UK Baby Names

A common surname in Scotland, but a starchy first name choice.

As passé as Hilton and Milton.

Though it has some distinguished political and tennis world associations, most modern parents would go for the more contemporary sounding Holden. Tilden Park is a beautiful hillside wilderness in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Surname name with feminine final ley. The Welsh name Bryn, though also unisex and veering toward the girl world, is far more attractive.

Stuffy surname.

Photographer Diane Arbus named her daughter Doon, inspired by the sand dunes she walked among when pregnant. Used this way, Doon might be considered a nature name, a refashioning of the word dune. But Doon might also stem from the familiar Scottish surname Dunn or Dunne, which means brown or dark, originally used for a dark-haired person.

Welsh heritage choice that's rare today even in its native land.

Named after Isaac. Or Wayne.

Carlisle may be a male name in Twilight (he's vampire hero Edward's adoptive father), but in the real baby naming world, it's used about a quarter of the time for girls. Unusual now, we think Carlisle (or Carlyle) has the potential to be the next Carter.

Ancient Irish saint's name that's unlikely, because of its similarity to "ninny," to join cousin Finian in popularity.

Flash Gordon makes this a superhero name, but Flash might just appeal to modern parents looking for one of the new active boys' names, ala Ace and Breaker and Ranger. We'd recommend something more pulled-together as a proper name with Flash as a nickname or middle name.

Waspy, but preferable to Nanny Diaries satiric name Grayer. Grayton Greydon, Greyton.

The name Parson might have seemed ridiculous even a few years ago, but when Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe named their son Deacon, they opened up a whole new field of ecclesiastical cool. Bishop, Priest, and Pastor are other possibilities.

This unusual offshoot of Page is one of the undiscovered unique baby names, with lots of energy and charm. Actress Paget Brewster, star of Criminal Minds, presents another spelling possibility. She comes from a family of unique names--her mother is Hathaway, her father Galen.

All names ending in ville are in nowheresville.

Lincoln, Tyler, Taylor, Jackson, Jefferson, Harrison, McKinley, Grant, Kennedy, Carter -- yes. Washington -- probably not.

Surname name with an uplifting meaning. Just beware that this is a well-known mattress brand.

Despite the presidential pedigree, it's still hard to shake the image of the cartoon cat (named after his creator Jim Davis's grandfather). However, there are other Garfields, such as Barbadian cricket player Sir Garfield Sobers, who carries it with gravitas.

Gentry is a word name that's gaining ground for girls as a kind of updated Jennifer, especially in the Jentry (or Jentri or Jentree) spelling.

Stockard Channing -- "West Wing" 's first lady -- picked this strong, Waspy first name over her original, Susan.