UK Boy Names

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

Bates is a fresh version of Bartholomew, and feels more wearable than Bart. Bates could be considered a patriotic choice for American parents - Katharine Lee Bates was an author and professor best known for penning the words to "America the Beautiful".

Simple and down-to-earth, but would probably work best as a middle name.

If you find West not substantial enough, this would make a more solid path to it.

A common family name in Scotland, occasionally used as a first.

Better suited to a stuffy school than a little boy.

If it's royalty you're after, stick with Earl or Prince -- this is too deified.

Lively and engaging Scottish surname, particularly appropriate for a boy born on Monday.

Upper-crusty hotelish surname.

Admirers of the haunting works of esteemed Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats might consider this, especially as a middle name.

Here too lies the danger of entitlement.

Has a positive meaning and a nickname feel. Sealey was a feminine name in medieval times but would be equally stylish (and rare) for both sexes now.

This name of a busy British port city -- as well as of several places in America -- has a brisk and bustling air. It will now--and for years to come--be identified as a (female) Sarah Palin name.

Unusual and unappealing.

Climbing a mountain somewhere with Radcliff and Heathcliff.

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.

An old name still occasionally heard in the U.K., but still and perhaps forever a foreigner in the U.S. Can be spelled Ranulf.

One place-name that doesn't make the cut as a person name, associated with several commercial enterprises. We've seen it used by Chicago Cubs fans — Sheffield is the name of a major street bordering Wrigley Field.

Stowe, the name of a beautiful mountain town in Vermont as well as the surname of the great author Harriet Beecher, is one of the oldest last names on record. The meeting place the name Stowe refers to is part of a church. Stowe might make a distinctive and meaningful middle name for skiers or Uncle Tom's Cabin fans.