Middle Names for Boys (with Meanings and Popularity)

Journey is one of the hot new spiritual names. Although Journey was given in 2015 to over 1100 baby girls and fewer than 100 baby boys, it's more visible on the celebrity baby scene as a boys' name: Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green just chose the name for their third son, who also has the unisex middle name River.

If you like names that are not really names -- some say, the wave of the future -- Harbor has an attractive sound as well as an appealing meaning and image.

Branch is an attractive name with associations both with trees and with branching out into brave new worlds. Baseball's Branch (born Wesley, with Branch as his middle name) Rickey broke the color barrier by hiring Jackie Robinson for the Dodgers. Like Leaf, Branch makes a nice, not-so-obvious, addition to the tree category.

If you find Grover too fusty and furry, this is a much cooler-sounding alternative.

Nicole Richie and Joel Madden added this rocking name to the lexicon of day names, which have their roots in the African tradition of naming a child after the day of the week, time of day, or season in which he or she was born. But they wisely used it as a middle name.

Provocative word name that may strike the right chord for an adventurous baby namer.

True has become an accepted first and middle name; Truth makes an even stronger statement. And with nearly 150 baby boys named Truth in the US in the most recent year counted, as many as were named Ross, the word name is edging up on the Top 1000.

Hallow is a word meaning sacred or holy. As the root word for Halloween (orginally All Hallows' Eve), this name might be an evocative choice for a baby born on or near October 31st. It could work well for either a boy or a girl and offers the nicknames Hal and Halley.

A word name that has sailed onto birth certificates of both genders, especially since Liv Tyler used it for her son. For boys, Saylor and Sailor are used about equally, but were together given to about 100 baby boys last year....and 1000 baby girls.

Hippie name with a sweet meaning. While theoretically gender-neutral, Harmony was given to nearly 1400 baby girls last year....and zero boys.

A name heard in Puritan times -- Cotton Mather was a minister involved in the Salem witchcraft trials -- which really deserves modern consideration as it blends nature and softness into a really trendy and wearable masculine name.

Worthy sibling for Oak, Elm, Juniper, and Spruce.

New Presidential name, if you're ready to move beyond Lincoln and Jefferson. At the turn of the last century, during the original McKinley's heyday, as a first name it almost reached the Top 100.

Poet is a new entry in both the trendy word and occupational categories as well as a member of the growing group of gender neutral names. A handful of baby boys received the name in the US last year. A perfect choice, especially in the middle, for the child of writers or those with a poetic bent. And Po is an adorable nickname for either gender.

Refers, in literal terms, to a curved line -- as in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famed "arc of justice." Could also be used as a reference to Joan of Arc -- Arc being, there, derived from her father's name, rather than a place -- or, conceivably, to Noah's Ark.

Until recently, Vernon and its short form Vern seemed like grandpa names not ready for revival, but now we can see it happening. Never the popular, Vern works particularly well as a middle name.

Birch is a rarely used nature name that calls to mind the lovely image of the tall, strong but graceful white-barked tree.

If you're going to choose a noble word name, why not aim higher and pick Duke, Prince...or King. The Donald Trumps picked the Barron spelling for their little princeling.

Ode could be part of the extended Otto/Otis family, or it might be a literary term, referring to an elaborate lyric poem, such as Keats's Ode to a Nightingale..

Mason with a French accent. It first entered the US Top 1000 in 2012, and it will likely hang on for as long as its brother-in-spelling-variations, Mayson.