930+ English Names for Boys

This dignified Old English surname was brought into the modern consciousness by author Armistead Maupin, who wrote the San Francisco stories Tales of the City. There was also a Civil War general named Lewis Armistead.

Streamline it to Marsh, Mason, or Carson.

A rare place name and surname, with possible potential as an alternative to Jaxon. Famous wearers of the surname include biologist brothers Charles Edward and Walter Faxon, and composer Nancy Plummer Faxon.

Gently pleasant English family name long associated with 60-Minuteman Morley Safer.

Cowboyish occupational name that's one of the hottest choices below the Top 1000, increasing in rank more than 5000 places since the year 2000. Roper may not be a unique choice much longer.

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'.

Sounds too much like buxom.

In British slang, a "prat" is an idiot -- enough said.

Unique name for the son of a woodworker.

Birch or even Burke is better.

nature namesare in, and even fish names like Pike and Salmon are open for consideration.

Would make a difficult choice even for those with ties to the Virginia city or British county.

A rowdy name nobody ever heard of, till Nick Nolte gave it to his son.

With Devon so overused, consider a move to the undiscovered neighboring county -- though it's nowhere near as euphonious, rhyming with corset.

If you prefer the woods to the ocean, you'll want to name your son (or daughter) Beech instead of Beach.

A Robert nickname out of use for hundreds of years, but now sounds cooler than Bob or Rob for a modern boy.

Sweet and southern-feeling, maybe thanks to Horton Foote, author of Tender Mercies and The Trip to Bountiful, not to mention the Dr. Seuss connection.

Forever the upstairs neighbor on The Honeymooners.

Paterson is a surname-name to continue a line of Peters and also the name of a city in New Jersey, hometown of poets William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg.