Animal Names for Boys

A name rarely heard these days, it was the moniker of several early saints.

Djimon has become a familiar African name via powerful Benin-born, Oscar-nominated actor Djimon Hounsou.

A big name to bestow upon a baby, but in line with word names that are becoming increasingly fashionable, such as Legend and Royal.

Woodsy names are fashionable for boys, as are surnames and occupational names, so Forester scores on all three. It can also be spelled Forrester.

The S may confuse English speakers, but it's a French classic.

Iorek Byrnison is king of the armored bears and a fierce and brave companion of Lyra’s in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. The name Iorek appears to have been coined by Pullman for the books, but the first element Ior- derives from Old Norse Jar, meaning "battle" and the second element -rek derives from Old Norse/Ancient Germanic ríkr, meaning "mighty; distinguished; ruler."

A lovely meaning and sound -- if you're fluent in Dutch.

A surprisingly rare form of Arthur that rings more Scottish, and lends itself easily to Art as a nickname.

The name of the teenaged son on the dear departed television show "Huff."

Nicknames ending in o are invariably cute, though this one is a boys' name in its own right. And not just any boy name, but a saint's name no less. Saint Hanno, aka Saint Anno, was an 10th century archbishop of Cologne, He is also known as, less attractively, Hanno of Worms, which is one of the oldest cities in Germany.

With its dramatic nature meaning (blaidd "wolf" + rhi "ruler"), Bledri looks and sounds pretty distinctive. It's rare even in Wales. But the WYSIWYG spelling makes it perfectly viable.

Fenmore Baldwin is a character on The Young and the Restless, his first name being his mother's maiden name. In the real world, it was given to virtually no babies last year.

Much more niche and obviously Germanic than its anglicised cousins Everard and Everett, but with the same strong meaning. Eberhard is hardly ever used in the US - it's only made the charts once so far, back in 1918.