Middle Names for Boys (with Meanings and Popularity)

"Saturday Night Live" cast member Finesse Mitchell often mocks his own and similar names when portraying the character Starkeisha on the show.

This might be a better choice than the similarly pronounced Jan, to avoid gender confusion.

Diehard World War II buffs may be interested in this name as a reference to American combat medic Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to be awarded the metal of honor. But it carries a host of negative connotations in the U.K., especially in Scotland, related to laziness and the shirking of work.

Though some forward-looking parents are now choosing wood-related names like Oak, Pine, and Ash, this generic option would be even more avant garde.

Spicy but insubstantial nickname name.

New is a middle name name with meaning: Your baby, after all, is new to the world and you may hope will continue to approach life and experience as if everything is new and exciting.

Acre feels at home with other modern, fresh word names like Rumor, Snow and Ace. But with the feeling of wide open spaces and nature, Acre also offers a softer, earthier tone that will appeal to those seeking a unique name with a distinctly Americana feel.

The name of a beautiful village on the Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall, Veryan actually derives from a series of misunderstandings: Sen Veryan ("Saint Veryan") is a Cornish corruption of Severian, which is itself a corrupted form of the saint’s name Symphorian, to whom the village church at Veryan is dedicated.

New, fast, cool, and chosen by director Robert Rodriguez, whose other sons are Rebel, Rocket, and Rogue, all somewhat risky options.

Bamboo is a plant name that you might want to save for the zoo's name-the-panda contest. It was used for a starbaby in 2000, though, the rapper Big Boi.

Fortune is a middle name choice designed to generate good luck and prosperity.

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

An unassuming virtue, that is also a surname name.

Lorca is a Spanish place name from the province of Navarre, but more famous as the last name of the eminent Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, who was the direct inspiration for the name of Leonard Cohen's daughter Lorca.

Although this month name was used only for girls in a recent year, there's no reason it can't work for both genders. For a holiday baby, more original than Noel and more universal than Christmas.

Brace yourself? You're going to hear that one a lot if you choose this word name for your baby son, as a handful of parents in the US did in a recent year. One reason for this word is being used as a name: It rhymes with the popular Jace.

Even if you're hoping for a fiery child, this seems like playing with fire. One celebrity--Steve Vai--was bold enough to use it for his son.

One of the classic hippie word names. In the 1970s, actors Barbara Hershey and David Carradine gave this name to their son...who later changed it to Tom.

A name with vision.

One celebrity baby Pilot put this occupational choice into the pool -- together with the middle name Inspektor, something we wouldn't advise following.