Three Letter Boy Names

Gender-neutral choice with the covetable X initial. Xue's snowy meaning makes it especially well suited to a winter-born child.

Short form of Oliver or Olivier.

Even if you love Brian Eno, this doesn't make the most melodic name.

Macho-er than thou.

Vowel names are popular, but this word-name possibility takes it to an extreme.

A Slovene choice that periodically appears at the bottom of Slovenia's Top 100. It first appeared on the Slovenian charts in 2011, when parents started using Nal for its on-trend sounds. However, Nal has no etymological roots in Slovene.

Professional surfer Craig Elmer Chapman went by the avian nickname Owl. We could see it working as a given name, a la Hawk and Dove.

In its native Nigeria, Agu is a surname that signifies strength and being a force of nature. Agu as a first name has some pedigree, however: most notably via Agu Casmir, a famous Nigerian-Singaporean soccer player.

Among the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo, Yao is the name for babies born on Thursday.

Variant spelling of Nyx, the name of the Greek goddess of the night. It also coincides with the English word "nix, a corruption of German nichts "nothing". Nix would fit right in with names like Knox, Rex, Pax and Max.

Téa Leoni and David Duchovny named their kid Kyd in 2002, but he usually goes by his middle name, Miller. Probably a wise choice, given the homonym.

Howl joins the wild new gang of names with attitude to spare: We're talking Rebel, Rogue, Wilder, and Wiley. Howell makes it much more genteel.

Abstract painter Ad Reinhardt, né Adolph, gave his short name a lot of artistic cred, but it remained securely a nickname. The extra "d" in this version helps it stand on its own, for better or worse.

While many Americans will likely think of the cereal brand, 21 parents named their baby boy this in 2022. It fits in with other punchy 1 syllable names like Pax, Rex, and Knox trending in recent years. Country music artist Kix Brooks was born Leon Eric Brooks.

Tib was a unisex nickname in the 13th century, used as a short form of Theobald and Isabel. As Theobald waned in popularity, it became far more associated with girls, so much so that Tib was a term for young girls by the 16th century.