Two Syllable Boy Names

Sable is often associated with the Dynsaty soap opera, but it is actually a type of animal historically hunted for its fur. Sable is also used as a word for a warm, rich black color. Both associations carry hints of luxury.

Rhythmic Welsh nickname name, derived from the Welsh royal name Iorwerth, which has sometimes been anglicized as Edward.

Slater has a more genial, friendly feel than most trade names. Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance used it for one of their twins.

Kenny might be all South Park to some, but it has been in steady use in the US since the 1930s.

Idan is a Hebrew unisex place-name rarely heard in this country.

Unseen in the USA since 1901, Boston rocketed back into the Top 1000 in 2004 and, like other place-names such as Brooklyn, London and Paris, is now a reliable presence on the list.

An Irish mythology name belonging to a semi-legendary high king of Ireland, often equated with English David though not etymologically related.

A spelling variant of presidential surname Regan that briefly entered the Top 1000 for boys in the 1960s, but hasn't rejoined the list since. Shakespeare also used the name for a daughter of King Lear, inspired by an ancient king of the Britons in accounts of the medieval scribe Geoffrey of Monmouth.

More universal than Elvis...and more conventionally attractive, too. Cindy Crawford used it for her son, though it's on the rise mainly for girls. The last time Presley ranked in the Top 1000 for boys was 1903, 120 years ago. Today, it's used for girls 14 times as often as for boys, mainly because of the -ley ending.

The sophisticated Edmond and its nearly-identical twin Edmund are coming out of mothballs now that Edward, inspired by Twilight, is once again a hot name. Parents looking for an alternative might gravitate to Edmond, a handsome classic that has both class and style.

As the mythological Thor morphs into a modern baby name, the variations Thoren and Thorin feel like real possibilities, not just in Scandinavia but around the Western world.

English speakers will think you invented this one, but it's a hidden nature name from the Basque country in present-day Spain. Some may find it too close to "zero" for comfort.

In the Quran, Eyad (and names with similar roots like Iyad and Ayad) refers to a person/entity that strengthens another. Eyad is one of the modern Arabic names for boys.

Elton is an unassuming, lesser-used place name belonging to several towns in the British Isles, the US and Canada, and even a lake in Russia. The singer Elton John gives it a bit of extra pizzazz.

Moby, the nickname of musician Richard Melville Hall, was thanks to his ancestor Herman Melville, creator of the infamous whale. You can imagine calling a child Moby as a cute nickname in honor of a grandfatherly Richard or Dick, but the ghost of a Dick would always follow the name around. In Melville's classic book, Moby was an invented word whose meaning has never been firmly established, though the best scholarship calls it a fictional place name that, in the custom of whaling ships of the time, helped identify the whale called Dick.

Although we prefer Drew to the old Raggedy Andy, Andy has overtaken Drew as a name in its own right. About twice as many baby boys are named Andy, just Andy -- though about eight times as many parents go with the full Andrew.

One of the most familiar Russian names in the West, thanks to ballet great Mikhail Baryshnikov and state head Mikhail Gorbachev.

Baby girl Danas outnumber baby boys with the name nearly ten to one. But Dana is an attractive, sleek name that can certain work for babies of either gender.

In Norse mythology, the son of the giant who ruled the wind and air; in modern America, recalls a 1970s girl's nickname name, à la Carrie and Keri.