1450+ English Names (with Meanings & Popularity)

Variously spelled Swithun or Swithin, and associated with St. Swithin's day, July 15th, which is famous as a weather predictor a la Groundhog's Day: supposedly, the weather on his feast day will continue for forty days. This would certainly make a unique choice.

Boys' names beginning with "El" were all the rage in the 1910s, but today Elmore - along with Elwin, Ellsworth and others - has barely been used for decades. It has literary connections through writer Elmore "Dutch" Leonard. More recently, several children's book characters have given the name a cuddly feel: Holly Hobbie's Elmore the Porcupine, and Elmore Green in Lauren Child's "The New Small Person".

This could be a possible replacement for the overused Tyson, though it has something of a commercial feel related to the brand of vacuum cleaners.

Associated all through the swing years with bandleader brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

Christmas is a day name long and quietly used as a name for babies born at Christmas. Prettier and more modern than Noel or Noelle.

Powerful surname choice with many distinguished bearers, fresher sounding than Parker.

Also an English surname, Sender derives from Alexander and has an attractive modern sound. Though given to only a handful of baby boys per year, it nevertheless is in step with the brotherhood of er-ending choices fashionable today.

Dimity is fairly common in Australia, but unheard of outside of it, which is surprising given its similarity to names like Amity, Verity, and Cassidy.

A twist on Darwin with the same friendly meaning. Its lovable-nerd feel is given a cool edge by several football players with the name.

Surname of Declaration signer sure to present playground complications.

Merilee and Merrilee were early respelled or word names, ahead of their time in some ways. Merrilee hit the Top 1000 for a couple of years in the 1940s, but last year no baby girls were given either version of the name in the US, which makes it more appealing.

Harvard's sibling.

Let's hope he's "burly".

Stuffy presidential choice: consider Hayes instead.

A surname with more force than most.

Kimberley is a town in South Africa associated with diamonds and with wealth and luxury in general. It was name for Lord Kimberley, whose surname derived from an English place name. Used for boys in the early twentieth century, it re-emerged as a girls' name in the 1940s, usually spelled Kimberly.

You might want to honor premier U.S. architect Frank Gehry--even though he was born Ephraim Goldberg. Gehry, pronounced like the more common surname Geary, may be a spin on the name Gary, which means spear, or derive from the Middle English word geary, which means fickle.

Again, North is so much crisper.

Rarely heard surname name that lacks the lightness of other o-ending names.

If there's an ancestral Earl you want to honor, consider Early instead.