UK Baby Names

Once an obscure, surname-inspired option, Payton (and Peyton) hiked up the charts back in the 90s, likely inspired by the football star Peyton Manning.

Yesterday's sensation that rose with the popularity of Whitney Houston. Whitney may have lost some of its style value, but it still sounds like one of the quintessential English names for girls. Today, you might want to shorten it to cool nickname Whit.

Celyn, which starts with the hard K sound and rhymes with Helen, is a Top 100 name in Wales although largely unknown outside that tiny, beautiful country. It is usually a masculine name.

Popular in the 1920s, Eldon is a retro name that's waiting to be rediscovered. It has a similar placename/surname appeal to current Top 1000 names Alden and Holden. Several towns in the US and UK bear the name.

In the early eighties, Lindsay, in tandem with Courtney, approached the Top 10.

A simple, unusual word name with an evocative meaning, Ever feels similar enough to Eva, Evelyn, and Everly that it shifts easily into name territory. Actor Robert Carradine was ahead of the trends when he named his now grown-up actress daughter Ever back in the 70s, while more recently, it was used by both Milla Jovovich and Owain Yeoman.

Once an upper-class British surname conjuring up the epic poetry of John Milton, it then descended to the antics of "Uncle Miltie" Berle, and now has left the stage completely.

This lovely name -- Eyre sounds just like air -- is best-known as the surname of eponymous Bronte heroine Jane, and would make an appealing and distinctive middle name for the child of fans of that book. While the surname Eyre is found mainly in England, its origins are Norse and it's thought to derive from Norse settlers. Still, the status of the classic books means Eyre deserves to stand proudly among English baby names.

Simple and pretty and user-friendly, the Welsh Sian was used by U2's Dave "the Edge" Evans for his daughter. In Welsh, it is also spelled Siân.

Long gone to the girls.

One of several blunt B names just this side of the gender divide. While its short and to-the-point sound may feel modern, it has been declining steadily since the 1980s.

Gentle and poetic and most often heard in Wales, Emlyn joins Emrys as soft, interesting alternatives to popular Em- names like Emmett and Emery.

Perfect example of how your perception of a name can change when you apply it to the opposite gender: when used for a girl, Stanley suddenly becomes an attractive, upper-crusty name ala Ansley or Finley.

This Welsh name, also used in France, is the name of a 6th century saint who went to Brittany and established abbeys. Armel has a pleasant and familiar sound, making it easily used outside of Wales and France.

A hot name, though perhaps not in the sense you want for your baby. About 20 times as many boys as girls were named Blaze in one recent year, perhaps because it can be seen as a spelling variation of the classic male saint's name Blaise.

Seems unfamiliar, till you realize everyone will just hear it as Molly. In Wales, Mali is a Top 100 name.

Finlo is a name from the Isle of Man, deriving from that island's pagan sun god, Lugh. Given the popularity of all Finn names right now, Finlo could be a great alternative for people who love the "Fin" sound but want a more unusual name.

Despite the success of so many O-starting boys names--Oliver, Owen, Otis, Oscar--Oswald has not yet shown any signs of resurrection, though he does have the animating nicknames Ozzie/Ozzy and Oz. The name has some literary cred--in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's King Lear and a novel by H. G.Wells--and there was early cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

This old-fashioned name looks like it could be on the edge of a revival, following in the footsteps of Alden and Auden.

Rarely used until the 90s, Payton rose up the charts when it was popularized by the football star, Peyton Manning, and, interestingly, by the character of "Peyton Flanders", the villainess of the 1992 film, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.