Boy Dog Names That Start With L

Your friendly next-door neighbor...not your baby. Although Larry was once one of the most popular boys' names starting with L, that title now belongs to Liam.

In the Anglophone world, Love is more likely to be perceived as an English word name than the Swedish form of Louis.

The nature boy version of the Scandinavian Leif, which actually means "heir". In the creative-naming Phoenix family, Leaf is the former name of the actor we know as Joaquin.

The additional syllable makes Lark a masculine surname name.

Leviathan was a name given to 76 boys in the USA in 2021. It makes a rather unusual Biblical choice, being the name not of a man or angel, but of a sea monster. In literature and popular culture, the term Leviathan has since come to be used as a synonym for any gargantuan, monstrous creature or object (think of the bag in VEEP).

This first name was once a surname derived from Old English. Used quietly a century ago, the current fashion for two-syllable boy names ending in n makes this one a new hit.

The great African-American Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes put this one on the map; actor Laurence Fishburne adopted it for his now grown son, born in 1987. Despite these popular associations, the name didn't make it into the US Top 1000 until 2013. This name is even less used in England or Wales, where as recently as 2014 no births were registered using this name.

Evocative modern unisex choice brought into the spotlight by actress Lake Bell.

Levin, known in the U.S. mostly as a surname, is a Top 100 boys' name in Germany. There have been saints with variations of this name, whose meaning relates to love.

About 100 baby boys were named Lucio in the US last year, a number we expect to increase with the growing popularity of all names in the Lu family. It's a family united by sound, with three main branches.

Loch is a watery word that sounds more like a name because it's one step removed from its English form. Pronounced as "lock," it's also a short form of the variously-spelled Lachlan.

Lir is the Irish god of the sea, the equivalent of the Welsh Llyr which some equate with Shakespeare's King Lear. This is one of those rare names that is simple and has a deep history with an appealing meeting and yet is completely unused in the modern world -- no baby boys were recorded as receiving the name Lir in the US last year. Maybe because it sounds like the unappealing leer?

This is the French form of Lazarus, which recently has been rising from the dead – it's popular on Nameberry, and was used for his son by musician Trent Reznor. Lazare might be familiar to some via the Gare Saint-Lazare train station in Paris.

Italian classic Luigi, though it lacks the modern style of Nico, Enzo, and Rocco, does have some notable namesakes, such as Nobel Prize winning author Luigi Pirandello and composer Cherubini..

A contraction of Llewellyn, recognizable as the name of the titular character in the movie Inside Llewyn Davis.

Enigmatic choice of enigmatic John Malkovich.

Lander is a name that straddles two trends. It's an er-ending surname name, ala Cooper and Carter. And it's also, more subtly, a green name, in the manner of Fielder or Reed.

One of the boastful, ultra-modern word names soaring in popularity right now. Though it's a bit more popular for girls than boys -- the "cy" ending reads a little feminine -- it's solidly unisex, with over 100 baby boys being named Legacy in 2017. This is one of the many uplifting words that make unique unisex names.

The y makes it seem more like a name and less like an animal, but it's still not as appealing as several Leo choices.

Lumen is a Latin word meaning "light", and the term used for the measurement of light output (making it an attractive choice for science-buffs).