Five Letter Boy Names

Widespread choice in the Muslim world, this was the name of both the father of the Prophet Mohammed and one of his sons.

Basil and all his brothers and sisters have a meaning related to royalty, sometimes cited as king, queen, royal, regal.

Fresh choice that could pick up where Dylan and Logan left off.

While Eric - or Erik - may feel more 'classic' and familiar, Erick has ranked consistently in US Top 1000 since 1945. It rose up the charts during Eric's heyday in the 70s, but peaked in 2007 as Eric fell. The name has received less attention in recent years, but is nevertheless still given to 1100 boys.

A great choice for a native Swedish speaker, but not as user-friendly as some of the other international short forms of William — Pim (Dutch), Gwil (Welsh), and of course, Liam (Irish).

A grandfather name in Norway, where it was a Top 5 name through the 1940s and '50s.

A rarely-used spin on a classic.

Variant of Eamonn, itself a form of Edmund

The Wylde spelling puts an old-school, surnamey spin on hot modern word name Wild.

A rarely-used place name (probably because of the last three letters), Essex was the ancient kingdom of the East Saxons and is now a county in England. The singer David Essex used it as his stage surname, and reality TV couple JP and Ashley Rosenbaum used it for their daughter's name, though few have followed suit.

Eminently usable Nigerian name that works for both sexes.

Attractive name from the Old Testament. Adino was one of David's "mighty men," though texts do disagree on his name.

Too close to the name of a bodily fluid.

As you may surmise from its origins as a short form for Constantijn and Augustijn, Stijn rhymes with nine and fine, though most English-speakers wouldn't guess that. A popular name in the Netherlands that's obscure elsewhere, for reasons undoubtedly connected to its spelling and pronunciation issues.

Stark is an ancient surname derived from the Old English word stearc, meaning firm and unyielding. In modern parlance, stark means severe or plain. But Stark's use as a first name -- 15 boys were named Stark in the US in 2017 -- stems from its prominence in Game of Thrones, which has inspired so many new baby names. House Stark is a ruling family on GoT; its motto is fittingly "Winter is coming," so Stark and other names from the show might make creative names for winter babies.

Zetsu is a monstrous character name from the Naruto anime and manga series. It's not used as a baby name in Japan, where it literally means "tongue." We like its zippy sound but admit that you're unlikely to find many baby Zetsus in the US either.