6000+ Dog Names

This lovely name from Spenser's The Faerie Queene is borne by a character who represents married love. A related unusual-yet-usable choice: Amabel.

In ancient myth, Ashur was the supreme deity of the Assyrian Empire, the ruler of the gods, the god of war, and the creator of all things.

Dee is a slight midcentury nickname that might be short for Deanna or Denise, but might be too slight for today's strong, independent female.

Zevi is an alternative transcription of the Hebrew name Zvi or Tzvi, the latter of which is a Top 100 pick in Israel. It's a cool, sharp-sounding name which would make for a great distinctive alternative to Levi.

Crisanta, while not related to Christine, would make a pretty and highly unusual alternative to that tried-and-true name. Because of its relationship to the chrysanthemum, the flower of the month of November, it's one of the recommended names for Scorpio babies as well as names for November babies. Crisanta might also give you a fresh route to nicknames like Cris, Crissy, or Cristie.

As Ryan quickly becomes a plausible option for a girl, some parents may be interested in the spelling Rian — the more authentic and original form of the name.

Undeniably frightening and undeniably cool.

Akiva has a distinguished scholarly pedigree and a lovely meaning. Its softer sound is very on trend for masculine names at the moment and is in line with more familiar monikers like Ezra, Elijah and Theo.

Runes are symbols in ancient Germanic alphabets. They are often viewed as mysterious and therefore as a name, Rune imparts a feeling of folkloric mystery. As intriguing as that might be, the homonym ruin creates a lot of teasing potential.

Truly original yet not strange name ripe for the plucking by the adventurous baby namer. Aurelius works too.

This once obscure name was propelled to fame by Britney Spears, and by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith in the 2000's. It skyrocketed into the US Top 10 for boys, but it also saw significant use for girls.

Popular Japanese name that also belongs to one of the most prestigious literary awards in Japan, the Naoki Prize.

Ariyah jumped into the Top 1000 for the first time in 2013, probably because some American parents see it as a creative spelling of the popular Aria or Arya. But it's also an authentic Hebrew name in its own right, a feminine form of the Biblical Aryeh, heard in modern Israel..

A common Vietnamese name heard evenly for boys and girls in the U.S. Sounds like tahn or tong, depending on what part of Vietnam you come from.

There's Zan and there's Xan--take your pick. Both of these are the latest generation of Alexander nicknames, Xan having been noticed first as a character on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (a rich source of names), and soon phoneticized into Zan.

Unspecific place name with a wonderfully wide-open, spacious, western feel; used for a character in Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland.

Seneca was both a Roman philosopher-statesman and is a Native American Iroquois tribe. Occasionally used for both girls and boys, Seneca is now a Hunger Games character.

In geography, a meridian is a line drawn around the curve of the Earth between the North and South Poles. The term comes from Latin meridianus, meaning "pertaining to midday", and the association with midday has led to the word gaining an added figurative meaning of "pinnacle; culmination".

Kiyomi is a Japanese name that means 'sacred and beautiful' or 'clean and beautiful.' It refers to a variety of citrus fruit and is gaining popularity for baby girls in the U.S., with just under 200 girls receiving the name in 2022. Kiyomi combines a meaningful and elegant definition with a unique cultural reference, making it a distinctive choice for parents.

Riot has all the sounds of a trendy name — the first syllable that of trendy choices like Ryder, Ryker, and Rylan, rhyming with Wyatt. But the strong negative connotations of the word, suggesting violence, turn many (but not all) parents away from Riot as a baby name. Ryatt, one step removed, is more common.