Animal Names for Boys

This Frisian name is most famously borne by Eise Eisinga, an amateur astronomer who built a planetarium in his house. It still exists and is the oldest functioning planetarium in the world.

Benajah, the name of several minor Old Testament figures, is also written as Benaiah. Benajah might make a great Benjamin update or name for the son of a builder or architect.

It's unusual, but that may be its best feature.

An old Welsh royal name, of which the English surname Howell is an Anglicized form.

The name of several minor Biblical characters seems streamlined and modern.

An attractive Hebrew name with an abundance of nickname options — Lev, Levi, Dov, and Dovi.

Worn by several medieval troubadours, this name is still used in French, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries.

In Hungarian mythology, Erlik is the god of death and the underworld.

Carrington is much more popular as a last name than a first, but it's one of those surnames we could see making the leap into first name territory. A few minor historical figures have carried the name, including Carrington T. Marshall, a judge at the Nuremberg Trials, and Carrington "C.B." Williams, an ecologist known for his studies on insect migration.

Johannes never caught on in the US, but popular European short form Hannes may be more accessible.

Ezana of Aksum was the ruler of an ancient kingdom that is now in Eritrea and Ethiopia. He was the first monarch of Aksum to convert to Christianity and is a saint in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

More often spelled ALBAN, Alben is an ancient and highly unusual name. Alben Barkley was Harry Truman's vice president.

This appealing Italian name is associated with the great Florentine painter and architect Giotto di Bondone, a major force in the Italian Renaissance.

This recently coined respelling of Cole darkens its image.

Digory is the name of a character in a romantic poem from the Middle Ages as well as from The Chronicles of Narnia, also known as The Professor. There's a Harry Potter character named Diggory.