Good Surnames

Flint is one of the new macho names on the rise today, part old-school tough guy, part rebel. You won't find a tougher, steelier-sounding name; it's part of a genre on the rise along with cousins Slate, Stone and Steel.

Folke - which has two syllables - is a Top 100 name in its native Sweden, but rarely heard elsewhere. A related alternative is Fulk, popular with the Normans but little-used now.

One of the most familiar German names, with an upright Prussian image. Friedrich might just have been out for long enough to start coming back in.

Gardener is surely one of the most pleasant and evocative of the occupational options, calling up images of green grass and budding blooms. The name can also be spelled without the first 'e', as in Gardner (born George Cadogan Gardner) McCay, a hunky TV heartthrob of the 1950s and 60s. Gardner is a much more common surname spelling, associated with screen legend Ava, mystery writer Erle Stanley and art collector and patron Isabella Stewart, founder of Boston's Gardner Museum.

A surprisingly wearable floral name for a boy.

Garrett, also spelled with one 't', is an Irish-inflected name that was in the Top 100 in the nineties, but has now slipped in popularity.

This name was given a lithe and graceful image by ballerina Gelsey Kirkland, but was later far surpassed by Kelsey and Chelsea.

One of those names that most Americans find just too too tea-sippingly British to consider; its meaning has led to occasional use for Capricorn boys.

Giovanni is a venerable Italian classic that suddenly sounds fresh and cool. Ubiquitous in Italy, it has countless notable namesakes, from writer Boccaccio to designer Versace (nn Gianni).

Grainne is the Irish form of the name often Anglicized as Grania. It was the name of the ancient grain goddess and also of the fiancee of mythological hero Finn McCool and lover of Dermot, who was a heroine of the seas.

This attractive Scottish surname choice, has a certain amount of glamour thanks to feisty British-born red-haired forties Academy Award winner Greer Garson, who was born Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson--Greer was her Irish mother's maiden name). Greer was chosen much more recently by Kelsey Grammer for his daughter and by Brooke Shields in the Grier form. As a surname, it's associated with feminist writer/activist Germaine Greer.

The girls have Violet and Scarlet and Ruby and Rose, but for the boys there's a much more limited palette of color names. Grey/Gray is one exception, which could make for a soft and evocative—if slightly somber—choice, especially in the middle. Kaitlin Olson and Rob McElhenney named their son Leo Grey.

If you find Grover too fusty and furry, this is a much cooler-sounding alternative.

Fresh, evocative choice.

A key figure in Norse legend and a traditional Scandinavian favorite making inroads here.

A preppy surname of hidden German origin that would fit right in with currently trendy s-ending boy names like Brooks.

Halloran could be your solution if you love the nickname Hal, but not Harold or Henry.