Middle Names for Boys (with Meanings and Popularity)

Gruff is a name that gets used on a handful of boys each year, in both the US and the UK.

Actress Shannyn Sossamon used this as the middle name for her son Audio; one of the most do-not-try-this-at-home combos we've heard.

Cool and casual, a la humorist Ring (born Ringgold. ) Lardner.

Loyalty is one of the Modern Virtue Nameson the rise for both genders, but in this case mainly girls. About 85 percent of the babies named Loyalty are female and 15 percent male, but there's no reason this upstanding name can't work equally well for both.

Maybe if you're planning to have only one child -- and iffy even then.

Moroccan is a name newly minted by Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon for their newborn twin son. Meaning a person who lives in Morocco, Moroccan was used by the couple as a nod to the Moroccan Room in Carey's Manhattan apartment, where Cannon proposed to the singer. Place-name Morocco is another choice for either sex, as is music name Maraca.

Eleven didn't feel more namelike than any other number...until the (female) "Stranger Things" character came along. Now it seems like a possibility - albeit a rare one - for both sexes. Other associations include the number of players in a football team, and Apollo 11, the spacecraft of the first moon landing.

Why beat around the bush with a name like Elvis or Axl when you can come right out and name your baby Rocker? Your grandma will be scandalized, but teenage Rocker will kiss your feet.

In the Capability Brown vein -- not a choice to be made lightly.

Many parents are seeking a strong name--well there's no denying that Strong fits that bill.

Modern virtue name, playing on the word "tough".

Stricter than Peace or Justice.

Cool middle name possibility.

Sarah Palin and husband Todd, creative baby-namers, named their oldest son Track because of their love for running.

Chosen by one musician, Todd Rundgren, for his son, but unlikely to be emulated by others.

This Puritan virtue name is unstylish, but sympathetic and appealing, in these largely uncomfortable times.

Rhymer feels right at home with names like Ryder, Ryker and Riley, but brings an artsy edge to this group of names.

Baby name as political statement.

The term Quarto comes to us from the Latin for "four", but it is used as a term in literature to describe a book from the early days of printing that was a particular size. An obscure and potentially intriguing choice for arcane, book-loving parents.

If Arrow is too straight for you....