Five Letter Boy Names

An eider is a sea duck whose feathers make ultra-soft eiderdown.

Either means "the flowers" or "the child" – lei can mean both. Either way, Kalei is a strong and pretty Hawaiian name.

There are lots of grandpa Daves and Davids out there, and Dawes can make an original honor name. It's right in step with the current craze for surname names that end in S: Brooks, Wells, Rhodes etc.

Hasan is a significant Muslim historical figure — he was the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and the son of Ali and Fatimah. Shia Muslims consider Hasan a martyr — he died after being poisoned by his wife.

Short but not particularly sweet surname.

Stylish Hebrew name with potential to catch on more in the wake of Logan, Liam, Lochlan, Lincoln et al.

This is an old Irish name associated with such heroes as the seventeenth century chieftain, scholar and poet Manus O'Donnell. In this country, though, parents would not find Manus as pleasing or impressive as Magnus.

Brain is not a name, it's a misspelling of the long-popular Brian. What's really astonishing is not that it made the Top 1000 at all but that it hung on there for 25 years, from 1965 through 1989, Brian's heyday. All we can say is: sad.

Maori form of Matthew

Pleasant and accessible and not as widely-used as some other African names.