Boho Boy Names

Basie is a fabulous jazz name to honor the Count, whose birth name was William, the influential pianist, organist, bandleader and composer who led his band for almost fifty years.

A new entry is the fashionable new occupational name category -- and a jolly job it must be -- with the added attraction of relating to the great early 20th century American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, of "Whistler's Mother" fame.

Writer Anne Tyler gave this apt name to the hippie child in her novel Amateur Marriage, but she wasn't the first -- it was also used by the Puritans. Today it would be quite a loaded choice.

This Old Welsh name associated with blacksmiths has never caught on, but it has the right two-syllable occupational feel to qualify for revival. Gower Champion was a successful midcentury dancer, choreographer and director on the Broadway stage, in films and on TV.