Boy Names That Mean Life

With the current taste for last names first, this sounds a lot cooler than Shawn; it also has creative connections to the great Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, novelist Irwin Shaw, and Big Band Era clarinetist/bandleader and one-time Ava Gardner husband Artie Shaw.

Pronounced CHY, it's a word name meaning tea in many Eastern languages. The Hebrew name is pronounced without the C as HAI.

In Slavic cultures, Saint Vitus is called Sveti Vid, making this a saintly appellation.

Tarvo has two potential origin stories. The first is that it derives from the Old Finnish word tarvas, meaning "wild aurochs," a wild species of cattle that is now extinct. The second possible derivation is from the Estonian tarv, meaning "energy."

When actress Deborah Kerr entered the scene, there was a great debate over her name's pronunciation. Car or Ker. Your choice.

Bromley is an English surname-name that's more possible as a first name now than ever before. The -ley suffix has been adopted for many names, and surnames such as Bromley are fashionable.

Zealous and noble, an unusual and strong choice -- and if the original is too much of a mouthful, you can always call him Zen.

CEO name.

This version is a bit more in tune with modern tastes.

Hyman was commonly used by first-generation Jewish immigrants to Anglicize Chaim, but similarities to terms like heinie and hymen have taken it out of the realm of modern possibility. The original Chaim would be preferable to Hyman.

Grandparents are sure to link this to disgraced Nixon vice president Spiro Agnew.

A simple and straightforward choice from northwest Africa.

Selig comes from the Yiddish vocabulary word meaning 'happy, fortunate, blessed.' Most of us are more familiar with its Woody Allen variation, Zelig.

For lovers of Pasternak's great doctor, a lively middle name choice, one made by actress Nia Long.

Darnel, the plant from which this name derives, is an intoxicating plant, which used to be grown to make medicines and poisons.

A surname with more force than most.

A male take on the feminine name Zoe, it's hard to give an attractive pronunciation.

This is a solid surname choice for people looking for a change from Cooper, Parker and Carson. Australian parents will probably instantly associate this name with famous rock legend Jimmy Barnes, but this has an even older pedigree as a namesake - Barnes Wallis was a UK aviator and inventor, most remembered for designing the Dambuster bomb (a bomb that bounces across water to reach its target) and working on supersonic flight in the 1940s and 50s.

A popular name in medieval Scotland, it can be found in the surname Macbeth, meaning "son of Beathan" or "son of life." In later years it was increasingly anglicized as Benjamin.

Upper-crusty hotelish surname.