Animal Names for Boys

A name with two strong literary associations, one overwhelmingly negative -- Lolita's pedophilic narrator Humbert Humbert -- and one positive, in the preferable European version: Italian author Umberto Eco.

A name from ancient legend: Amlodd (also spelled Amlawdd) Wledig is recorded as being an early British chieftain. Some sources name him as the father of Igraine, the mother of King Arthur. It has been co-opted as a suitable fantasy-sounding name into the online game Runescape.

The Ancient Greek name Akadios gave way to two European classics — the Polish Arkadiusz and the Russian Arkadiy.

Forster, a variation of Foster or potentially even Forester, is associated with British novelist E.M. Forster, author of A Passage to India, Howard's End, and A Room with a View. But if you choose Forster, you'd always have to force that 'r'.

A cool sounding nickname with associations to Bill Cosby.

Sounds like...a Teutonic axe-ruler.

A rare French name deriving from Latin albus "white", also related to the French word for "dawn", aube.

The plural, ivrim, is the Hebrew word for the Hebrew people.

Surname of Declaration signer sure to present playground complications.

This obscure biblical name is only mentioned twice in the Bible — first as a divorced Israelite and then as a priest.

When Angel meets the trend for superlative names, this is what happens. Archangel (or Arkhangelsk) is also a town in northern Russia, named after a monastery dedicated to Archangel Michael.