Animal Names for Boys

One you might like for its cozy meaning, but there is that Pied Piper rat connection.

A more modern form of Eleutherios, meaning "free".

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.

Variant form of Khalil common in Turkey.

A 6th-century Breton saint's name that was especially popular in France in the mid 1970s, peaking at #142 in 1976. It's also spelt Gwenaël in France.

A wild animal name given to only five boys in 2018. Five boys we're afraid to meet. (And fewer than five every year since then.)

A Welsh saint, the son or grandson of a local king called Caw/Cai. It seems that Caian may be a derivative of that name, which is derived from Caius "rejoice". A church at Tregaian in Anglesey is named for St Caian.

Introduced to the lexicon by the husband of Little House on the Prairie writer Laura Ingalls Wilder, most scholars agree that this unusual name comes from the Arabic El-Mansur.

DeShawn or Deshawn is the more popular variation, but Dashawn charted from the late 1980s until 2010, which means it's on its way to becoming a Dad Name. Traditionally, the De or Da prefix means "son of", so this name means "son of Shawn", with Shawn a variation of John.

Stick with the original.

A common Basque name first used in French Basque writer Agosti Xaho's 1845 work "The Legend of Aitor."

A nickname for two Finnish names: Taisto and Istrael, the Finnish form of Israel.

In the Old Testament, Itamar (or Ithamar) was the youngest son of Aaron.

Belisario is romantic, dashing, but perhaps a bit too elaborate. You might consider Belisario a masculine twist on the popular Belle names for girls.