1450+ English Names

Regal Kingsley seems like an all-boy name, but a growing number of parents have bestowed this name on a girl. Credit the ever-trendier -ley suffix.

This elegant surname has great potential to turn into an unusual first name, especially with its literary associations to both Stephen and Hart Crane.

A compound name with an old-fashioned ring. It only first appeared on the US Top 1000 in 2012. Annalie is a somewhat different name that is nevertheless pronounced the same.

A Leave It to Beaver/old comic-strip name, vacationing for years with the Griswolds in WallyWorld, but now back as WALL-E?

Kipling calls to mind writer Rudyard (b. Joseph) Kipling, author of the stories familiar to schoolchildren Gunga Din and The Jungle Story. Certainly, Kipling is a friendlier name than Rudyard these days, complete with cute short form Kip.

This British last-name-first-name could make a more masculine alternative to Shelby.

Bland compared to the Irish-sounding O-starting names, but fans of football star Odell Beckham Jr. may like the name for other reasons.

Poetic and easier to pronounce (it's keets) than Yeats (which is yates). This one of many poets' names to consider, such as Auden, Eliot, Frost, Byron, Lorca, Marlowe, Blake, Emerson and Tennyson, which was used by Russell Crowe.

Laid-back and humble, with a distinctive down-home charm.

Literary heritage: the "Loony Tunes" girlfriend of Porky Pig. But with the increasing popularity of all kinds of unusual botanical names, Petunia may be a name we start to hear more of. Perhaps-more-pleasing Petunia alternatives: Petal, Posy, Poppy.

Obsolete Swanhild gives way to oh-so-modern Swan, joining the flock of newly fashionable bird names such as Wren and Lark. In France, the Swann spelling is fashionable for both sexes. But Swan carries an image of grace, though perhaps also a bit of languor. It's a lovely and original name, right for our times.

Out-of-the-way place name (it's an antiquated holiday spot on England's south coast) that might make a brilliant choice. Actor/director Jon Favreau named his daughter Brighton Rose.

It's difficult to imagine anyone using the first name Jonesy -- and in fact, in the most recent US tally, there were nearly 100 babies named Jones but none named Jonesy. Still, this is a name that many people with Jones for a name, last or first, end up being known by, and as a nickname, it's sorta cute in a Skip, Chip, Bitsy kind of way.

The surname name Jetson may have originated as a variation on Judson, a patronymic related to Jordan, but it is more familiar to most Americans as the last name of the futuristic cartoon family. Jetson may appeal to parents as a proper form leading to the cool boy nickname Jet.

After entering the Top 1000 in 2009, Raelyn has climbed the charts. It's ridden the coattails of Raelynn (which remains more popular), but also may be benefiting from the rise of Brooklyn. The use of -Lyn and -Lynn suffixes has grown in recent years, even as the name Lynn itself languishes.

One of the trendiest of the new two-syllable boys’ names that have swept the country in the past few years, including the rhyming Aidan, Caden, Kaden, and Jaden. It's been falling on the US Top 1000 lately but it is still among the most popular contemporary English names for boys..

Demi and Bruce made waves when they named their now-grown firstborn after novelist Rumer Godden; a possible downside is its connection with the word rumor. English author Godden was actually born Margaret, with Rumer (a family surname) as her middle name

Though Embry became famous as the name of a boy werewolf in Twilight, we think its Em- beginning and -y ending make it perfectly appropriate for a girl. You might consider it as an alternative to Emma, Emily, or Aubrey. Embry or Embury is an established English surname. 

With the current taste for last names first, this sounds a lot cooler than Shawn; it also has creative connections to the great Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, novelist Irwin Shaw, and Big Band Era clarinetist/bandleader and one-time Ava Gardner husband Artie Shaw.

Stiff and formal surname. Try Roone instead.