75+ Unique Baby Boy Names for 2027 With Meanings

Published on September 17, 2026

Unique baby boy names get harder to find the longer you look, because every list circles back to the same forty names. These 75+ are different, and the numbers prove it. Every name includes its meaning and how many American boys actually received it last year, according to the Social Security Administration. They are grouped by style so you can go straight to what you like: short and modern, old and nearly forgotten, or something from further afield.

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Irish and Welsh Names

Ronan

Origin: Irish, Breton
Meaning: little seal
Popularity: #247 in 2025

Ronan is at its best year on record, 247, up from 335 a decade ago. Behind the Name gives it as the Breton and anglicized form of the Irish original without pinning a firm meaning to it. It is the softest of the Irish names here and the easiest for Americans to say on the first try.

Callum

Origin: Scottish
Meaning: dove
Popularity: #118 in 2025

Six hundred and eighty-five to 118 in ten years is the steepest climb on this entire list, and Callum did it quietly. Cal is the obvious short form and almost nobody bothers with it.

Lorcan

Origin: Irish
Meaning: little fierce one
Popularity: #8,656 in 2025

Little fierce one, from the Old Irish lorcc with a diminutive ending, and a twelfth century archbishop of Dublin carried it. Fewer than 300 American boys have ever been given it and it sits at 8,656. Genuinely unusual rather than unusual sounding.

Cormac

Origin: Irish
Meaning: uncertain, perhaps son of the chariot
Popularity: #1,298 in 2025

Cormac is slipping, 1,103 to 1,298, which is a shame. The meaning is uncertain, possibly built from corb meaning chariot and macc meaning son, and Cormac mac Airt was a semi legendary high king. One novelist has done more for it than any king did.

Declan

Origin: Irish
Meaning: uncertain
Popularity: #139 in 2025

Declan peaked at 95 in 2019 and has drifted back to 139, which makes it the one name here that has already had its moment. It was a good moment. If you want Irish without explaining it at every introduction, this is still the pick.

Finnegan

Origin: Irish
Meaning: from Fionn
Popularity: #526 in 2025

James Joyce put Finnegans Wake on a book in 1939 and took the title from an old Irish ballad, which is how a surname turned into a first name. It is at 526 and falling. Finn is doing most of the work now.

Rafferty

Origin: Irish
Meaning: from a surname
Popularity: #6,360 in 2025

Almost nobody uses Rafferty: 283 boys in total, and 6,360 this year, though it is rising. It has the rhythm of a name that ought to be far more common than it is.

Emrys

Origin: Welsh
Meaning: immortal
Popularity: #1,260 in 2025

Welsh for Ambrose, and Emrys Wledig was a Romano-British leader who fought the invading Anglo-Saxons in the fifth century. Geoffrey of Monmouth built a good deal of Merlin out of him. It has climbed from 2,417 to 1,260.

Griffin

Origin: Welsh, Latinized
Meaning: from Gruffudd, and the creature
Popularity: #222 in 2025

Two names in one, the Latinized Welsh Gruffudd and the creature with a lion’s body and an eagle’s head. It has sat around 222 for a decade without really moving. Steady is underrated.

Biblical and Ancient Names

Silas

Origin: Latin, biblical
Meaning: of the forest
Popularity: #71 in 2025

Silas is at 71, its best year on record, up from 128. It is a New Testament name carrying none of the heaviness that usually comes with one. The rare biblical pick that sounds modern without trying to.

Gideon

Origin: Hebrew
Meaning: hewer
Popularity: #337 in 2025

Steady as anything: 327 ten years ago and 337 now. Gideon was an Old Testament judge and the name has that weight without the solemnity. Everyone lands on Gid eventually.

Uriah

Origin: Hebrew
Meaning: Yahweh is my light
Popularity: #650 in 2025

Poor Uriah. He was the Hittite in King David’s army whom David had killed to take his wife, and then Dickens handed the name to Uriah Heep. It is at 650 and falling, and it deserves a fresh hearing.

Tobias

Origin: Hebrew
Meaning: Yahweh is good
Popularity: #283 in 2025

Tobias is rising quietly, 316 to 283. Three syllables that all land, with Toby waiting underneath for the days he does not want them.

Jonas

Origin: Greek, from Hebrew
Meaning: the Greek form of Jonah
Popularity: #599 in 2025

Greek form of Jonah, standard across Scandinavia, Germany and France, and at 599 and falling in America. It is the version for parents who find Jonah a little soft.

Phineas

Origin: Hebrew
Meaning: a variant of Phinehas
Popularity: #1,616 in 2025

Phineas last cracked the American top 1,000 in 1880 and sits at 1,616 today, rising slowly. It is the spelling used in some English versions of the Old Testament. A cartoon has done it no harm at all.

Ira

Origin: Hebrew
Meaning: watchful
Popularity: #822 in 2025

Watchful, in Hebrew, and it belonged to one of King David’s priests. Ira was at 57 in 1881 and is at 822 now, climbing back. Two syllables, no fuss, and old enough to be new again.

Titus

Origin: Latin, biblical
Meaning: uncertain
Popularity: #358 in 2025

Titus is falling, 280 to 358, after a solid run. Roman, in the New Testament, and it sounds like it could carry a shield. Firm without being aggressive.

Lior

Origin: Hebrew
Meaning: my light
Popularity: #1,968 in 2025

My light, built from li meaning for me and or meaning light. Lior is at its best year on record at 1,968 and is given to girls as well. It is the shortest way to say something warm.

Yusuf

Origin: Arabic
Meaning: the Arabic form of Joseph
Popularity: #450 in 2025

Yusuf is at 450, the highest it has ever ranked in America, up from 591. It is one of the most used names on earth, which the American charts do not begin to reflect.

Ignatius

Origin: Latin, from Etruscan
Meaning: uncertain, later tied to fire
Popularity: #1,664 in 2025

Fire is the association, though the Roman family name Egnatius underneath has an uncertain Etruscan meaning and the fire arrived through a later respelling toward the Latin ignis. Saint Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuits. It is at 1,664 and rising.

Ambrose

Origin: Latin, from Greek
Meaning: immortal
Popularity: #735 in 2025

Immortal, from the Greek, and Saint Ambrose was the fourth century bishop of Milan. It was at 233 in 1881 and is at 735 now, up hard from 1,588 ten years ago. Ambrose is coming back and you heard it here first.

Myth and Literature Names

Orion

Origin: Greek myth
Meaning: the hunter
Popularity: #334 in 2025

Orion gets the best of both, a hunter in Greek myth and the easiest constellation in the winter sky to find. It is at 334 and rising. Nobody named Orion has to explain it twice.

Atlas

Origin: Greek myth
Meaning: bearer of the heavens
Popularity: #75 in 2025

Four hundred and eighty-seven to 75 in ten years, and 2025 is its best year yet. Atlas held up the sky, which is either aspirational or a great deal to hand a newborn. It has gone properly mainstream now.

Caspian

Origin: Literary
Meaning: from the sea
Popularity: #491 in 2025

Narnia did this one and there is no point pretending otherwise. Caspian has climbed from 1,547 to 491, its best year on record. It sounds like a place because it is one.

Dorian

Origin: Literary
Meaning: invented, perhaps after the Dorians
Popularity: #539 in 2025

Oscar Wilde invented Dorian in 1891 for the man whose portrait aged instead of him, possibly borrowing from the Dorians of ancient Greece. It has barely moved in a decade, 560 to 539. The book holds up better than people expect.

Percival

Origin: Old French
Meaning: uncertain, perhaps pierce the valley
Popularity: #1,536 in 2025

Chretien de Troyes made this name up in the twelfth century for a poem about a Welsh boy who wanted to be one of Arthur’s knights. It peaked at 744 in 1886 and is at 1,536, up sharply from 5,676. Percy is the price of admission.

Ulysses

Origin: Latin
Meaning: the Latin form of Odysseus
Popularity: #1,201 in 2025

Grant carried it through a war and into the White House, and Joyce put it on a novel. It peaked at 272 in 1895 and sits at 1,201. Heavy, but the good kind of heavy.

Peregrine

Origin: Latin
Meaning: traveler
Popularity: #3,359 in 2025

Traveler, from the Latin Peregrinus, borne by early saints and by a passenger on the Mayflower. Only 322 American boys have ever had it. The most English name on this list and the hardest to shorten well.

Zephyr

Origin: Greek
Meaning: west wind
Popularity: #1,203 in 2025

West wind, from the Greek Zephyros, who was the god of it. Zephyr is at 1,203 and rising. A name that sounds like weather, which is lovely or too much depending on the day.

Jericho

Origin: Hebrew
Meaning: uncertain, perhaps moon or fragrance
Popularity: #886 in 2025

Walls came down at Jericho and that is what everyone will think of. The city’s name is of uncertain meaning, perhaps from a word for moon, perhaps fragrance. It is at 886 and rising, and it is bold and knows it.

Dashiell

Origin: English
Meaning: uncertain
Popularity: #2,291 in 2025

Hammett took Dashiell from his mother’s surname, possibly an anglicized French de Chiel of unknown meaning, and put it on the cover of every hard boiled novel that mattered. It is at 2,291 and falling. Dash is the whole appeal.

Marlowe

Origin: English
Meaning: remnants of a lake
Popularity: #3,286 in 2025

Much rarer on boys than on girls, 1,662 in total, sitting at 3,286. The surname comes from the town of Marlow, whose Old English name means remnants of a lake. Christopher Marlowe and Philip Marlowe pull it in two directions at once.

Surname Names

Thatcher

Origin: English
Meaning: a thatcher of roofs
Popularity: #1,111 in 2025

Roofs, specifically the straw ones, from the Old English thaec. Thatcher is at 1,111 and falling after peaking at 798 in 2019. It sounds like money in a way few names here do.

Vance

Origin: English
Meaning: marsh, fen
Popularity: #1,080 in 2025

Marsh, of all things, from the Old English fenn behind the surname. It peaked at 328 in 1969 and sits at 1,080. One syllable, hard ending, no nickname to hide in.

Niles

Origin: English
Meaning: from Neil
Popularity: #2,506 in 2025

Nobody has used Niles since 1950, when it last cracked the top 1,000, and it is at 2,506 now and creeping up. It came from a surname built on Neil. One sitcom is the entire association and it is not a bad one.

Roscoe

Origin: English, Old Norse
Meaning: roebuck wood
Popularity: #2,248 in 2025

Roebuck wood is the literal meaning, from the Old Norse ra and skogr. Roscoe was at 117 in 1888, which is astonishing next to the 2,248 it holds today. Overdue by about eighty years.

Booker

Origin: English
Meaning: maker of books
Popularity: #1,160 in 2025

Maker of books, the best occupational meaning on this list, and Booker T. Washington is why anyone knows it. It hit 177 in 1910 and is at 1,160, climbing hard from 2,387.

Nash

Origin: English
Meaning: at the ash tree
Popularity: #255 in 2025

At the ash tree, from the Middle English atten ash. It took off in the mid nineties after a television series and sits at 255. The sharpest one syllable name here.

Hollis

Origin: English
Meaning: dweller by the holly trees
Popularity: #894 in 2025

Holly trees, in Middle English, for whoever lived beside them. Hollis was at 292 in 1908 and is at 894 now and rising. It works on girls too, which some parents want to know before anything else.

Quincy

Origin: English, from Latin
Meaning: from Quintus, fifth
Popularity: #654 in 2025

Fifth, in Latin, by way of a French place name and a Massachusetts town named for a great grandfather. John Quincy Adams and Quincy Jones between them make it hard to sound bad. It is at 654 and drifting.

Sawyer

Origin: English
Meaning: one who saws wood
Popularity: #122 in 2025

Sawyer peaked at 94 in 2015 and has slipped to 122, which counts as falling when you are this popular. Twain gave it a boyhood it still carries. Much the most used name on this list.

Ellis

Origin: English, Welsh
Meaning: from Elias
Popularity: #243 in 2025

Ellis is rising, 422 to 243, and it was at 155 back in 1899. It came from a surname built on Elis, a medieval form of Elias, and doubles as an anglicized Welsh Elisedd. It suits a quiet child and a loud one equally.

Vaughn

Origin: Welsh
Meaning: from the surname Vaughan
Popularity: #1,153 in 2025

Another isogram with no repeated letter, from a Welsh surname, a variant of Vaughan. It peaked at 348 in 1949 and sits at 1,153. There is a jazz record cool to it that never quite turned into use.

Maddox

Origin: Welsh
Meaning: from a surname
Popularity: #210 in 2025

Maddox is falling, 148 to 210, which is what happens when a name arrives on a famous adoption in 2002 and everyone notices at the same time. Still a strong sound underneath the timestamp.

Lennox

Origin: Scottish
Meaning: from a place name
Popularity: #289 in 2025

Boxers and bandleaders, and a Scottish district before either of them. Lennox has climbed to 289. That double consonant ending is doing all the work.

Knox

Origin: Scottish
Meaning: from a place name
Popularity: #196 in 2025

Knox reached its best year on record in 2025 at 196. Scottish, from a place name, and the shortest way to sound expensive. There is nowhere to shorten it, which parents either love or cannot bear.

Kingston

Origin: English
Meaning: the king’s town
Popularity: #204 in 2025

Kingston is at 204 and falling from 142. It is a place name twice over, in Jamaica and in England, and it arrived on a famous birth certificate in 2006. Big, and it knows it.

Holt

Origin: English
Meaning: no documented meaning
Popularity: #1,924 in 2025

Behind the Name has no entry for Holt as a first name at all, only as a surname and an old name element. It is at 1,924 and rising. Check the meaning yourself before you print one anywhere.

Rare and Barely Used Names

Fenn

Origin: English
Meaning: no documented meaning
Popularity: #7,840 in 2025

Sixty-three American boys have ever been given Fenn, and 2025 is the first year it has ranked at all, at 7,840. Behind the Name has no definition for it. If you want a name nobody in the class has, this is the shape of one.

Hux

Origin: English
Meaning: no documented meaning
Popularity: #5,695 in 2025

One hundred and forty-six boys, ever. Hux has no entry on Behind the Name and only turned up in the data in 2016. It sounds like a surname because that is what it is.

Quillon

Origin: American
Meaning: no documented meaning
Popularity: #13,658 in 2019, fewer than 5 babies in 2025

Ten boys, total, since 1998, and it has not ranked at all since 2019. Quillon has no documented meaning anywhere reputable. This is past unique and into invented.

Quade

Origin: American
Meaning: no documented meaning
Popularity: #2,299 in 2025

Quade has no entry either, listed only as a rare modern American name. It is at 2,299 and rising, which makes it the most used of the undocumented ones here.

Xiomar

Origin: Spanish
Meaning: no documented meaning
Popularity: #10,629 in 2025

Only 102 boys have ever been given Xiomar, and Behind the Name has nothing beyond a note that it is rare in Latin American Spanish. Rising, but from very nearly nothing.

Zephan

Origin: English
Meaning: no documented meaning
Popularity: #6,800 in 2025

Falling, and it was never high: 544 boys in total and 6,800 this year. It looks like a short form of Zephaniah, but no reference confirms that, so do not print it as fact.

Osias

Origin: Yiddish, Flemish
Meaning: no documented meaning
Popularity: #2,921 in 2025

Undocumented entirely: 434 boys since 2004, with no origin recorded anywhere reputable, listed only as rare in Yiddish and Flemish. It is at 2,921, its best year yet.

Oswin

Origin: English
Meaning: god friend
Popularity: #6,350 in 2025

God friend, in Old English, and Saint Oswin was a seventh century king of Northumbria. The name died out in the fourteenth century, had a short Victorian revival, and sits at 6,350. Of the rare names here it is the only one with real history behind it.

Ulric

Origin: English
Meaning: from Wulfric, wolf power
Popularity: #10,595 in 2025

Power and wolves, in the Middle English form of the Old English Wulfric, though modern use treats it as a variant of Ulrich. It is at 10,595 and falling. Sounds like a Norse king, reads like a typo.

Yates

Origin: English
Meaning: no documented meaning as a first name
Popularity: #6,434 in 2025

No entry as a given name, only as an English surname, and 517 boys have ever had it. It is rising, though. Sharp, short, and completely unclaimed.

Barnaby

Origin: English
Meaning: the English form of Barnabas
Popularity: #12,273 in 2025

Barnaby only started ranking in America this year, at 12,273, though British parents have used it for decades. It is the English form of Barnabas. Enormously charming and enormously underused over here.

Modern Short Names

Kai

Origin: Multiple
Meaning: varies by language
Popularity: #93 in 2025

Kai is at 93 and rising, and the appeal is obvious: three letters, one syllable, and it works in about six languages at once. It has been in the American data since 1926, which surprises people.

Zane

Origin: English
Meaning: uncertain
Popularity: #324 in 2025

Zane peaked at 199 in 2018 and has slipped to 324, which puts it at that awkward stage where it still feels of its moment. Give it fifteen years and it will feel classic.

Bodhi

Origin: Sanskrit
Meaning: enlightenment
Popularity: #265 in 2025

Enlightenment is the root idea, and Bodhi has climbed from 498 to 265, its best year on record. It arrived in the data in 1976, which places it exactly where you would guess.

Kellan

Origin: English
Meaning: a variant of Kellen
Popularity: #1,031 in 2025

Twilight put Kellan on the map in 2008 and the map has been shrinking ever since: 398 ten years ago, 1,031 now. It is a variant of Kellen with no separate meaning recorded.

Xander

Origin: Greek
Meaning: short for Alexander
Popularity: #259 in 2025

Short for Alexander without the weight, Xander is at 259 and falling from 206. One nineties television show is the origin of its American life, whatever anyone tells you.

Sylas

Origin: English
Meaning: a spelling of Silas
Popularity: #440 in 2025

Same sound as Silas, different spelling, and it is at 440, its best year yet. The y costs nothing and buys a little distance. Whether that is worth it is a matter of taste.

Elio

Origin: Italian
Meaning: sun
Popularity: #388 in 2025

Elio has gone from 2,173 to 388 in ten years, one of the biggest jumps on this list, and 2025 is its best year. A film did most of that. Two syllables, all vowels, no edges.

Milo

Origin: Germanic, Latin
Meaning: uncertain, perhaps merciful
Popularity: #119 in 2025

Milo hit its best year on record in 2025 at 119, up from 288. It has been in the data since 1880 and never really went away. Warm, short, and almost impossible to dislike.

Soren

Origin: Danish
Meaning: stern
Popularity: #464 in 2025

Danish, and the philosopher is the bearer everyone eventually mentions. It is at 464, its best year ever. Thoughtful without sounding fragile.

Gunnar

Origin: Scandinavian
Meaning: war and warrior
Popularity: #612 in 2025

War and warrior, from the Old Norse gunnr and herr, and in the legends Gunnar had his brother in law Sigurd killed over a false accusation. It is at 612 and falling. Not a subtle name.

Wolfgang

Origin: German
Meaning: wolf path
Popularity: #1,519 in 2025

Wolf path, from Old German, carried by a tenth century saint and by both Mozart and Goethe. It is at 1,519 and easing down. You need to be sure, and if you are sure it is magnificent.

Rhett

Origin: English
Meaning: uncertain
Popularity: #188 in 2025

Gone With the Wind is the whole story and Rhett has climbed to 188 regardless. It is Southern in a way nothing else here is. One syllable, all attitude.

Felix

Origin: Latin
Meaning: lucky, successful
Popularity: #175 in 2025

Happy, in Latin, and Felix has been in the data since 1880, peaking at 137 in 1884 and sitting at 175 now. It has never been unusable and it has never once been dull.

Otis

Origin: English
Meaning: from a Germanic name
Popularity: #652 in 2025

Otis was at 94 in 1899 and is at 652 now, rising steadily. One soul singer owns it as far as most people are concerned. The coolest name on this list, and I am not taking questions.

Wren

Origin: English
Meaning: the wren songbird
Popularity: #1,090 in 2025

Rarer on boys than on girls, 2,261 in total, and it is at 1,090 and climbing. It is the songbird, from Old English wrenna, and it slots behind a long first name beautifully.

Jasper

Origin: Persian, via Latin
Meaning: treasurer
Popularity: #129 in 2025

Stone, treasure, and one of the three kings depending which tradition you follow. Jasper is at 129 and rising and has been in the data since 1880. Of everything here it is likeliest to be top fifty in five years.

Nolan

Origin: Irish
Meaning: descendant of the champion
Popularity: #65 in 2025

Nolan has barely moved in ten years, 71 to 65, which on a list this size is remarkable. Irish by way of a surname. Parents want it and keep on wanting it.

Idris

Origin: Arabic
Meaning: possibly interpreter, teacher
Popularity: #694 in 2025

Possibly interpreter or teacher, from the Arabic root darasa meaning to study, and Idris is a prophet in the Quran identified with the Hebrew Enoch. It is at 694, its best year yet. One actor has done a great deal for it.

If you want unique but usable, Silas, Milo and Knox are all sitting inside the top 200 for a reason. If you want genuinely unclaimed, Fenn and Yates have fewer than 600 boys between them, ever.