Animal Names for Boys

Acer is the Latin botanical name for the Maple tree. Where Maple feels quite feminine, Acer is a more masculine way to reference this tree.

Arav (sometimes spelled Aarav) is a name popular in India and Pakistan. Jaipur-born actor Arav Choudhary is a well-known Indian personality. Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar chose Aarav for his son's name.

Less commercial-sounding than Brand.

This elegant surname has great potential to turn into an unusual first name, especially with its literary associations to both Stephen and Hart Crane.

A unisex cultural crossover that has seen a little use from the 1990s onwards. In Japanese mythology, Inari is an androgynous deity associated with rice, tea and foxes. In Finland, it is the name of a region, lake and village which is a center of Sami culture.

Brother for Biff and Bud. McFly rocker Tom Fletcher transformed this from midcentury short form to modern cool name when he used it for his newborn son.

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.

There once was a moralizing fabulist who tried to make it as a baby name...and failed.

A half-man, half-wolf character in the Elden Ring video game franchise bears this name, which fittingly is the Welsh word for "wolf".

In Greek mythology Asterion is the name of the Minotaur — also called the Minoan Bull — who lived in the Labyrinth in Crete. Asterion was the child of Poseidon and the queen of Crete.

Though rarely heard now, Coy has been around for a century and was not an uncommon name a hundred years ago. There have been a couple of NFL players named Coy, Coy Bowles is in the Zac Brown band, and of course there was Coy Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard. Due to the flirty connotations of the word "coy", McCoy is a more popular and recommended choice today.

The iconic Gone With the Wind star Clark's surname was brought into the first-name mix when Weeds' Kevin Nealon picked it for his son. Gable makes a strong and unusual possibility, a rhyming cousin to Abel and Mabel.

A name from Welsh mythology. In the Mabinogion, Gwydion was a powerful magician who made his nephew a wife from flowers (Blodeuwedd, meaning "face of flowers").

A saint who is especially popular in Galicia and Asturias in Spain, who is said to have sailed across the Atlantic to paradise. His name may derive from Germanic Adelmar, possibly influenced by Latin amarus "bitter".

An ancient name that's been used by the Norwegian royal family; still popular there but not likely to appeal to many American parents.

A common name in the Muslim community, where it may be a Persian name or a variation of Ayan, a name with a timely meaning.

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.

Archie, Albie, and Alfie are coming back into style, so naturally, we think Alvie could be next. Alternate spelling Alvy was used by Woody Allen for his character in Annie Hall.

Hassan is among the more familiar Arabic choices, and also one with an attractive meaning. It has appeared in the US Top 1000 every year since 1971.