Boys names

An elegant, continental name for the post-Steve era. It debuted on the US Top 1000 in 1949 and has been on the list every year since except for a year off in 2008.

The original form of Stephen, a readily importable choice.

As unlikely as it may seem, Theodore is a hot new hit name, vaulting into the Top 10 in 2021 for the first time ever and rising three more points last year to rank at Number 7.

This nickname name might be cute for a niño, but one of the full names ending in tino would make a more mature statement.

Has diverse associations: the long-term Communist head of Yugoslavia, one of Michael Jackson's older brothers, and an animated Disney character -- none of them a very strong recommendation.

Vaughn, also commonly spelled Vaughan, has been used quietly over the years, reaching a peak of Number 349 in 1949. It is now in the process of rediscovery, being seen as a good Sean alternative or an updated way to honor an ancestral Paul (which also means small).

Minimalist nickname via XXX star Diesel (born Mark Vincent).

Old World Italian name that might become fashionable in a so-far-out-it's-in way, like Enzo and Rocco. Main recommendation: It's among the rare boy names that mean life.

This dignified German form of William belonged to two German Emperors and Kings of Prussia, as well as a host of other important historical figures. These include composer (Wilhelm) Richard Wagner, philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, and physicist Wilhelm Roentgen, who discovered the X-ray. It now sounds rather dated in Germany, however, having dropped out of the Top 20 there in the late 1920s and continuing to decline since.

An English surname derived from multiple place names, which ranked in the Top 500 for boys in the US until the turn of the 20th century.

Chef Wolfgang Puck has helped soften this thunderous Germanic name; music-lovers will appreciate its association with Mozart, though the composer's middle name Amadeus is more appealing.

Common Russian name familiarized here via cosmonaut Yury Gagarin and a character in Dr. Zhivago, but we don't see it ever gaining permanent resident status.

An Old Testament name with a Puritan feel and post-Zachary possibilities--one of several routes to the cool nickname Zeb.

Extreme cool possibilities in either of these modern categories, like a postmodern Linc.