Surname Boy Names

Family names used as first names. Most began as one of four things: a father's name, a trade, a place, or a nickname — and the trade ones are the easiest to read centuries later.

Rankings for

180 names, most popular first in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Kane Kane is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "battle", from Ó Catháin.
Irish #451 in US
Karson Karson is a boy's name of Scottish and Irish origin, a respelling of Carson.
Scottish #453 in US
Kameron Kameron means crooked nose, and it is one of very few clan names built on a face — the Scottish cam sròn described a feature, and an entire Highland kindred took it.
Scottish #467 in US
Ford Ford is a boy's name from an English surname for someone living by a river crossing, from the Old English word ford.
English #474 in US
Leland Leland means fallow land — ground deliberately left unplowed for a season.
English #494 in US
Donovan Donovan means dark brown, and the Irish surname behind it belonged to a king who backed the wrong side — the Uí Donnabháin lost their lands after opposing Brian Boru in the tenth century.
Irish #496 in US
Royce Royce is a boy's name from an English surname meaning "son of Roy" or "son of Rose."
English #499 in US
Pierce Pierce is a boy's name meaning "rock," from the medieval Piers, the Norman form of Peter.
English, Greek #505 in US
Callen Callen is a boy's name of Irish origin.
Irish #517 in US
Finnegan Finnegan is a boy's name of Irish origin, from the surname Ó Fionnagáin, built on Fionnagán, a diminutive of Fionn, "fair" or "white."
Irish #526 in US
Tyson Tyson means son of the firebrand, and it began as an insult — the Old French tison named a hot-tempered man, so the surname records a reputation the family did not choose.
English #531 in US
Scott Scott is a boy's name meaning a Scot, from the surname given to people from Scotland.
Scottish #534 in US
Kendrick Kendrick is a boy's name from a surname with several origins. It may come from the Welsh Cynwrig, the Old English Cyneric, "royal power," or the Scottish MacHenry.
English, Welsh, Scottish #535 in US
Bruce Bruce is a boy's name from a Norman place name, and Scotland's most famous king carried it as an import — the Bruces came from Normandy, not from Scotland.
Norman #537 in US
Fletcher Fletcher is a boy's name from an English occupational surname for a maker of arrows.
English, French #546 in US
Devin Devin is a name from an Irish surname, and its meanings are contested — poet, and a word for a stag, are both proposed from different Irish originals.
Irish #548 in US
Garrett Garrett means spear-strength or spear-rule, and it descends from two different Germanic names that medieval English speakers could no longer tell apart.
English #564 in US
Rhodes Rhodes is a boy's name from the Greek island, whose name is often linked to rhodon, "rose."
Greek, English #575 in US
Colby Colby is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "Koli's farm," from villages in the English Danelaw.
English #615 in US
Keegan Keegan descends from a pagan god, not a small flame — Aodh was the Irish deity of fire and the sun, and the diminutive gloss softens a name that originally invoked him.
Irish #621 in US
Wayne Wayne is an occupational surname meaning a wagon maker, and its life as a given name follows one man — John Wayne, who was born Marion Robert Morrison and renamed by a studio.
English #653 in US
Otis Otis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune."
Germanic #655 in US
Wilson Wilson rose and fell with a presidency, and birth records show it plainly — 129 American births in 1911, then 496 in 1912, climbing to 1,381 by 1918 and back to 590 by 1920.
English #672 in US
Dexter Dexter is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "right-handed" or "skilful."
Latin #692 in US
Dustin Dustin is a boy's name from the Old Norse Thorstein, meaning Thor's stone — the dust in the spelling is pure coincidence.
Norse #728 in US
Corey Corey is a boy's name from an Irish surname, generally given as dweller near a hollow.
Irish #779 in US
Douglas Douglas is a boy's name from the Scottish Gaelic for dark water, originally a river and then a powerful border family.
Scottish Gaelic #807 in US
Nelson Nelson means son of Neil, and the admiral made it a given name — it was a surname until Trafalgar, after which parents across the English-speaking world started using it as a first name outright.
English #826 in US
Flynn Flynn is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "reddish" or "ruddy," from a surname rather than a personal name.
Irish #827 in US
Stanley Stanley is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "stony clearing."
English #863 in US
Conner Conner means desiring hounds rather than loving them — the Irish joins a word for a hound or wolf to one meaning desire, and the softer lover of hounds gloss smooths over what was a warrior's name.
Irish #864 in US
Mitchell Mitchell is a boy's name from a medieval English form of Michael, meaning who is like God — though a second and quite separate source exists from an old word simply meaning big.
English #952 in US
Wallace Wallace means foreigner, and the irony is complete — it is the Anglo-Saxon word for the Britons who were there first, so Scotland's national hero carries a name meaning outsider in his own country.
Scottish #961 in US
Gage Gage means a pledge, and it names the object rather than the person — the thing handed over as security.
French #975 in US
Curtis Curtis is a boy's name from a Norman French nickname meaning courteous, and it is one of very few names that describes manners rather than birth, appearance or trade.
French #984 in US
Howard Howard is a boy's name whose origin is contested — high guardian, brave heart and even a keeper of pigs have all been proposed.
English #1,003 in US
Brodie Brodie is a boy's name of Scottish origin taken from a place near Forres in Moray.
Scottish #1,038 in US
Lyle Lyle is a boy's name from the Norman French for "the island," and the l at the front is the definite article rather than part of the word.
Scottish #1,047 in US
Gordon Gordon is a Scottish surname turned given name, from a place in Berwickshire whose meaning is not settled — spacious fort is the usual gloss but it is a guess.
Scottish #1,052 in US
Gary Gary is a boy's name that reached the charts by an unusually traceable route: a surname became a steel town in Indiana, the town's name was given to an actor, and the actor made it a first name.
English #1,074 in US
Rodney Rodney is a boy's name from an English place name, and its rise as a given name follows a single admiral — George Rodney, who broke the French line at the Saintes in 1782.
English #1,091 in US
Braden Braden means descendant of the salmon, and the fish is not decorative — the Salmon of Knowledge is the center of one of the best-known Irish stories, in which Fionn gains all wisdom by burning his thumb on it.
Irish #1,152 in US
Harris Harris is a boy's name of English origin meaning "son of Harry," a surname turned first name that has climbed to ninth in Scotland.
English #1,297 in US
Bryant Bryant means noble or high, and the t is a French accident — Norman scribes added it to the Irish Brian, so the surname carries a letter the original name never had.
Irish #1,327 in US
Jenson Jenson is a boy's name of Scandinavian origin meaning "son of Jens."
Scandinavian #1,348 in US
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
English #1,352 in US
Brett Brett means a Breton — someone from Brittany, which is named for the Britons who fled there when the Anglo-Saxons arrived.
English #1,385 in US
Luther Luther means army of the people, and its weight comes from a surname rather than a saint — Martin Luther's family name became a given name across the Protestant world, and then across Black America.
German #1,463 in US

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