSS
• Variations: Bryce, Brizio

Brice is a French and English name usually read as speckled, carried into use by a fifth-century bishop of Tours who succeeded Saint Martin and was, by most accounts, difficult.

French audiences know it from a different direction. Brice de Nice is a comedy about a would-be surfer funding a party lifestyle on his father’s money until his father is arrested, which is roughly the French equivalent of a name being claimed by a sitcom.

28. Brock

• Origin: Old English
• Meaning: Badger
• Pronunciation: BROK
• Popularity: #810 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (306 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 53% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Brock comes from brocc, the Old English word for badger, which is a better animal than it sounds. Badgers are stubborn and hard to move, and the name has ended up on a lot of athletes.

Two of them landed in the same corner of sport. Mixed martial artist Brock Larson and wrestler Brock Lesnar were both fighting professionally through the 2000s. The name still charts, ranking 810th for U.S. boys born in 2025.

29. Brook

• Origin: Old English
• Meaning: Small stream
• Pronunciation: BRUUK
• Variations: Brooke, Brooks

Brook is the English word for a small stream, and it started out on boys. It was claimed as a short girl name in the early twentieth century, and the Brooke spelling finished the job.

The Brooks spelling has since pulled the sound back toward boys and is now firmly inside the U.S. top 100. Plain Brook on a boy is the rarer, softer choice of the three.

30. Burke

• Origin: Old English, by way of a Norman surname
• Meaning: Fortress, or dweller by the fort
• Pronunciation: BURK

Burke means fortress and reached Ireland with the Normans, which is why it now reads as an Irish surname to most Americans. It is not really used as a first name in England anymore.

The reason is unfortunate. Berk, which sounds identical, is British slang for an idiot, and no English parent is signing their son up for that. Outside Britain the joke does not land, and the name is clean.

31. Carl

• Origin: Germanic
• Meaning: Army, or free man
• Pronunciation: KARL
• Variations: Karl, Charles, Carlo, Carlos

Carl is the short form of a Germanic name built on the element meaning army. Plenty of sites will tell you it is Old Norse for free man, but that is Karl with a K, a separate name that happens to sound the same ⁽¹⁾.

Carl was a top-100 American name for most of the twentieth century and has now fallen off the top 1,000 entirely. It sits in the sweet spot where a name is completely familiar and completely unused, which is where Otto and Arthur were fifteen years ago.

32. Cass

• Origin: Irish, a short form of Cassidy
• Meaning: Descendant of the curly-haired one
• Pronunciation: KASS
• Variations: Cassidy

Cass is short for Cassidy, which came from the Irish surname O Caiside, meaning descendant of Caiside. Caiside itself means curly-haired, so the full chain gives you descendant of the curly-haired one. It also works as a short form of Cassius and Casper, and it has been used for girls since Mama Cass. On a boy it reads soft and slightly bookish, and it is nowhere near the U.S. top 1,000.

33. Chance

• Origin: English, from the Norman name Chauncey
• Meaning: Uncertain, though it is read today as luck or fortune
• Pronunciation: CHANSS
• Popularity: #442 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (711 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 20% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Almost everyone assumes Chance is just the English word for luck. It is not, or at least it did not start that way. Chance evolved from Chauncey, a Norman name whose original meaning has been lost. The word-name reading has won anyway, and modern parents choose it for exactly that. It ranked 442nd for U.S. boys born in 2025, helped along by Chance the Rapper, who was born Chancelor.

34. Chase

• Origin: Old French, from an occupational surname
• Meaning: Huntsman
• Pronunciation: CHAYSS
• Popularity: #192 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,904 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 45% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Chase began as a nickname for someone who hunted, then became a surname, then a first name, which is the standard American route. It ranked 192nd for boys born in 2025.

The odd corner of the name’s history is in Barbados. The Chase Vault is famous for its moving coffins: on five separate openings, the heavy lead coffins inside were found shifted from where they had been left, and no one ever explained it. Nothing to do with the name, everything to do with why it sticks in the memory.

35. Clark

• Origin: Latin, by way of an English occupational surname
• Meaning: Cleric, or scribe
• Pronunciation: KLARK
• Variations: Clarke
• Namesakes: Clark Gable, and Superman’s Clark Kent
• Popularity: #377 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (837 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 79% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Clark started as an occupational surname for a cleric or a scribe, back when those were the people who could write. Most parents assume it is a modern surname-name, and most parents are wrong.

It has been a fixture of the U.S. top 1,000 for well over a century, peaking in the late nineteenth century, and it ranked 377th for boys born in 2025.

Clark Gable and Clark Kent have kept it in the culture for a century between them.

36. Cole

• Origin: Old English, from a byname
• Meaning: Charcoal, or dark-featured
• Pronunciation: KOHL
• Popularity: #182 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (2,003 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 30% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Cole began as an Anglo-Saxon nickname meaning charcoal, handed to people with dark hair or a dark complexion. Cola became a surname, spelled Cola or Cole, and the surname eventually came back around as a first name.

It ranked 182nd for U.S. boys born in 2025 and has been steady for thirty years, which is unusual.

It also doubles as the short form of Coleman, Colton, and Nicholas.

37. Coos

• Origin: Dutch, a pet form of Jacob
• Meaning: Supplanter, from Jacob
• Pronunciation: KOHSS

Coos is a Dutch nickname for Jacob, so the meaning that trails behind it is supplanter. The pronunciation is the trap: it is KOHSS with a long O, not COOSE.

Outside the Netherlands almost nobody will get that right, and the spelling looks like a typo to English eyes. It belongs on this list as an honest curiosity rather than a realistic shortlist pick.

38. Dag

• Origin: Old Norse
• Meaning: Day
• Pronunciation: DAHG
• Namesakes: Dag Hammarskjold, second Secretary-General of the United Nations

This Swedish and Norwegian name means day, which is a rare thing: a meaning with no metaphor attached. Dag Hammarskjold, the UN’s second Secretary-General, is the bearer with the longest reach.

One regional note before you commit. In Australia, dag is an affectionate word for an eccentric, unfashionable person, and it is also short for daglock, the dung-caked wool around a sheep’s rear. Australians will tell your son this. Repeatedly.

39. Dale

• Origin: Old English
• Meaning: Valley
• Pronunciation: DAYL

Dale began as a surname for someone who lived in a dale, which is a valley with better scenery. It reads as an older man’s name in America for a simple reason: it peaked in the 1950s and then spent decades going down.

It is not in the U.S. top 1,000 for boys born in 2025 and has not been for years, which puts it squarely in the window where mid-century names usually start looking fresh again.

40. Dirk

• Origin: Dutch, a short form of Diederik
• Meaning: Ruler of the people
• Pronunciation: DIRK
• Variations: Derek, Diederik, Theodoric
• Namesakes: Dirk Nowitzki, NBA Hall of Famer

Dirk is a Dutch name meaning ruler of the people, contracted out of Diederik, which is the same name as Derek and Theodoric. It is also a short Scottish dagger, which does the name no harm.

Dirk Nowitzki gave it twenty years of American airtime. Douglas Adams gave it Dirk Gently, the holistic detective of three novels and a television series, whose method is to assume everything is connected and expense the taxi fare.

41. Drake

• Origin: Old English and Old Norse, from a byname
• Meaning: Dragon
• Pronunciation: DRAYK
• Popularity: #827 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (299 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 60% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Drake is an English surname meaning dragon, from the Old English byname Dracca and the Old Norse Draki, both tracing back to the Latin draco. The fact that a male duck is also a drake is pure coincidence, and no help at all on a playground.

The rapper owns the name in the U.S. right now, which is either the reason to use it or the reason not to. It still sits just inside the top 1,000 for boys born in 2025.

42. Duff

• Origin: Scottish Gaelic
• Meaning: Dark, black-haired
• Pronunciation: DUFF
• Variations: Dubh, Duffy

The Scottish name Duff means dark, from the Gaelic dubh, and it started as a description of hair color before it became a surname.

Duff Green is the American bearer worth knowing: a journalist, industrialist, and political operator who set up three manufacturing plants for the Confederacy. After the war he had to apply personally to President Andrew Johnson for a pardon and paid a $20,000 fine for it.

The obvious modern problem is the beer on The Simpsons, plus duff as British slang for useless. It is a lot of baggage for four letters.

43. Dulf

• Origin: Limburgish, a short form of Adolf
• Meaning: Noble wolf
• Pronunciation: DULF

Dulf is a Limburgish name meaning noble wolf, and it is genuinely lovely to say. It is also short for Adolf, which is the one short boy name on this list we would tell you to skip.

No amount of etymology gets around that association, and your son would spend his life explaining it. We have left it here because leaving it out would just mean somebody else discovers it without the warning attached.

44. Ernst

• Origin: German
• Meaning: Serious, earnest
• Pronunciation: AIRNST
• Variations: Ernest, Ernesto, Ernő

Ernst is a Germanic name meaning serious, and it is the parent of the English Ernest. The House of Hanover carried it to Britain in the eighteenth century, and the spelling was softened to Ernest to make it sound less German.

Oscar Wilde then spent a whole play on the pun, which is why the English version still carries a wink. The German original does not. Ernst sounds exactly as unbending as it means.

45. Fahd

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Panther, leopard, or cheetah
• Pronunciation: FAHD
• Variations: Fahad, Fahed

Fahd is an Arabic name for a big cat, covering panther, leopard, and cheetah depending on who you ask. It is transliterated into English as Fahad and Fahed as well, so the family spelling matters. It is a royal name in Saudi Arabia and reads as authoritative rather than cuddly. English speakers manage it on the first try, which cannot be said for most four-letter Arabic names.

46. Faust

• Origin: Latin, from Faustus
• Meaning: Fortunate, auspicious
• Pronunciation: FOWST
• Variations: Fausto, Faustus

Faust is a German name from the Latin Faustus, meaning lucky. The literature says otherwise, since the legend of the man who sold his soul has attached itself permanently to the name.

There was a real Faust worth the name too. Faust Shkaravsky was a Soviet military physician and forensic expert who led the autopsies on Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun and gave evidence used in the postwar prosecutions.

47. Fen

• Origin: Chinese, and separately Frisian
• Meaning: Exert or strive in Chinese, peace in the Frisian sense
• Pronunciation: FEN

Fen is a Chinese name meaning exert or strive, and separately a Frisian name that began as a short form of names built on the element Frid, meaning peace. Two languages, two roots, one very small name. English speakers will hear the marshland first, which is not a bad image either. It is three letters and needs no explaining.

48. Finn

• Origin: Irish, and separately Old Norse
• Meaning: Fair or white in Irish, a person from Finland in Old Norse
• Pronunciation: FIN
• Variations: Fionn, Fynn, Finnegan
• Popularity: #206 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,702 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 100% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Finn is an Irish boy name meaning white or fair, carried by Fionn mac Cumhaill, the hunter-warrior at the center of the Fenian Cycle. It is also an entirely separate Old Norse name, from Finnr, meaning a person from Finland.

It ranked 206th for U.S. boys born in 2025 and is far more popular in Ireland, Australia, and the Netherlands.

Four letters, one syllable, no spelling argument, and a hero attached. That combination is why it keeps climbing.

49. Fion

• Origin: Irish, a variant of Fionn
• Meaning: Fair, white
• Pronunciation: FOON or FEEN in Irish, though English speakers say FEE-on
• Variations: Fionn, Finn

Fion is an Irish variant of Fionn, so the meaning is the same white or fair that Finn carries. The pronunciation is where it parts company with its cousin.

Irish speakers say FOON, rhyming with soon, or FEEN, rhyming with seen. Native English speakers reach for FEE-on almost every time. Outside Ireland, that is a correction your son will be making for the rest of his life.

50. Flann

• Origin: Irish
• Meaning: Blood red
• Pronunciation: FLAN
• Variations: Flannan, Flannery
• Namesakes: Flann O’Brien, Irish novelist and satirist

Flann is a Gaelic name that means red, specifically blood red, and it was borne by ninth-century high kings. It is said exactly as it looks: FLAN.

It is the obvious pick for a red-haired baby, and a useful one for anyone under pressure to reuse a family name like Adam, Russell, or Reed, all of which also mean red. Novelist Flann O’Brien, born Brian O’Nolan, is the literary anchor.

51. Flick

• Origin: English, a nickname turned first name
• Meaning: No fixed meaning; it began as a byname
• Pronunciation: FLIK

Flick is an English nickname that occasionally graduates to the front of the name, and it does not carry a settled meaning of its own. It is pure sound.

Most Americans meet it in A Christmas Story, where Flick is the boy triple dog dared to lick the frozen flagpole and left there until the fire brigade arrives. In Britain it is more often a girls’ short form of Felicity, so the name lands differently on each side of the Atlantic.

52. Floyd

• Origin: Welsh, an English form of Lloyd
• Meaning: Gray, or gray-haired
• Pronunciation: FLOYD
• Variations: Lloyd, Llwyd

Floyd is the English attempt at the Welsh Lloyd, whose ll sound has no English equivalent. The meaning underneath is gray, from llwyd.

It was a top-100 American name until the 1940s and has since dropped off the top 1,000 entirely. The music associations are unusually strong for such a plain name: Pink Floyd took half its title from bluesman Floyd Council, and Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has called his 1956 Les Paul Junior Floyd for decades.

53. Flynn

• Origin: Irish, an anglicized surname
• Meaning: Descendant of the red-haired one
• Pronunciation: FLIN
• Popularity: #828 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (299 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 86% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Flynn is the anglicized form of the Irish surname O Floinn, which translates as descendant of Flann. Since Flann means red, Flynn is the roundabout way to honor a red-haired parent or grandparent without naming the child Red.

It sits just inside the U.S. top 1,000 for boys born in 2025 and does much better in Australia and New Zealand. Errol Flynn gave it swagger; Disney’s Flynn Rider gave it a second life with a whole generation of children.

54. Folke

• Origin: Old Norse
• Meaning: People
• Pronunciation: FOL-ke
• Variations: Fulk, Fulke, Folko
• Popularity: Last listed among U.S. boys’ names in 1913 at #2,987, per U.S. Social Security Administration data, and below the five-births-a-year cutoff since.

Folke is a Swedish name meaning people, a short form of the older Norse names built on the element folk. The same root gives English the surname Fulk.

It is genuinely current where it comes from, ranking 69th among Swedish boys born in 2025, while being almost unheard of in the United States. The soft second syllable keeps it from sounding severe, which is more than most Norse names manage.

55. Frey

• Origin: Old Norse
• Meaning: Lord
• Pronunciation: FRAY
• Variations: Freyr, Frej, Frei

Frey is a variant of the Old Norse Freyr, from a root meaning lord. In the myths he is the god of sunshine, rain, and good harvests, twin brother of Freya, and husband of the frost giantess Gerd. He is one of the few Norse gods associated with peace and plenty rather than war, which makes the name a softer choice than Thor or Odin. It also happens to be four letters that nobody misspells.

56. Gabe

• Origin: Hebrew, a short form of Gabriel
• Meaning: God is my strength
• Pronunciation: GAYB
• Variations: Gabriel

Gabe is short for Gabriel, which is built from the Hebrew gever, meaning strong man, and el, meaning God. Put together it reads as God is my strength. Almost nobody puts Gabe on a birth certificate, and that is the sensible approach. Name him Gabriel and he gets the archangel, the formal version, and the easy nickname all in one.

57. Gael

• Origin: Breton, from the Gaelic peoples
• Meaning: A Gael, one of the Gaelic-speaking peoples
• Pronunciation: GAH-el or GAYL
• Variations: Gaël, Gale
• Popularity: #86 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (3,860 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 146% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Gael is a Breton name that points at the Gaelic peoples of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. In medieval genealogy you had to claim descent from the legendary Goidel Glas to count as one.

The name is now most popular in the Spanish-speaking world, where actor Gael Garcia Bernal did most of the work. It ranked 86th among U.S. boys born in 2025, which makes it the fourth-most-used name on this entire list, behind Luke, Miles, and Beau.

The French spelling Gaël takes a diaeresis to split the vowels. The plain spelling is what most American families use.

58. Garth

• Origin: Old Norse, and separately Welsh
• Meaning: Enclosure or garden, or gentleness by way of Gareth
• Pronunciation: GARTH
• Namesakes: Garth Brooks, and Garth Algar of Wayne’s World

Garth is an Old Norse name meaning enclosure or garden, from the same root that gives English the word yard. It is also, separately, a short form of the Welsh name Gareth, thought to come from gwaredd, meaning gentleness.

Garth Brooks has owned the name in America since 1989. It has never been common on the charts and is not in the current top 1,000, so it stays recognizable without being popular.

59. Giles

• Origin: Greek, by way of Late Latin and Old French
• Meaning: Young goat, or shield of goatskin
• Pronunciation: JYLES
• Variations: Gilles, Egidio, Aegidius

The Late Latin name Aegidius came from the Greek aigidion, meaning young goat, and behind that sits the aegis, the goatskin shield of Athena. When Saint Giles traveled from Greece to France his name became the Old French Gidie, and English turned that into Giles.

The saint is the patron of people with disabilities and of Edinburgh, and there are churches called St Giles all over Britain. To American ears the name reads as an English butler; to English ears it reads as a country vicar. Neither is a bad thing to sound like.

60. Grant

• Origin: Anglo-Norman French, from a surname
• Meaning: Great, or large
• Pronunciation: GRANT
• Popularity: #228 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,555 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 21% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Grant is an English and Scottish name meaning great or large, from the Anglo-Norman graunt. It is a clan name with a fortress behind it: Castle Grant in the Highlands began as the medieval Freuchie Castle before it took the family’s name.

It ranked 228th for U.S. boys born in 2025, which it has done, more or less, for thirty years. Few names are this immune to fashion.

61. Greg

• Origin: Greek, a short form of Gregory
• Meaning: Watchful, alert
• Pronunciation: GREG
• Variations: Gregg, Gregory, Grigor
• Popularity: #4,761 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025, per U.S. Social Security Administration data.

Greg is the everyday form of Gregory, from the Greek gregoros, meaning watchful. It charted in the United States from the late 1930s, peaked in the mid-century, and has since left the top 1,000 entirely.

The long form is still going. Gregory ranked 593rd for U.S. boys born in 2025, so the traditional route of formal name plus short nickname is available even though Greg alone has stopped charting.

62. Grier

• Origin: Scottish, a contracted form of Gregory
• Meaning: Watchful, alert
• Pronunciation: GREER
• Variations: Grierson, Greer

This rare Scottish version of Gregory means watchful or alert, contracted so hard that the original is barely visible. It survives mostly as a surname, and the Grierson clan carries it.

It is genuinely scarce as a first name, and in the United States it is now given to girls about as often as to boys. The Greer spelling leans further feminine still.

63. Haik

• Origin: Armenian
• Meaning: Armenian, from the root hay
• Pronunciation: HIKE
• Variations: Hayk, Haig

Haik is an Armenian name built on the root hay, the word Armenians use for themselves, so the meaning is close to Armenian. It is an alternate transcription of Hayk.

Hayk is also the legendary patriarch who is said to have founded the Armenian nation after defeating the Babylonian king Bel, which makes this a national name rather than merely a popular one. The Haig spelling is the one that traveled to Britain and America.

64. Heath

• Origin: Old English
• Meaning: Heathland, or one who lives on the heath
• Pronunciation: HEETH
• Namesakes: Heath Ledger, posthumous Academy Award winner for The Dark Knight

Heath is an English name for someone who lived on a heath, the open scrubby ground that half of English literature takes place on. It has the same weather-beaten quality as Bronte moorland, which is most of its appeal.

Heath Ledger is the bearer everyone thinks of, and his posthumous Oscar for playing the Joker in The Dark Knight fixed the name in place for a generation. It is not in the current U.S. top 1,000, so it is familiar without being fashionable.

65. Hugh

• Origin: Germanic, from hug
• Meaning: Heart, mind, spirit
• Pronunciation: HYOO
• Variations: Hugo, Hughie, Huw
• Popularity: #732 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (360 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 58% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Hugh comes from the Germanic element hug, meaning heart, mind, or spirit, and the Normans brought it to Britain, where it has never really left.

It also does double duty as an anglicization. In Scotland Hugh stands in for Uisdean, meaning stone island, and in Ireland it stands in for Aodh, meaning fire, so a great many Irish and Scottish Hughs are not Hughs at all underneath.

It ranked 732nd for U.S. boys born in 2025. Hugh Grant, Hugh Jackman, and Hugh Laurie keep it audible without making it common.

66. Joel

• Origin: Hebrew
• Meaning: Yahweh is God
• Pronunciation: JOHL or JOH-el
• Variations: Yoel, Joël
• Popularity: #219 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,633 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 31% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Joel is from the Hebrew Yo’el, meaning Yahweh is God, and belongs to one of the twelve minor prophets. English speakers did not use it as a first name until the Protestant Reformation opened up the Old Testament to ordinary families in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

It ranked 219th among U.S. boys born in 2025 and is even more common in Spanish-speaking countries. One syllable in America, two in most of Europe, and no version of it is hard to say.

67. Juan

• Origin: Spanish, from the Hebrew Yochanan
• Meaning: Yahweh is gracious
• Pronunciation: HWAHN
• Variations: John, Joao, Giovanni, Ioan
• Popularity: #159 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (2,318 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 45% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Juan is the Spanish form of John, so the meaning is Yahweh is gracious. It ranked 159th among U.S. boys born in 2025 and has been a fixture of the American chart for a century.

There is an unrelated Chinese Juan, written with a different character, which is a girls’ name meaning graceful or beautiful. Same four letters, entirely different name.

68. Judd

• Origin: Medieval English, a pet form of Jordan
• Meaning: To flow down, from the river Jordan
• Pronunciation: JUD
• Variations: Jud, Judson

Judd is a medieval English nickname that grew out of Jordan, which was itself taken from the river. The Hebrew name of that river, Yarden, comes from yarad, meaning to flow down. Crusaders brought Jordan home as a first name after baptizing children in the river’s water, and Judd is what happened to it in English mouths. It is not on the current U.S. top 1,000, and it has the clipped, slightly tough sound that surname-names are prized for.

69. Jude

• Origin: Hebrew, a form of Judah
• Meaning: Praise
• Pronunciation: JOOD
• Variations: Judah, Judas, Yehuda
• Popularity: #155 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (2,384 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 27% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Jude means praise, and English Bible translators invented the spelling for a practical reason: there were two disciples named Judas and they needed to separate the one who betrayed Jesus from the one who did not.

Saint Jude is the patron of lost causes, which is a good line to have in your back pocket. The Beatles did more for the name than the saint did, and it ranked 155th for U.S. boys born in 2025.

70. Keefe

• Origin: Irish, an anglicized surname
• Meaning: Descendant of the gentle or noble one
• Pronunciation: KEEF
• Variations: O’Keeffe, Keeffe

Keefe is the anglicized form of the Irish O Caoimh, where caomh means gentle, noble, or beloved, so the whole name reads as descendant of the gentle one. Painter Georgia O’Keeffe carried the surname version. Be ready for it to be heard as Keith, which is a Scottish name meaning wood and has nothing to do with it. The two sound close enough that your son will get both.

71. Kyle

• Origin: Scottish Gaelic, from a place name
• Meaning: Narrow strait, or channel
• Pronunciation: KYLE
• Popularity: #508 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025, per U.S. Social Security Administration data.

Kyle comes from the Gaelic caol, meaning narrow, used for the straits and channels that cut through the west of Scotland. Kyle of Lochalsh is the best-known of them.

It was a top-30 American name through the 1990s and has been sliding since, ranking 508th for boys born in 2025. Rapper Kyle, also billed as SuperDuperKyle, reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 with iSpy in 2017, which is about the last time the name was fashionable.

72. Lech

• Origin: Polish, from the Lendian tribe
• Meaning: A Lechite, one of the founding Polish people
• Pronunciation: LEKH
• Variations: Leszek
• Namesakes: Lech Walesa, Nobel laureate and president of Poland

Lech is a Slavic name that identifies someone as a Lechite, the group that includes the Poles, and it probably derives from the Lendians, an early Slavic tribe.

Polish legend gives it three brothers. Lech, Czech, and Rus went hunting, each followed different prey in a different direction, and each founded a nation where he stopped: Poland, Bohemia, and Rus. Lech Walesa, the electrician who led Solidarity and then became president, is the modern bearer.

The final sound is the Polish ch, made in the back of the throat like the ch in loch. English speakers usually settle for LEK.

73. Leif

• Origin: Old Norse
• Meaning: Heir, descendant
• Pronunciation: LAYF in Iceland and Sweden, LIFE in most of Norway and Denmark
• Variations: Leiv, Leifr
• Namesakes: Leif Erikson, who reached North America around the year 1000

Leif is an Old Norse name meaning heir or descendant, and it belongs first to Leif Erikson, the Norse explorer who landed in North America roughly five centuries before Columbus.

The pronunciation splits by geography, which is unusual for four letters. In Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and western Norway it rhymes with safe. In the rest of Norway, Denmark, and part of the Faroes it sounds like life. Elsewhere in the Faroes it comes out closer to LOIF.

74. Lorne

• Origin: Scottish, from a place name of unknown meaning
• Meaning: Uncertain; it names a district of Argyll
• Pronunciation: LORN
• Namesakes: Lorne Greene of Bonanza, and Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels

Lorne comes from Lorn, a district of Argyll in western Scotland whose own meaning has been lost. It became a first name for a specific reason and at a specific moment.

The Marquis of Lorne served as Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883 and was popular enough that Canadian families began naming sons after him. The name has stayed noticeably more Canadian than Scottish ever since, which Lorne Greene and Lorne Michaels have both quietly confirmed.

75. Luke

• Origin: Greek, from Loukas
• Meaning: From Lucania
• Pronunciation: LOOK
• Variations: Lucas, Luca, Lukas
• Popularity: #33 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (6,948 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, down 6% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Luke means from Lucania, a region of southern Italy, and not what almost everyone assumes. The popular claim is that it comes from the Latin lux, which means light, but the trail actually runs through the Greek Loukas and the Late Latin Lucas.

It is the most popular name on this entire list, ranking 33rd among U.S. boys born in 2025. The gospel writer gave it fifteen centuries of use and Star Wars gave it the last fifty years, which is an unusually strong pair of endorsements.

76. Merle

• Origin: English, from Merrill, with French influence
• Meaning: Merry hill, or blackbird
• Pronunciation: MURL
• Namesakes: Merle Haggard, country singer and songwriter

Merle is a contraction of Merrill, which was itself a squashing of the words merry hill. The spelling was then pulled sideways by the French merle, meaning blackbird, so the name now carries both meanings depending on which dictionary you open.

Merle Haggard kept it firmly masculine in America while Merle Oberon kept it feminine in Hollywood, and the result is a genuinely unisex vintage name. It is no longer on the U.S. top 1,000.

77. Miles

• Origin: Germanic, of disputed meaning
• Meaning: Uncertain; possibly gracious, and often wrongly given as soldier
• Pronunciation: MYLES
• Variations: Myles, Milo, Milos
• Popularity: #44 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (6,072 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 98% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Miles has a meaning nobody can settle. It may come from the Germanic Milo, itself uncertain, or from the Slavic element milu, meaning gracious. It is very often listed as the Latin miles, meaning soldier, and that is almost certainly a later guess made because the words look alike.

None of which has slowed it down.

Miles ranked 44th among U.S. boys born in 2025, and between Miles Davis and Miles Morales it has as much cultural weight as any five-letter name in circulation.

78. Niels

• Origin: Danish, and separately Dutch
• Meaning: Victory of the people in Danish, horn in the Dutch reading
• Pronunciation: NEELS
• Variations: Nils, Klaes, Nicolai
• Namesakes: Niels Bohr, Nobel Prize-winning physicist

Niels is a Danish form of Nicholas, which is where the meaning victory of the people comes from. It is also a completely separate Dutch name, a short form of Cornelius, which may mean horn.

The Danish name has one towering bearer in Niels Bohr, who built the model of the atom that schoolchildren still draw. Do not confuse the spelling with Nils, which is the Swedish and Norwegian version of the same name.

79. Noel

• Origin: French
• Meaning: Christmas, or born at Christmas
• Pronunciation: NOHL in English, no-EL in French
• Variations: Noël, Nowell, Natale
• Popularity: #478 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (635 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 23% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Noel is the French word for Christmas, and it was given to children born during the season long before it was a name in its own right. The French spelling takes a diaeresis, Noël, and runs to two syllables: no-EL. The English version drops the dots and collapses to one: NOHL.

It is gender-neutral in English, while French keeps Noël for boys and Noëlle for girls. It ranked 478th among U.S. boys born in 2025, and it holds up perfectly well on a child born in June.

80. Piers

• Origin: Medieval French, a form of Peter
• Meaning: Stone
• Pronunciation: PEERZ
• Variations: Peter, Pierre, Pier
• Namesakes: Piers Sellers, NASA astronaut and climate scientist

Piers is the medieval French form of Peter, meaning stone, and it is the one the Normans actually brought to England. Langland’s fourteenth-century poem Piers Plowman is the reason it survived in English at all.

Piers Sellers is the bearer worth naming a child after: a British-American meteorologist who moved to the U.S. in 1982 to research climate at NASA, was accepted for astronaut training in 1996, and flew three shuttle missions. It is much more common in Britain than in America.

81. Piet

• Origin: Dutch, a short form of Pieter
• Meaning: Stone
• Pronunciation: PEET
• Variations: Pieter, Peter, Piotr
• Namesakes: Piet Mondrian, Dutch painter and pioneer of abstract art

Piet is the Dutch short form of Pieter, so it carries the same meaning as Peter: stone. In the Netherlands it is as ordinary as Pete is in America. Piet Mondrian is the reason anyone outside the Netherlands knows it. He dropped the second a from his surname Mondriaan because he thought the shorter spelling looked more international, which tells you something about how deliberate he was with everything else too.

82. Reid

• Origin: Old English, from a byname
• Meaning: Red, red-haired
• Pronunciation: REED
• Variations: Reed, Read, Reade
• Popularity: #293 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,150 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 18% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Reid is an English name meaning red, from the Old English read. It began as a nickname for someone with red hair or a ruddy face, hardened into the surname Reed, and came back as a first name with the Scottish spelling.

It ranked 293rd among U.S. boys born in 2025. The Reed spelling reads as more American and slightly more feminine; Reid is the one that looks like it belongs on a law firm door.

83. Rhett

• Origin: Dutch, by way of an anglicized surname
• Meaning: Counsel, advice
• Pronunciation: RET
• Popularity: #188 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,936 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 324% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Rhett is an anglicization of the Dutch occupational surname de Raedt, which came from raet, meaning counsel or advice. A counselor, in other words, which is not what most people expect from the name.

What they expect is Rhett Butler, and Gone with the Wind is why the name exists in America at all. It ranked 188th among U.S. boys born in 2025 and does especially well across the South.

84. Rhys

• Origin: Welsh, from Old Welsh Ris
• Meaning: Ardor, enthusiasm
• Pronunciation: REESS
• Variations: Reece, Rees, Reese
• Namesakes: Rhys ap Gruffydd, twelfth-century ruler of the Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth
• Popularity: #410 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025, per U.S. Social Security Administration data.

Rhys comes from Old Welsh Ris and probably means ardor or enthusiasm. It has been a ruler’s name in Wales for a thousand years, worn by Rhys ap Gruffydd in the twelfth century and Rhys ap Tewdwr in the eleventh.

The surnames Price, Pryce, and Rice all descend from it, which is a lot of English families walking around with a Welsh first name in disguise. It ranked 410th among U.S. boys born in 2025, while the phonetic spellings Reece and Reese take the pressure off anyone who does not want to explain the spelling.

85. Saul

• Origin: Hebrew
• Meaning: Asked for, prayed for
• Pronunciation: SAWL
• Variations: Shaul, Saulo
• Popularity: #557 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (535 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 26% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Saul is a Hebrew name meaning asked for or prayed for, which makes this short and sweet name a natural fit for a family that waited a long time for their child.

Two Sauls carry the weight of it: the first king of Israel, and the apostle Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus before his conversion. It ranked 557th among U.S. boys born in 2025 and is used far more widely in Spanish-speaking countries as Saul with an accent.

86. Seth

• Origin: Hebrew, and separately Egyptian
• Meaning: Appointed, in the Hebrew reading
• Pronunciation: SETH
• Popularity: #581 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (505 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Falling in the United States, down 67% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Seth is the English form of a Hebrew name meaning appointed, given to the third son of Adam and Eve after Cain killed Abel. That is the version American parents have in mind.

There is a second, unrelated Seth: the Egyptian god of the desert, storms, and chaos, whose name reaches English through the Greek rendering of swth. He killed Osiris and was eventually driven out, so the two Seths could not be less alike.

It ranked 581st among U.S. boys born in 2025.

87. Shad

• Origin: Arabic
• Meaning: Happy
• Pronunciation: SHAD

Shad is an Arabic name meaning happy, and it is a name in its own right rather than a shortening of anything. It is worth being clear about that, because it looks like it should be short for Shadrach. It is not. Shadrach is a Hebrew name meaning command of Aku, after the Babylonian moon god, and the two have no connection at all.

88. Shea

• Origin: Irish, anglicized from Seaghdha
• Meaning: Majestic, or esteemed
• Pronunciation: SHAY
• Variations: Shay, O’Shea, Seaghdha

Shea is the anglicized form of the Irish Seaghdha, thought to mean esteemed or majestic. It is used for boys and girls in the United States and is not currently in the top 1,000 for boys.

The Shay spelling is more common on boys and settles the pronunciation, which the Shea spelling does not. Baseball fans will hear Shea Stadium, named for the lawyer who brought the Mets to New York.

89. Siet

• Origin: Frisian
• Meaning: Victory
• Pronunciation: SEET
• Variations: Sietse, Siebe

Siet is a Frisian name meaning victory. It began as a nickname for any name built on the Germanic element sigu, then broke away and became a name of its own. That makes it an unexpected alternative for a family circling Nicholas, Sigmund, or Siegfried, since all of those carry victory somewhere inside them and none of them is four letters long.

90. Sven

• Origin: Old Norse
• Meaning: Boy, young man
• Pronunciation: SVEN
• Variations: Svend, Svein, Sweyn

The Old Norse name Sven means simply boy or young man, from a word for a lad in service. It has been in use in Sweden since the medieval period, and its strongest modern run came in the early twentieth century.

Iceland has rejected it more than once. The national naming committee has turned Sven down because the spelling does not fit Icelandic grammar, which is the sort of thing only Iceland does.

91. Tadhg

• Origin: Old Irish, from Tadg
• Meaning: Poet
• Pronunciation: TIGE, a long I with a hard G, like tie plus a g
• Variations: Teague, Tighe, Teige
• Popularity: #3,742 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (30 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 97% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Tadhg comes from Old Irish Tadg, meaning poet, and it has been in use since the eleventh century, when a king of Connacht carried it. In mythology it belongs to the grandfather of Fionn mac Cumhaill.

It is not a museum piece. Tadhg ranked 8th among boys born in Ireland in 2025, which puts it well ahead of most of the Irish names Americans actually use.

Outside Ireland the spelling is a full stop. It is said TIGE, with a long I and a hard G, and the anglicized Teague carries an old anti-Irish slur, so it is not a safe fallback.

92. Trey

• Origin: English, from the card and dice term
• Meaning: Three
• Pronunciation: TRAY

Trey is the English word for a three on a card or a die, and it began as a nickname for a third child or, more often, a third-generation namesake. If your husband is a junior, your son is the trey. That is a specific job for a name to do, and it does it well. It has slipped off the U.S. top 1,000 since its 1990s peak, so it now sounds like an older brother rather than a baby.

93. Varg

• Origin: Old Norse
• Meaning: Wolf, or outlaw
• Pronunciation: VARG

Varg is Old Norse for wolf, and in the sagas it carries a second sense: an outlaw, a man put outside the law. It works as a tribute to an ancestor named Adolf, Rudolph, Beowulf, Conall, Conan, or Boris, all of which mean wolf or something close.

Know what you are taking on. The best-known modern Varg is Varg Vikernes of the black-metal project Burzum, sentenced in 1994 to 21 years for murdering a fellow musician and for a string of church arsons. In Norway the name is not neutral, and it will not be neutral for your son either.

94. Vince

• Origin: Latin, a short form of Vincent
• Meaning: To conquer
• Pronunciation: VINSS in English, VEENT-seh in Hungarian
• Variations: Vincent, Vincenzo, Vicente

Vince is the short form of the name Vincent, from the Latin vincere, meaning to conquer. In English it is one syllable, VINSS. In Hungarian, Vince is a full name in its own right and runs to two: VEENT-seh.

It has been off the U.S. top 1,000 for years, but Vincent has not, so the usual route still works. Vince Lombardi is the reason the name sounds like a man who expects you to run the play again.

95. Wade

• Origin: Old English, from two separate roots
• Meaning: A ford, or to go
• Pronunciation: WAYD
• Popularity: #344 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (948 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Rising in the United States, up 124% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Wade has two Old English roots that ended up spelled the same. One is the place-name word wad, meaning a ford, a shallow crossing point in a river. The other is the forename Wada, from a verb meaning to go, which belonged to a sea-giant in Germanic legend.

Either way you get a name about moving through water, which fits the modern English verb neatly. It ranked 344th among U.S. boys born in 2025 and is used most heavily in the South.

96. Ward

• Origin: Irish and Old English, from two surnames
• Meaning: Son of the bard, or guardian
• Pronunciation: WORD
• Variations: Warde, Mac an Bhaird

Ward pulls from two directions. The Irish name is the anglicized form of the occupational surname Mac an Bhaird, meaning son of the bard. The English name is from weard, meaning guard or guardian.

A poet’s son or a watchman, then, depending on which grandparent you ask. American ears will hear Ward Cleaver from Leave It to Beaver, which fixed the name to the 1950s so firmly that it has not charted in the U.S. top 1,000 for decades.

97. Wilt

• Origin: English, a short form of Wilton
• Meaning: Depends on the Wilton; well town, willow town, or the settlement on the Wylye
• Pronunciation: WILT
• Namesakes: Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 100 points in a single NBA game

Wilt is a short form of the English surname Wilton, and the meaning shifts with which Wilton you mean. There are several towns of that name in England, variously read as well town, willow town, or the settlement on the River Wylye.

In practice the name belongs to one man. Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game in 1962 and nobody has come within 19 of it since, so a boy named Wilt is being named after him whether you intend it or not.

98. Yves

• Origin: French, from the Germanic Ivo
• Meaning: Yew, or yew wood
• Pronunciation: EEV
• Variations: Ives, Ivo, Yvon
• Namesakes: Yves Saint Laurent, and artist Yves Klein

Yves is a French name meaning yew, the wood medieval bowyers used, and it grew out of the older Germanic Ivo, which is still in use across much of Europe. Four letters that produce one sound: EEV.

It is about as French as a name can be without an accent on it, and Yves Saint Laurent has kept it on shop fronts worldwide for sixty years. English speakers reliably try YIVES first, so expect a correction.

99. Zane

• Origin: English, of uncertain origin
• Meaning: Unknown; the Latvian Zane is a separate name meaning lily
• Pronunciation: ZAYN
• Variations: Zayn, Zain
• Popularity: #324 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025 (1,051 births), per U.S. Social Security Administration data. Steady in the United States, up 4% over the last 10 years of births against the 10 years before them.

Zane is an English name whose meaning nobody has pinned down. Its first known use as a first name was by the Western novelist Zane Grey, who took it from his mother’s maiden name, which he carried as a middle name.

It ranked 324th among U.S. boys born in 2025. The Zayn spelling is a different name entirely, an Arabic one meaning beauty, and in Latvia Zane is a girls’ name meaning lily. Three separate names, one sound.

100. Zed

• Origin: Hebrew, a short form of Zedekiah
• Meaning: Justice of Yahweh
• Pronunciation: ZED
• Variations: Zedekiah, Zeb

Zed is short for Zedekiah, the Hebrew name of the last king of Judah, meaning justice of Yahweh. It is also what most of the English-speaking world calls the letter Z, which gives it a clean, final-sounding quality. As a given name it stays genuinely rare in the United States, and it does not appear in the top 1,000 for boys born in 2025.

101. Zeke

• Origin: Hebrew, a short form of Ezekiel
• Meaning: God will strengthen
• Pronunciation: ZEEK
• Variations: Ezekiel, Zeek
• Popularity: #800 among U.S. boys’ names in 2025, per U.S. Social Security Administration data.

Zeke is short for Ezekiel, the English form of the Hebrew Yechezkel, meaning God will strengthen. The English version arrived during the Protestant Reformation, when Old Testament names came into ordinary use.

It ranked 800th among U.S. boys born in 2025 as a standalone name, and a good many more Zekes are Ezekiels at school. Putting the long form on the certificate keeps both options open.

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