Dog Names That Start With B

This Bailey variation is the second most popular spelling for girls, and while the -ee ending does make it more feminine, it feels more substantial in the original form. Bailee and Bayley are two other, less common alternatives.

An undiscovered option among occupational names, Banner has never been used for more than 100 baby boys in a single year. But Banner has undeniable charm, much due to its associations with fêtes and phrases like "a banner year".

Brad in a Brooks Brothers suit.

"Bore" and "boring" are teasing possibilities; Thora, Nora, and Flora recommended alternatives.

This spiritual word name is rising for girls and boys.

An Anglicized derivative of the Gaelic name Beatha, meaning "life," best known as the surname of Irish playwright Brendan Behan.

Brother for Biff and Bud. McFly rocker Tom Fletcher transformed this from midcentury short form to modern cool name when he used it for his newborn son.

In the Noongar language of Western Australia, Bindi means butterfly. Bindi is usually seen as a girls' name, as seen in Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late Steve Irwin.

Boo may have started out as a nickname for the male character Arthur "Boo" Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird and these days may be closely associated with another male Boo, the "world's cutest dog" or with the adorable little girl in Monsters, Inc.

Boo as a first name first achieved notoriety as the name of the child-man in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Arthur "Boo" Radley was meant to be frightening, but only in a simple, non-threatening way. More recently, Boo has been used as the middle name of one of chef Jamie Oliver's children and the nickname in the middle of television's Honey Boo Boo. Boo is also the name of the world's cutest dog and of the adorable little girl in Monsters Inc. In a more basic way, Boo is a term of endearment.

Bardo has a poetic beginning and upbeat ending, with roots in several diverse cultures. It may be most familiar today via George Saunders' novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which refers to the Tibetan Buddhist state of suspension between one life and the next, resembling the Christian idea of Limbo. Bardo is also an ancient saint's name: Saint Bardo was the eleventh century bishop of Mainz, in Germany. Actress Sandra Bullock chose Bardo as her son's middle.

In Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, the friend who persuades Romeo to go to the party where he meets Juliet. Alas.

One "bald" name we can get behind, thanks to pioneering African-American author James Baldwin – though the name is now also associated with the Baldwin brothers, particularly Alec.

The surname of influential French fashion designer Marc Bohan could make a modern-sounding two-syllable boy's name, though it might be confused with Bowen.

Berkeley, with an extra E, is the more familiar variation of this name, associated with the California school. But it's the streamlined Berkley that has proven itself to be more popular as a baby name, at least in the US.

Herby and aristocratic Basil remains a tough sell, but we’d like to introduce you to Basile, the delightful French version. It retains all of Basil’s charm, but sheds some of the pesto linkage.

If you use this for a boy, it had better be a family name, hidden away in the middle.

Babs is an old-fashioned nickname for Barbara, itself an old-fashioned name that was hugely popular in the 20th century but that's not (yet) on its way back in. If you really want a vintage-y nickname name with a lot of attitude that bucks the current friends, go for Babs instead of Betty or Bea.

One of those casual down-home names last popular in the 1960s.

This fabric word name would be a one-of-a-kind.