UK Baby Names

Has a certain fiery charm.

Undiscovered single-syllable surname option, a friendly alternative to Reed.

Place name and surname that sounds a tad snooty.

Inventive way to honor a redheaded ancestor, though most people would mispronounce it reeding, making it sound to some kids like a school assignment: Redding is a preferable spelling.

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.

Almost exclusively associated with opera diva Leontyne Price. If you want to use the suddenly-stylish Leontyne, we'd recommend the French Leontine spelling.

Wylei exists because Corey Parker decreed it so: He gave his newborn son this variation of the classic surname more conventionally spelled Wylie or Wiley. The problem with the Wylei spelling is that it makes you think the name may have a different pronunciation, with an ay versus an ee sound at the end. This is one of those creative inspirations that will make the child's life more difficult for years to come.

Pleasant surname connected to humorist James Thurber, with a sound as happy as a baby's gurgle.

Echoes of two dated names: Lori and Linda.

Unique name for the son of a woodworker.

Plummer might be an occupational name for someone who works with pipes -- yes, like a plumber -- or with feathers, from the Olde English (from the French) plume. Or it could indicate someone who lived near a plum tree.

One of the best of this fashionable occupational group, strong and particularly well suited to a girl, also with alluring connection to glamour girl Ava Gardner.

 As a surname, it's most familiar as Hearst -- publishing magnate William Randolph and kidnapped granddaughter Patty. Few would use it if it wasn't their own family name.