Scottish Names

A Pam for the modern age, improved by a harder edge and a tad less prissiness.

Unusual and unappealing.

An old name still occasionally heard in the U.K., but still and perhaps forever a foreigner in the U.S. Can be spelled Ranulf.

There's a Perth in Scotland and a bigger one in Australia; this name could make a statement similar to Heath.

At one time associated with the fictional detective Bulldog Drummond, this formal surname name does boast the cute nickname Drum.

For towheads with ties to Scotland -- in theory, anyway.

A nice enough last name that turns supercilious as a first.

An old French surname derived from baille, meaning "fortification" – the same root as the English word bailey. The surname was borne by an aristocratic English family descended from French nobility.

Earvin gained NBA fame as the birth name of Magic Johnson. If your name was Earvin, you'd probably change it to Magic too.

Among the more masculine of the short unisex B names, Brice is less popular than Bryce for both sexes. There were 240 boys named Brice in the US in one recent year, versus only five girls -- and more than ten times that many of both genders named Bryce.

Wylei exists because Corey Parker decreed it so: He gave his newborn son this variation of the classic surname more conventionally spelled Wylie or Wiley. The problem with the Wylei spelling is that it makes you think the name may have a different pronunciation, with an ay versus an ee sound at the end. This is one of those creative inspirations that will make the child's life more difficult for years to come.

The surname of the influential early Scottish inventor of logarithms could make an inspiring middle name choice for a mathematically inclined family.

Distinguished actor Hume Cronyn (who shared his father's name) put this unusual choice in the lexicon.

Attractive placename/surname with a somewhat aristocratic feel.