Animal Names for Boys

Pronounced AY-bahn, this name of an early Irish saint is both accessible and distinctive.

Emyr is a name that is well-known in Wales, but little heard outside of it. There are several well-known Emyrs, from the famed Welsh novelist and poet Emyr Humphries to footballer Emyr Huws.

Haris is in the top 50 in Bosnia and Herzegovina and makes a good choice for the globetrotting child. It would make for an excellent and not overused Arabic-English crossover choice.

Appropriately used for anime antagonists, not human babies.

This is one Basque name that is very transferable to the American context — and it has a great meaning, too. The feminine version is Eider or Ederne.

Muscular German name that never fully assimilated into American culture.

This old school German name, more familiar these days as a surname, is a relative of the place name America.

If there are too many Connors in your neighborhood, this name is equally authentic and much more unusual. Spelled Conal or Conall, it's a prominent name in Irish history, borne by a number of kings and heroes.

The chic Euro spelling of Henry is rising along with the original form.

The sleek French form of Cosmo, which has leapt out of relative obscurity to well within the Top 100 boy names in France in the last decade, but still retains a sophisticated, vaguely aristocratic air. Pronunciation is like the English word comb.

Eissa, a name found frequently as both a last and a first in Arabic lands, is the Arabic form of Jesus. Also spelled Isa, Issa, and Esa, Eissa came to greater prominence when it was chosen for their newborn son by singer Janet Jackson and her husband Wissam Al Mana, who is Qatari.

Darrell and all its variations was a trendy name in the 1950s and 1960s, an update on David and Daniel that began to fall out of favor by the 1970s and fell out of the Top 1000 completely at the turn of this century.

This name may be a variation of the more-popular Bryson, but it has appealed to enough parents to make it a widely used name in its own right.

Ashkan, also spelled Ashkahn, is derived from Ashk, the name of an ancient Persian king. The Ashkan or Parthian empire was in what is now central Iran.

Friday became famous as a name via the sidekick character in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, morphing into a generic term for an all-around professional assistant, as in "girl Friday." As a word for the day of the week, Friday is associated with the old English goddess Frigg and the Roman goddess Venus, though the character makes Friday more of a male name.

A well-established (if rare) Hawaiian name that combines two trendy names: Elijah and Kai.

Famously the name of Izuku Midoriya, the protagonist of the popular anime series My Hero Academia. It is not a common name among Japanese boys.

Biblical name from the Old Testament that was given to 25 baby boys in 2022.

See AMIAS.

This name, with its great meaning, has seen a notable rise for boys since the mid-2010s. It debuted on the US charts for girls in 2021.