UK Boy Names

If it's not too phlegmatic for you, this surname and name of a Scottish clan could honor a number of people, especially Alexander Fleming, the father of antibiotics, and Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond.

Doctor is an honorific used as a name, somewhat like names such as Bishop, King, and Princess. Banned in New Zealand, Doctor can lead to the kind of confusion you may feel would be only positive for your child -- a bona fide Doctor before he even gets to kindergarten. At its zenith in 1884, Doctor was used for 12 boys, but last year it didn't even clear the five-baby minimum to make it onto the Social Security extended list.

Sounds like a displaced Dr. Seuss character.

Patterson is an upscale name worth considering if you're looking to continue a line of Peters, but soundalike Paterson is a downscale city in New Jersey.

A surname with more force than most.

Stuffy presidential choice: consider Hayes instead.

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.

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

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".

Again, North is so much crisper.

Stick with the original.

Harvard's sibling.

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

Associated all through the swing years with bandleader brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

This could be a possible replacement for the overused Tyson, though it has something of a commercial feel related to the brand of vacuum cleaners.

Powerful surname choice with many distinguished bearers, fresher sounding than Parker.

Unusual and simple nature name worthy of further consideration.

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

A twist on Darwin with the same friendly meaning. Its lovable-nerd feel is given a cool edge by several football players with the name.

We're not too surprised that Shelton Lee changed his name to Spike.