930+ English Names for Boys

  1. Fairfax
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "blond"
    • Description:

      If this name makes you think of Victorian novels, it's because Fairfax was part of Mr Rochester's name in Jane Eyre, and the surname of a minor character in Jane Austen's Emma. It has a distinctly aristocratic feel, despite its straightforward meaning. Fairfax is also a city in Virginia.
  2. Gifford
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "puffy cheeks"
    • Description:

      Could catch on in tandem with the newfound popularity of Griffin and Griffith.
  3. Diversity
    • Origin:

      English word name
    • Description:

      Baby name as political statement.
  4. Houghton
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "place in an enclosure"
    • Description:

      A family name, a bit haughty.
  5. Bickford
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "axman's ford"
    • Description:

      Surname doomed to remain a surname.
  6. Ivanhoe
    • Origin:

      English, possible variation of Ivan
    • Description:

      So identified with the hero of the Sir Walter Scott novel, it would be almost impossible for any boy to carry.
  7. Beal
    • Origin:

      English from French
    • Meaning:

      "fair, handsome"
    • Description:

      Could be a possible and more modern, namesake for Uncle Neal.
  8. Peel
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "tower, stockade"
    • Description:

      Peel may seem at first like a cool name, until you consider the inevitable teasing. A peel was a tower that sheltered humans and animals against attack, though these days it's better known as the skin of a banana.
  9. Lodge
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "shelter"
    • Description:

      This English surname offers an interesting mix of images: it sounds upper-crusty yet macho, and also conjures up the coziness of a wintery ski lodge. As a surname it is associated with the Massachusetts Republican Senate Minority Leader in the Woodrow Wilson era, Henry Cabot Lodge, who was the father of poet George Cabot Lodge and grandfather of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., who was ambassador to the UN and Richard Nixon's 1960 presidential running mate.
  10. Burgess
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "inhabitant of a fortified town"
    • Description:

      Related to the word bourgeois; actor Burgess Meredith put this surname in first place.
  11. Huffington
    • Origin:

      Old English
    • Meaning:

      "Uffa's town"
    • Description:

      If blogger-in-chief Arianna's first name can rise through the name popularity charts, why not her surname? Uffa is an Old English personal name (we don't see that one coming back) and the suffix ton usually designates a town or village.
  12. Peterson
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "son of Peter"
    • Description:

      To honor an ancestral Peter.
  13. Newbury
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "new borough, new settlement"
    • Description:

      A name only a bully could love.
  14. Packard
    • Origin:

      English
    • Meaning:

      "pack, bundle,"
    • Description:

      Packard feels as hefty and weighty as the old car.
  15. Everet
    • Cleavon
      • Origin:

        English
      • Meaning:

        "of the cliff"
      • Description:

        Best known from actor-comedian Cleavon Little, Cleavon feels less soap opera than Cliff and quite really on-trend right now.
    • Babson
      • Origin:

        English
      • Meaning:

        "son of Barbara"
      • Description:

        Only if he actually is.
    • Seagull
      • Origin:

        English word and nature name
      • Description:

        Hippie name of the Jonathan Livingston Seagull era.
    • Cheever
      • Origin:

        English
      • Meaning:

        "female goat"
      • Description:

        Cheever has a nice, cheery sound, literary ties to novelist and short writer John Cheever and also, sideways, to the Edward Arlington Robinson narrative poem "Miniver Cheevy," as well as a subliminal association with the desirable word achiever: all strong pluses.
    • Dodson
      • Origin:

        English
      • Meaning:

        "Roger's son"
      • Description:

        Fresh way to pass down Roger.