Classic Boy Names

Names that have never really left. They rise and fall within a band rather than disappearing, which makes them the safest choice on the site and the hardest to say anything surprising about.

Rankings for

301 names, most popular first in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Micheal Micheal is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose full form is a rhetorical question — who is like God?
Irish #1,404 in US
Nick Nick means victory of the people, and the compound is political rather than personal — the Greek joins victory to the citizen body, so it describes a public triumph and not an individual one.
English #1,444 in US
Arnold Arnold means eagle power, and England and Wales ranks it 631st on 59 births — well above the United States at 1,478th, which is not what the name's twentieth-century American associations would predict.
Germanic #1,478 in US
Ewan Ewan is a boy's name, the anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic Eòghann, generally given as born of the yew.
Scottish Gaelic #1,483 in US
Karl Karl means free man, and it is the original German spelling behind Charles — the word named a free peasant, so it began at the bottom of the free classes and rose to name emperors.
German #1,599 in US
Antoine Antoine is a boy's name from the Roman family name Antonius, the French form of Anthony.
French #1,716 in US
Denis Denis is a boy's name from the Greek god of wine, and Ireland places it 240th — its strongest market by a wide margin.
French #1,719 in US
Gerard Gerard is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning brave with the spear.
Germanic #1,722 in US
Fredrick Fredrick is an American respelling that ranks higher in England and Wales than in the United States — 934th against 1,730th, which reverses the usual direction for a respelling.
English #1,730 in US
Roderick Roderick means famous ruler, and its most consequential bearer lost a country — Roderic was the last Visigothic king of Spain, defeated in 711 by the Arab and Berber force that then held most of the peninsula for centuries.
German #1,745 in US
Laurence Laurence is the one name on this site that changes sex at the Channel: it is a man's name in English and a woman's name in French.
Latin #1,750 in US
Morris Morris means dark-skinned, from the Latin for a Moor — and the morris dance carries the same word, having been thought to imitate Moorish dancing when it reached England.
English #1,762 in US
Stephan Stephan means a wreath, not a crown — stephanos was the woven victor's garland at the Greek games, which is why the first Christian martyr's name reads as a prize rather than a rank.
German #1,848 in US
Clifton Clifton means the settlement by the cliff, and it is the same first element as Clifford — one describes a ford below the cliff and the other the farm on top of it.
English #1,916 in US
Alexandre Alexandre is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of mankind," the French form of Alexander.
French #2,148 in US
Tom Tom is a boy's name of Aramaic origin meaning "twin," a short form of Thomas used as a full name across Europe.
Aramaic #2,186 in US
Clément Clément is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "merciful" or "gentle," borne by fourteen popes and by one of the earliest Christian writers outside the New Testament.
French #2,273 in US
Herman Herman means army man, and the German national hero Hermann is a Latin scribe's version of a Cheruscan name we cannot now recover — Arminius, the chief who destroyed three Roman legions in AD 9.
Germanic #2,374 in US
Lino Lino is a boy's name of Greek origin from Linus, a figure Greek myth killed off twice in different stories.
Italian #2,412 in US
Sébastien Sébastien is a boy's name meaning from Sebaste, a city whose own name means venerable — it renders the imperial title Augustus into Greek.
French #2,455 in US
Stuart Stuart means steward, and the office was literally the sty warden — keeper of the pigs — which rose to run the royal household and then supplied the name of a dynasty.
Scottish #2,535 in US
Olivier Olivier is a boy's name usually taken as olive tree, though the character who made it famous — Roland's companion in the Song of Roland — may carry a Norse name meaning elf army instead.
French #2,539 in US
Marius Marius is a boy's name of Latin origin, a Roman family name usually connected to Mars, the god of war.
French #2,546 in US
Herbert Herbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright army.
Germanic #2,661 in US
Jan Jan is 66 percent female on record because two unrelated uses collide — it is the ordinary man's name for John across Dutch, Polish and Czech, and a woman's short form of Janet and Janice in English.
Dutch #2,737 in US
Frédéric Frédéric is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning peaceful ruler, the French form of Frederick.
French #2,973 in US
Cyril Cyril means lord, and the man who carried it invented an alphabet — Cyrillic is named for the ninth-century missionary, though the script we call by his name was largely devised by his followers rather than by him.
Greek #3,164 in US
Boris Boris is a boy's name of Bulgar origin whose meaning is uncertain.
Bulgar #3,186 in US
Ted Ted is a boy's name that serves two unrelated names at once, and it exists because medieval English moved the n from "mine Edward."
English #3,192 in US
Hubert Hubert means bright mind, and its saint is the patron of hunters — Saint Hubertus, whose stag with a crucifix between its antlers is the emblem on every bottle of Jägermeister.
Germanic #3,392 in US
Gaston Gaston is a boy's name most likely meaning "from Gascony," and a Disney villain has made it difficult in English while France is reviving it.
French #3,397 in US
Luc Luc means from Lucania, an Italian region — so the name is a place rather than the light it is usually said to mean, and the light reading comes from confusion with a separate Latin word.
French #3,497 in US
Pascal Pascal is a boy's name meaning of Easter, given to children born at Passover or Easter — and the word behind it is Hebrew, not Latin.
French #3,586 in US
Geoffrey Geoffrey means peace, and only half of it is settled — the second element is agreed, while the first is disputed between three unrelated Germanic words, so the name is half-translatable.
French #3,611 in US
Timothée Timothée is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "honoring God," the French form of Timothy.
French #3,768 in US
Wilfred Wilfred is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "desiring peace."
English #3,805 in US
Rupert Rupert is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
Germanic #3,828 in US
Auguste Auguste is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "great" or "venerable," the French form of Augustus.
French #3,857 in US
Armand Armand is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "army man," the French form of Herman, borne by the cardinal who built the centralized French state.
French #3,934 in US
Etienne Etienne means crown, and the Greek behind it is the wreath given to victors — so a name now read as saintly began as a prize handed to the winner of a race.
French #3,966 in US
Rudolph Rudolph means famous wolf, and the reindeer was invented to sell things — a Montgomery Ward copywriter wrote him for a giveaway booklet in 1939, which makes him a corporate creation rather than a folk one.
German #4,168 in US
Amaury Amaury is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "work-ruler," and two crusader kings of Jerusalem carried it.
French #4,432 in US
Maxime Maxime is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "greatest," the French form of the Roman cognomen Maximus.
French #4,791 in US
Wilbert Wilbert means bright will, and it is one of a small set of names joining desire to brightness — the same beorht that ends Albert, Robert and Gilbert, on a first element meaning wanting something.
German #4,990 in US
François François is a boy's name meaning a Frenchman, or a Frank — and it is the name that gives France its own.
French #5,324 in US
Laurent Laurent is a boy's name meaning from Laurentum, the French form of Lawrence.
French #6,082 in US
Philippe Philippe is a boy's name, the French form of Philip, from Greek elements meaning lover of horses.
French #6,393 in US
Georges Georges is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "farmer," the French form of George, and the s is part of the name rather than a plural.
French #6,909 in US

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