Name of Faulkner's great emotional villain in As I Lay Dying, Anse is not ordinarily used as a first name. It literally means cove in French, though the element ans means God in Old German and is found in names such as Ansel and Anselm.

Anse

This minimalist name is frequently heard in Norway, but has little chance of acceptance in the US.

Great Irish middle name choice for Shakespeare lovers. 

Bard

When Kate Hudson named her second son Bingham and announced that she would be calling him Bing, it put this zingy nickname name out on the table. Before that, there was only one, further nicknamed Der Bingle -- and he was really Harry Lillis Crosby. 
 And nowadays it's also a Microsoft search engine--but in any case, Bing has a lot of zing.

Bing

A name that's unusual in that changing the i to a y -- as in Byrd -- makes it more masculine.

Bird

Too tightly associated with the real-life villainous Captain Bligh of The Mutiny on the Bounty. 

Bligh

The famous Battle of the Boyne, in Ireland, vanquished the Catholic king. 

Boyne

Having only entered the US Top 1000 in 2012, Briggs is yet another ends-in-s surname name for boys currently on the rise, along the lines of Brooks and Hayes.

Briggs

Bast 

In keeping with other short names like PO/POE and BO, Coe is a surname that could easily move into first place.  It has a sports hero factor as well, in Olympic runner Sebastian Coe--who later became a Member of Parliament.

Dice

Dand 

Strong, straight, and leafy, one of the new tree names used mostly as middles. 

Friendly, cheerful Irish name that originated as a nickname for a redhead. Potential problem: reminiscent of the Spanish custard. 

Flann

Fauve

Frens 

Distinctive though somewhat abrupt, most prominently borne by country singer Hoyt Axton.

Hoyt

Ish 

Decidedly offbeat name that combines jauntiness with that uber-cool X, and would certainly set your son up for life outside the mainstream.

Jauns 

Jepp 

Karp 

Keele

Laure

Leif is one of the most recognizable <a href="https://nameberry.com/baby-names/173/scandinavian-names">Scandinavian names</a>, thanks to Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson, and is still one of the best, with a pleasant aural association with the word leaf. 
 Leif Erikson, son of explorer Eric the Red, was the first European to land in North America--some five hundred years before Columbus. Centuries later, the name became associated in the U.S. with 1970s teen idol Leif Garrett, the name peaking on the charts at Number 654 in 1970, dropping off completely in 1987. It climbed back onto the Top 1000 in 2014.
 Pronounced LAYF in its Scandinavian milieu, Leif and Lief are sometimes pronounced as Leaf in English-speaking countries. Joaquin Phoenix was for a time known as Leaf, in keeping with the <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/329/nature-baby-names">nature names</a> of his siblings.

Leif

This concise one-syllable name, has two possible derivations and two positive meanings associated with it. In Hebrew, it means "heart", while in Russian it means "lion". So strong and simple Lev has both a soft and a fierce side.

 Lev is very uncommon in the US, ranking below the Top 1000, but feels eminently wearable thanks to similar names like Levi and Zev. It's a popular choice in Russia and the Netherlands, ranking in or around the Top 100 in both nations.

 The leonine Lev is the Russian birth name of the great novelist Tolstoy, and the mother of Liev Schreiber has stated that she named him in honor of the writer. In the Chaim Potok novel My Name is Asher Lev, about a Hasidic Jewish boy in New York, Lev is the character's surname.

 Actress Candace Cameron has a son she named Lev.

One of the fierce new animal names new to name lists, helped by its strong x-ending.

Lynx

Lenz 

Loup 

Along with August, March is one of the month names perfectly suited to boys. This brisk single-syllable name – which derives from the name of Mars, the Roman god of war – is worth considering as either a first or middle option. As a surname, it brings warm memories of the girls of Little Women, and of twentieth century actor Fredric.

March

Mauve is an offbeat color name whose soft and sentimental Victorian spirit is conveyed by the name. One of the newer color names like Blue, Gray and Plum that are increasingly being used as novel <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/673/middle-names">middle names</a>.

Mauve

Meade

Mallt

One of the more unusual <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/325/mythological-baby-names-for-girls">mythology names for girls</a>, Neith is the name of the Egyptian goddess of home and femininity.

Neith

Ner 

This may be a legitimate Hebrew name denoting power, but to any American kid, it will evoke ruby slippers and a yellow brick road. The full Hebrew name is Ozni, who was a grandson of Jacob in the Bible.
As full names such as Ozias, Osgood, and Osmond start to sound more cool and less grandpa, the short form Oz will feel like a more modern possibility.

Pell makes an unusual middle name choice.  And if grandpa Seymour was a fur trader, you might do better to honor him by naming the baby Pell.

Pell

The short, cute Pim is a Top 100 boys' name in The Netherlands though little-known outside that country.  But in a family overrun with Williams, Pim could make an original nickname setting a modern child apart from father Will and grandpa Bill.

Plaire

Preece

Prynne 

Quant

Shir

Sadb 

Shri

This early Scottish title -- known to us via Shakespeare's Macbeth -- has recently surfaced as a baby name possibility, familiar sounding through its similarity to names like Zane and Wayne.

Thane

Sarah Palin spelled it Trig, as in the nickname for trigonometry, but Trygg is a genuine Norwegian word name for boys.

Trygg

Compact and creative, it has been associated with one-time Cagney & Lacey star Tyne Daly.

Tyne

Tyr is a very early embodiment of a Norse god, typically thought to guide the law, justice, war and victory.

Tord

This mythological name of the Norse god of winter sounds, uh, ill. 

Veigh 

Wolf is a name with a split personality. It can be seen as one of the fierce animal names, like Fox and Bear and Puma, with a touch of the werewolf, or it can be viewed as a quieter, Wolf Blitzer kind of name, fairly common in German (where is pronounced Vulf) and Jewish families, sometimes as a short form of Wolfgang, or even Wolfram or Wolfhart.

 CNN newscaster Blitzer inherited the name from his grandfather. Other Wolfs of note include British screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz, who was instrumental in the early James Bond films, painter Wolf Kahn, and the hero of Jack London's 1904 novel The Sea-Wolf, Wolf Larsen.

 
Despite all it has going for it, Wolf is relatively rare and has never been given to more than 80 babies in a single year. But now that Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott chose it for their infant son, Wolf is primed to climb the charts.

 Spelling variations Wolfe or Woolf push it into surname territory, while nickname Wolfie definitely domesticates it.

Unusual One Syllable Names