Potential Character Surnames

Cloris is bad enough without shortening. Consider FLOR instead, a beautiful Spanish name.

Clover is a charming, perky choice if you want to move beyond hothouse blooms like Rose and Lily, and it's recently become a new celeb favorite, chosen by both Neal McDonough and Natasha Gregson Wagner, who used it to honor her mother, Natalie Wood, one of whose most iconic films was Inside Daisy Clover.

Actor Coby Bell gives this short but sweet name a hefty amount of street cred. Can also be spelled Koby or Kobe, as in Kobe Bryant.

Like many short forms now popular as full names in the Netherlands, Coen—also spelled Koen—originated as the diminutive of the more old-fashioned Coenraad, the Dutch Conrad. May be confused in the US with Cohen, which stems from the Jewish surname designating a priest.

Cole -- a short name that embodies a lot of richness and depth -- has long been associated with the great songwriter Cole Porter. It's quite popular in Scotland.

The name of three hundred saints, a mustard, and your own baby boy. Coleman was off the US Top 1000 list for much of the 1960s and 1970s, but it was a mainstay before and has been for most years since. It could be an interesting way to honor a Colin or Cole.

A mostly undiscovered alternative to the ultra-popular Colton; just 80 baby boys were named Coleson in 2016. It's also a surname name in its own right.

Both offbeat and upbeat, this evocative traditional Irish name that runs through Celtic mythology is known here via award-winning novelist Cormac McCarthy (born Charles). The author's adopted name is related to Cormac Mac Airt, one of the great legendary high kings of Ireland.

The craze for surname names is now moving beyond the English and Irish to include worldly Spanish names for boys like this historic one currently in the Top 1000.

Corymbia is the botanical name of many species of beautiful flowering gum trees. It is a rare, but attested, girls name in Australia.

Several animal names, from Fox to Wolf and even to Tiger, ccan work, but Cougar should stay in its cage. Even John Mellencamp has dropped it.

The first name of famed designer Balenciaga, was also the birth name of Christopher Columbus--aka Cristobal Colon. A name still well used in the Hispanic community.

The short, clipped Cru is one of those modern names that's starting to find favor -- it was given to about 100 boys last year, while Crew has vaulted onto the Top 1000. One inspiration is undoubtedly the Spanish name Cruz, which came to wider attention via the third son of Victoria and David Beckham. Cru has a handsome sound and a modern feel.

Crew x True = Crue. This on-trend name — short and punchy with popular sounds —is rising for a reason. Crue entered the Top 1000 for the first time in 2022, following in the footsteps of trendy Crew and Cruz. It continued to be a fast rising choice in 2023,when it was given to around 360 babies, making it roughly three times less popular than Crew, but also three times more popular than it was a decade ago.

Dael is cooler than Dale -- but why? Vowel switch gives an old nature name a hipper look.

Daenerys is yet another girls' name invented by "Game of Thrones" author George R. R. Martin that is beginning to gain some traction in real life. Daenerys was used for 67 baby girls in 2013 while one of the character's titles, Khaleesi, was given to 241 baby girls. And the name Arya, also from the hyper-popular series, is one of the fastest growing girls' names in the country.

Prior to 2013, this name was unheard of. That was the year that Larry Hernandez, singer and star of reality show Larrymania, gave the name to his daughter. It has now entered the US Top 1000, following in the footsteps of Daleyza, the invented name Hernandez bestows upon his older daughter.

A light and breezy nature name that's currently in style limbo, despite its pleasant meaning.