Cool Classic Boy Names Below the Top 1000

Thompson is not as popular as Jackson or Harrison, but a novel way to circumvent Junior for the son of a Thomas.

The iconic Gone With the Wind star Clark's surname was brought into the first-name mix when Weeds' Kevin Nealon picked it for his son. Gable makes a strong and unusual possibility, a rhyming cousin to Abel and Mabel.

Known as a British royal family line as well as a style of architecture, this name has a forbidding solemnity; schoolmates might also confuse it with tutor.

A zippy, lively name that has never been popular, but has never completely disappeared. It is best known for writer and wit Gore Vidal, and hairdresser Vidal Sassoon and his many products.

One of the least known of the Ken names, though could make an intriguing namesake for an outdated Kenneth.

The progenitor of the English name Guy, Gaetano has a lot more gusto.

In Ancient Egyptian mythology, Khepri is a scarab-faced god who represents the rising sun, as well as new life.

This form got noticed as the first name of long-reigning Russian president Brezhnev; other bearers include playwright and short-story writer Andreyev, Leonid the Magnificent,a Russian performance artist on America's Got Talent, and Leonid McGill, the protagonist of a Walter Mosley private eye series. All in all, though, Leonid is not the most likely to join the pride of lion-related names here.

As a form of Yochanan, Yahya is an Islamic name that honors the prophet John the Baptist. A new entry to the US Top 1000 in 2015, it's a widely used choice in Italy and in England and Wales.

An underused Biblical name borne by a New Testament prophet, Nahum feels like a good option for parents looking for a rare but traditional name that fits in with current trends.

A shortened form of Zephaniah

A strong and interesting nature name of Native American (Mapuche) origin.

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.

Either an alternative spelling of Jacques (ZHAK), the French form of Jack, or a Shakespearean character from As You Like It, pronounced JAY-kwiss.