English Names that Start With E

Easter has been used as a name for several hundred years, as part of the day-naming tradition; now, this rarely heard holiday celebration name would make a novel choice for a springtime baby. Background:The early Anglo-Saxon monk and scholar Bede took the name of a goddess--Eostre-- whose feast was celebrated at the vernal equinox and gave it to the Christian festival of the resurrection of Christ.

Sounds elven in every sense of the word.

Easton is a stylish Waspy-sounding surname that's climbing up the popularity charts. TV actress Elisabeth Rohm named her daughter Easton August Anthony, which seemed like a real gender bender, and now Rachel Leigh Cook has made it the middle name of her baby Charlotte. Note that Easton is now in the Top 100 for boys--for whom directional names are a real trend-- but we won't be surprised to see more and more little lady Eastons arriving.

Feels like a hybrid. Better go for Edith or Evelyn.

Rocking out on the porch with buddies Hubert, Norbert, and Osbert.

This marvelously medieval name had a moment in the 1910s and 1920s but has dropped completely off the radar now.

Eastman is a solid, old-style Atlantic seaboard surname. But as a first name, we think Easton works better.

Boys' names beginning with "El" were all the rage in the 1910s, but today Elmore - along with Elwin, Ellsworth and others - has barely been used for decades. It has literary connections through writer Elmore "Dutch" Leonard. More recently, several children's book characters have given the name a cuddly feel: Holly Hobbie's Elmore the Porcupine, and Elmore Green in Lauren Child's "The New Small Person".

Eaton's similarity to Eton gives it an upscale Old School feel, though in the U.S. a name that sound like eatin' could have teasin' potential. Eaton could also sound like the much-more-familiar Ethan with a tough-guy accent.

If there's an ancestral Earl you want to honor, consider Early instead.

Emily substitute, though it sounds like a child's mispronunciation of "enemy".

A Middle English form of Adalbert (and therefore of Albert), which was the name of several Saxon kings. Nowadays, Ethel plus Bert is not a fashionable sound, but Albert is feeling fresh again.

This trendy spelling of Emily may be benefiting from the rise of Emery.

The great-great-aunt in the purple hat, singing jazz.