UK Boy Names

Simplify things and spell it Dai, or even Day.

The spelling Pearce softens the name's sharper edges, though we prefer the original Piers. That "pear" snippet could confuse pronunciation, which is just like Pierce.

The unisex word name Bean, distant cousin of the infamous Apple, was used for the name of a child of mysterious gender in Louise Penny's novel "A Rule Against Murder." While we can imagine Bean as a cute nickname for a yet-unnamed and unborn baby, we don't recommend it for real life.

A bit too bad-boy (think bars, beer, Harley) for us, as well as being the name of a grain.

Overwhelmingly feminine in the US, where parent name Mackenzie is wildly popular, but masculine in the UK, where Kenzie ranks among the Top 1000 names for baby boys.

Sean and Robin Wright Penn chose this name for their son to honor their friend Dennis Hopper; others might associate it with the painter Edward. Couldn't be more spirited.

For 007 fans, a great middle name choice -- or even a first.

Upscale and upstanding.

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".

Naming a child Cornelius or Nelson feels increasingly ahead of the curve in today's vintage name-loving climate. But keep Nelly for a nickname (even the rap star was christened Cornell).

One of the surname names used more in the last century, à la Milton and Morton.

Rider is a rock-and-roll baby name, in every sense of the term, though usually spelled Ryder, as in the sons of Kate Hudson and John Leguizamo.

This name will tick a lot of boxes for many parents: unisex; trendy sound; pretty instinctive to pronounce; and some great namesakes including British chef Ainsley Harriott and American footballer Ainsley Battles.

Slightly more modern than Walter, but only just.

Thompson is not as popular as Jackson or Harrison, but a novel way to circumvent Junior for the son of a Thomas.

Decidedly offbeat name that combines jauntiness with that uber-cool X, and would certainly set your son up for life outside the mainstream.

Boo as a first name first achieved notoriety as the name of the child-man in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Arthur "Boo" Radley was meant to be frightening, but only in a simple, non-threatening way. More recently, Boo has been used as the middle name of one of chef Jamie Oliver's children and the nickname in the middle of television's Honey Boo Boo. Boo is also the name of the world's cutest dog and of the adorable little girl in Monsters Inc. In a more basic way, Boo is a term of endearment.

The 6th century Irish saint Mirin emigrated to Scotland and now is the patron saint of both the Glasgow suburb of Paisley and the game of football. Mirren is one modern spelling; the Cornish Merryn, best known as the name of the seacoast town St. Merryn, is also related. The name is usually used for girls.

Previously known only as the nickname of Waylon "Shooter" Jennings, Jr., who's married to Sopranos star Drea DeMatteo, the violent Shooter recently became a proper name when painter Julian Schnabel used it for his newborn son with gallerist May Andersen: The little boy is named Shooter Sandhed Julian Schnabel, Jr. Does this mean that Schnabel's own first name is really Shooter? We're not buying that and see Shooter as a too-cool addition to such trendy badass baby names as Breaker and Rebel.

King Joffrey Baratheon, the petulant biological son of siblings Cersei and Jaime Lannisters, is perhaps the most notorious villain in the entire Game of Thrones canon. His name is practically a byword for sadism among fans of the show and George R.R. Martin's books. As such, we think it's probably a name best avoided IRL.