RachaelHanna's Personal Name List

Short form of Alexander. It was popularized in the English-speaking world by a character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003).

Short form of Wolfgang, Wolfram and other names containing the Old German element wolf meaning "wolf" (Proto-Germanic *wulfaz). It can also be simply from the German or English word. As a Jewish name it can be considered a vernacular form of Zeev.

From an English surname meaning "wild, untamed, uncontrolled", from Old English wilde.

From the Roman name Vincentius, which was derived from Latin vincere meaning "to conquer". This name was popular among early Christians, and it was borne by many saints. As an English name, Vincent has been in use since the Middle Ages, though it did not become common until the 19th century. Famous bearers include the French priest Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) and the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).

Probably from the Celtic name Drustan, a diminutive of Drust, which occurs as Drystan in a few Welsh sources. As Tristan, it first appears in 12th-century French tales, probably altered by association with Old French triste "sad". According to the tales Tristan was sent to Ireland by his uncle King Mark of Cornwall in order to fetch Iseult, who was to be the king's bride. On the way back, Tristan and Iseult accidentally drink a potion that makes them fall in love. Later versions of the tale make Tristan one of King Arthur's knights. His tragic story was very popular in the Middle Ages, and the name has occasionally been used since then.

From an English nickname meaning "three".

From an English surname that originally denoted someone who lived by the River Trent. A famous bearer is the American musician Trent Reznor (1965-).

Trent is also a city in Italy, though the etymology is unrelated.

Short form of Tracy.

From the Old Norse name Þórsteinn, which meant "Thor's stone" from the name of the Norse god Þórr (see Thor) combined with steinn "stone".

Anglicized form of Tighearnán.

Norwegian variant form of Torsten.

German male name representing the Germanic god Thor.

Used by JRR Tolkien as the name of a dwarf, Thorin Oakensheild, who is the main dwarf in 'The Hobbit'. Tolkien took the name from the Dvergatal "Catalogue of Dwarves" in the Völuspá, a part of the Poetic Edda.

From the Gothic name *Þiudareiks meaning "ruler of the people", derived from the elements þiuda "people" and reiks "ruler, king". It was notably borne by Theodoric the Great, a 6th-century king of the Ostrogoths who eventually became the ruler of Italy. By Theodoric's time the Ostrogoths were partially Romanized and his name was regularly recorded as Theodoricus. This was also the name of two earlier (5th century) Visigothic kings.

Short form of Theodore, Theobald and other names that begin with Theo.

From the Scottish and English noble title, which was originally from Old English thegn.

From Chinese 太 (tài) meaning "very, extreme" or other characters pronounced in a similar way.

From an Irish surname, the Anglicized form of Ó Súileabháin, itself from the given name Súileabhán, which was derived from Irish súil "eye" and dubh "dark, black" combined with a diminutive suffix. This name has achieved a moderate level of popularity in France since the 1970s. In the United States it was rare before the 1990s, after which it began climbing steadily. A famous fictional bearer of the surname was James P. Sullivan from the animated movie Monsters, Inc. (2001).

From a Scots surname that was derived from city of Stirling, which is itself of unknown meaning. The name can also be given in reference to the English word sterling meaning "excellent". In this case, the word derives from sterling silver, which was so named because of the emblem that some Norman coins bore, from Old English meaning "little star".

Transferred use of the surname Slater.

From an English surname that was derived from Old English slæd meaning "valley".

The name of a companion of Saint Paul in the New Testament. It is probably a short form of Silvanus, a name that Paul calls him by in the epistles. It is possible that Silvanus and Silas were Latin and Greek forms of the Hebrew name Saul (via Aramaic).

As an English name it was not used until after the Protestant Reformation. It was utilized by George Eliot for the title character in her novel Silas Marner (1861).

From Σήθ (Seth), the Greek form of Egyptian swtẖ or stẖ (reconstructed as Sutekh), which is of unknown meaning. Seth was the Egyptian god of chaos and the desert, the slayer of Osiris. Osiris's son Horus eventually defeats Seth and has him banished to the desert.

Means "support" in Kazakh.

From a Latin variant of Scorpio. This is the name of a zodiacal constellation said to have the shape of a scorpion. According to Greek and Roman legend it was the monster that was sent to kill Orion.

Means "companion in evening talk" in Arabic, from the root سمر (samara) meaning "to talk in the evening".

From Sanskrit समीर (samīra) meaning "wind, air".

From a surname that was derived from an Old English place name meaning "horse spring".

Means "famous ruler" from the Old German elements hruod "fame" and rih "ruler, king". This name was in use among the Visigoths; it was borne by their last king (Gothic form *Hroþireiks, also known by the Spanish form Rodrigo), who died fighting the Muslim invaders of Spain in the 8th century. It also had cognates in Old Norse and West Germanic, and Scandinavian settlers and Normans introduced it to England, though it died out after the Middle Ages. It was revived in the English-speaking world by Walter Scott's 1811 poem The Vision of Don Roderick [1].

This name has also functioned as an Anglicized form of Scottish Ruaridh or Welsh Rhydderch.

From a surname that comes from two distinct sources. As an Irish surname it is a variant of Reilly. As an English surname it is derived from a place name meaning "rye clearing" in Old English.

Before 1980, this was an uncommon masculine name in America. During the 1980s and 90s this name steadily increased in popularity for both boys and girls, and from 2003 onwards it has been more common for girls in the United States. Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, it has remained largely masculine.

From a surname, an Anglicized form of the Dutch de Raedt, derived from raet "advice, counsel". Margaret Mitchell used this name for the character Rhett Butler in her novel Gone with the Wind (1936).

From the Germanic name Raginhard, composed of the elements regin "advice, counsel, decision" and hart "hard, firm, brave, hardy". The Normans brought it to England in the form Reinard, though it never became very common there. In medieval fables the name was borne by the sly hero Reynard the Fox (with the result that renard has become a French word meaning "fox").

French form of Reynard. Because of the medieval character Reynard the Fox, renard became a French word meaning "fox".

From an English surname that was derived from the medieval given name Randel.

German form of Rayner.

Variant of Reynard.

From the Old Norse elements regin "advice, counsel" and herr "army, warrior". It is a cognate of Rayner. This name was borne by the legendary Viking hero Ragnar Lodbrok.

Medieval Irish form of Ragnvaldr.

From an Irish surname, itself derived from the given name Rabhartach meaning "flood tide".

From an English surname that was derived from the given name Piers. In America this name slowly started to grow in popularity in 1982 when actor Pierce Brosnan (1953-) began starring on the television series Remington Steele.

From the name of a beautiful immortal bird that appears in Egyptian and Greek mythology. After living for several centuries in the Arabian Desert, it would be consumed by fire and rise from its own ashes, with this cycle repeating every 500 years. The name of the bird was derived from Greek φοῖνιξ (phoinix) meaning "dark red".

Possibly a variant of Niall or Niles.

Short form of Nicholas (or sometimes Nicodemus).

Irish form of Neil.

Means "marked" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament this is the name of the head of a family of temple servants.

Contracted form of Micaiah. Micah is one of the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament. He authored the Book of Micah, which alternates between prophesies of doom and prophesies of restoration. This is also the name of a separate person in the Book of Judges, the keeper of an idol. It was occasionally used as an English given name by the Puritans after the Protestant Reformation, but it did not become common until the end of the 20th century.

From an English surname that was derived from the Old German given name Meginhard.

Derived from the English word maverick meaning "independent". The word itself is derived from the surname of a 19th-century Texas rancher who did not brand his calves.

Italian form of Matthew.

From an English surname that originally denoted a person who was a marshal. The word marshal originally derives from Latin mariscalcus, itself from Germanic roots akin to Old High German marah "horse" and scalc "servant". A famous bearer is the American rapper Marshall Mathers (1972-), who performs under the name Eminem.

From a noble title that derives from the Old French word marche meaning "march, borderland". The title originally referred to someone who ruled on the borderlands of a realm.

Meaning unknown. This name was popularized by the American actor Marlon Brando (1924-2004), who was named after his father.

Hawaiian form of Mark.

Romanian and English form of Lucianus. Lucian is the usual name of Lucianus of Samosata in English.

Italian and Romanian form of Lucas (see Luke). This name was borne by Luca della Robbia, a Renaissance sculptor from Florence.

From an English surname that was originally from the name of an English city, called Lindum Colonia by the Romans, derived from Brythonic lindo "lake, pool" and Latin colonia "colony". This name is usually given in honour of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), president of the United States during the American Civil War.

From Hebrew לִוְיָתָן (Liwyaṯan), derived from לִוְיָה (liwya) meaning "garland, wreath" [1]. This is the name of an enormous sea monster mentioned in the Old Testament.

Meaning unexplained. This is the name of the villain, Kylo Ren, in the Star Wars movie sequels, starting with The Force Awakens in 2015. Originally named Ben Solo, he is the son of Han Solo and Leia Skywalker. His name might simply be formed from the ky of Skywalker and the lo of Solo.

From the Hebrew name יְהוֹנָתָן (Yehonaṯan), contracted to יוֹנָתָן (Yonaṯan), meaning "Yahweh has given", derived from the roots יְהוֹ (yeho) referring to the Hebrew God and נָתַן (naṯan) meaning "to give". According to the Old Testament, Jonathan was the eldest son of Saul. His relationship with his father was strained due to his close friendship with his father's rival David. Along with Saul he was killed in battle with the Philistines.

As an English name, Jonathan did not become common until after the Protestant Reformation. A famous bearer was the Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), who wrote Gulliver's Travels and other works.

Short form of Jackson. It appeared in the video game Mortal Kombat II in 1993. It first registered as a given name in the United States in 1995 (when it was used only five times) but steadily grew in popularity for two decades, probably inspired by similar names like Max and Dax and helped by a character of this name on the American television series Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014).

From an English surname meaning "carter, peddler". It is used as a given name in honour of the British musician Mick Jagger (1943-), the lead vocalist of the Rolling Stones.

Short form of Jason, sometimes used independently. It was brought to limited attention in America by the lead character in the western television series Tales of the Texas Rangers (1955-1958). Towards the end of the 20th century it began steadily increasing in popularity, reaching the 66th spot for boys in the United States in 2013.

From an English occupational surname for a hunter, derived from Old English hunta. A famous bearer was the eccentric American journalist Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005).

From a Dutch surname that was derived from the given name Hendrik. A famous bearer of the surname was the American rock musician Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970).

Old Swedish form of Hallsteinn (see Hallstein).

Transferred use of the surname Halen.

From the Old Norse name Gunnarr, which was derived from the elements gunnr "war" and herr "army, warrior" (making it a cognate of Gunther). In Norse legend Gunnar was the husband of Brynhildr. He had his brother-in-law Sigurd murdered based on his wife's false accusations that Sigurd had taken her virginity.

From an English surname of Old French origin meaning either "measure", originally denoting one who was an assayer, or "pledge", referring to a moneylender. It was popularized as a given name by a character from the book Pet Sematary (1983) and the subsequent movie adaptation (1989).

Diminutive of Frank or Frances.

From an English surname meaning "fisherman".

From Sumerian 𒂗 (en) meaning "lord" and 𒆠 (ki) meaning "earth, ground" (though maybe originally from 𒆳 (kur) meaning "underworld, mountain"). Enki, called Ea by the Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians, was the Sumerian god of water and wisdom and the keeper of the Me, the divine laws.

From an Irish surname, an Anglicized form of Ó Donndubháin, itself derived from the given name Donndubán. This name is borne by the Scottish folk musician Donovan Leitch (1946-), known simply as Donovan.

Medieval short form of Durante. The most notable bearer of this name was Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the Italian poet who wrote the Divine Comedy.

From the name of the Native American people of the northern Mississippi Valley, or from the two American states that were named for them: North and South Dakota (until 1889 unified as the Dakota Territory). The tribal name means "allies, friends" in the Dakota language.

It was rare as an American given name before 1975. In the mid-1980s it began growing in popularity for boys after a character by this name began appearing on the soap opera Ryan's Hope. It is now more common as a feminine name, probably due to the fame of the actress Dakota Fanning (1994-).

Diminutive of Ciar. This was the name of two 6th-century Irish saints: Ciarán the Elder, the founder of the monastery at Saighir, and Ciarán the Younger, the founder of the monastery at Clonmacnoise.

From an English surname meaning "chase, hunt" in Middle English, originally a nickname for a huntsman.

Originally a diminutive of Chauncey. It is now usually given in reference to the English word chance meaning "luck, fortune" (ultimately derived from Latin cadens "falling").

Roman cognomen meaning "wise" in Latin. This name was bestowed upon Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Cato), a 2nd-century BC Roman statesman, author and censor, and was subsequently inherited by his descendants, including his great-grandson Cato the Younger (Marcus Porcius Cato Uticencis), a politician and philosopher who opposed Julius Caesar.

From an Irish surname (Anglicized from Irish Gaelic Ó Caiside), which is derived from the byname Caiside. Very rare as a given name before the 1970s, it established itself in the 80s and then surged in popularity during the 90s.

From an Irish surname, the Anglicized form of Ó Ciardha, which is a patronymic derived from the given name Ciardha.

From the name of the city in Egypt, called القاهرة (al-Qāhira) in Arabic, meaning "the victorious" [1].

From the English word for the animal, derived from Old English bera, probably derived from a root meaning "brown".

From Ashtaroth, the plural form of Ashtoreth used in the Bible to refer to Phoenician idols. This spelling was used in late medieval demonology texts to refer to a type of (masculine) demon.

Possibly means "healer" in Hebrew. This name was borne by the third king of Judah, as told in the Old Testament.

Meaning uncertain. It was perhaps inspired by the fictional place name Arlo Hill from the poem The Faerie Queene (1590) by Edmund Spenser. Spenser probably got Arlo by altering the real Irish place name Aherlow, meaning "between two highlands".

Means "ram" in Latin. This is the name of a constellation and the first sign of the zodiac. Some Roman legends state that the ram in the constellation was the one who supplied the Golden Fleece sought by Jason.

Variant of Amyas.