UK Boy Names

This could be a new variation on the megapopular Braden-Caden-Haden bunch, or a nonmilitaristic form of Patton.

We can hear the kids teasing him from here.

Classy-sounding surname name usually bypassed in favor of the simpler Landon.

Berold is one of the more obscure boy names meaning bear, which also include Arthur, Orson, and (in a different vein) Teddy.

Variously spelled Swithun or Swithin, and associated with St. Swithin's day, July 15th, which is famous as a weather predictor a la Groundhog's Day: supposedly, the weather on his feast day will continue for forty days. This would certainly make a unique choice.

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".

Rarely used un-Gaelic-sounding Scottish name with literary associations to Erskine Caldwell, author of Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre.

Again, North is so much crisper.

Harvard's sibling.

Eaton's similarity to Eton gives it an upscale Old School feel, though in the U.S. a name that sound like eatin' could have teasin' potential. Eaton could also sound like the much-more-familiar Ethan with a tough-guy accent.

What child wouldn't like a name that was a synonym for cool?

Underused literary name (as in the poet John) with a -den ending that's very much in style.

Pelham, a place-name surname, could work well as a first, despite its slightly arrogant air. It's what the P in P.G. Wodehouse stands for.

English surname that's very rarely found as a first name. The Colorado city was named after Horace Greeley, the nineteenth-century congressman and founder of the New-York Tribune.

Stick with the original.

The suffix Bran is familiar as raven-related since Game of Thrones, and the -ley suffix has been popular since the 1990s heyday of Ashley.

Carleton has a great meaning behind it, and should really have more popularity than it has found to date. You can shorten it to Carl or keep it upscale and formal in the longer form. Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk lends the name some sporty credentials, while American artist Carleton Wiggins confirms this name's Victorian earnestness.

A more authentic -- and difficult -- version of Sean.

The y helps a bit, but still a painful image.