UK Boy Names

A decade or two ago, we might have stopped with Blake, but today the surname Blakely or Blakeley sounds more modern as a first name.

Best known to most as a brand of Whisky, Ballantine is a Scottish surname relating to the Celtic god Bal. It has potential as a off-the-beaten-track boys name that is still familiar. Ballantine is the brand name of a whiskey, a beer, and a publishing imprint.

One step up from Irwin, and that's not nearly enough.

Waspy-sounding choice, well known in literature for Boswell's Life of Johnson.

You might want to honor premier U.S. architect Frank Gehry--even though he was born Ephraim Goldberg. Gehry, pronounced like the more common surname Geary, may be a spin on the name Gary, which means spear, or derive from the Middle English word geary, which means fickle.

The Mc and Mac surnames are asserting themselves as first names and this is among the most usable. MacArthur or McArthur makes a perfect honorific for an ancestral Arthur and leads directly to the nicknames Mac or Art

The Welsh way to spell Price, which is more complicated but elevates it beyond the monetary realm.

Stick with the original.

Darnel, the plant from which this name derives, is an intoxicating plant, which used to be grown to make medicines and poisons.

One of the rare English surname names originally derived from a female given name: Eoforhild, meaning "boar battle". Also spelled Averill, it's an extremely rare choice today, but shares sounds with fashionable Avery.

A surname with more force than most.

Stuffy presidential choice: consider Hayes instead.

Obscure, though legitimate, name that could be used to honor a relative named Barton or Martin.

We don't see that bright a future for this one either.

Rarely heard last-name-first choice with nice gardenlike feel.

Adventurous word choice, but still quite a burden for a child to bear.

Kind of a combination of scoot and fleet, brought into public domain by actor Skeet (born Brian) Ulrich. We would recommend looking into the unsavory slang meaning of this name before choosing it for your child.

As seen on SNL, Pat is the ultimate androgynous name. Stick with long form Patrick, and make sure everyone calls him Patrick.