Two Syllable Boy Names

Could Philo be the next Milo?

An original choice for a fisherman's child.

Has an upscale aura, perhaps due to the luxury James Bond Aston Martin car.

If you think there are too many Zachs around, you can use this historic nickname for Zachariah instead, though it does have a somewhat feminine feel.

More commonly known as the Mongolian Gazelle, the Zeren is an antelope that lives on the steppes of central Asia.

Super-sweet name that was the title of a Broadway play -- but best known as a type of apple. The Dutch variation is Pepijn is finding some popularity in that country, where short nickname names are stylish.

Gale for boys is more a storm name than a short form of Abigail. Since Gale has resurfaced as the name of Liam Hemsworth's daring character in The Hunger Games, it has new force for boys.

Santi is a cute short form of these names popular in Central and South America.

Kingsley is a sophisticated Harry Potter name that entered the US Top 1000 in 2013.

St. Senan was a famed founder of monasteries, whose ruins can still be seen. Legend has it that before he could found it, he had to banish a great monster. Other versions are Sionan, Sinan, Synan and Sinon. Seanan is also a pet form of Sean.

Doesn't everything sound better with a French accent? Sylvain, the French variation of the Roman wood god's name, sounds somehow cooler and more sophisticated than Sylvan.

Old Testament name all but unknown outside the Latino community, it is nonetheless in the US Top 1000, where it has been since 1990.

Reese Witherspoon's Deacon has opened this churchy direction for occupational names. It reentered the US Top 1000 in 2015.

Though it may not be as sweet and gentle as, say, Violet, the purple-hued Hyacinth still might hold some appeal for the parent seeking a truly unconventional flower name.

The last name of Finnish moderne designer/architect makes an original, creative choice with an unexpected water-related meaning.

Related to blackberry plants and colloquially to any thorny shrub, Bramble also has history as an English surname.

Zuma was entered in the American name lexicon when musicians Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale chose it for their son. Californians will recognize Zuma as the name of a beautiful beach in Malibu, and it's also the surname of a South African president. With the lovely meaning of peace and its place-name associations, Zuma is one of those American names that literally sprang from the earth.

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.

This soft-yet-sturdy Biblical name belonged to Moses’ father-in-law (also called Jethro) and was the second middle name of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Azriel, also found as Azrael or Asriel, is the name of the Angel of Death in Jewish and Islamic tradition. The Asriel spelling occurs as a Biblical name, notably as the forefather of the Asrielite tribe. Lord Asriel is Lyra’s immensely powerful and charismatic father in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.