Baby Boy Names

Liam is the top boys' name in the US, holding the Number 1 spot for the past five years and also ranking as one of the most popular boys' names around the western world.

Liev Schreiber's birth name is Isaac Liev, Liev after his mother's favorite Russia author, Leo Tolstoy. Though Liev is increasing in popularity in the secular world thanks to the actor, it originated as a Yiddish diminutive.

The graceful, natural image of the verdant shade tree transcends any connection with President Johnson.

Can Linus lose its metaphorical security blanket and move from the Peanuts page onto the birth certificate? We think it has enough charm and other positive elements going for it for the answer to be yes.

Lochlan and Lachlan are running neck and neck and both rising into the Top 1000. Which spelling you use is purely a matter of taste.

Interestingly, Locke is a gender-neutral name used only for boys, while word name Lock is so rare it was given to fewer than five children of either gender in the US last year.

According to exclusive Nameberry data, Logan is officially the Number 1 gender-neutral name in the US, but that statistic is somewhat misleading given that nearly 90 percent of the baby Logans born in 2023 were boys.

This artistic surname name derives from a diminutive of Laurence/Lawrence, and was famously borne by the English painter LS Lowry.

The related Lucas and Luke are both hugely popular boy names in the US and internationally, and now Luca has joined them on boys' popularity lists around the world.

Lucan is a rarely heard Irish name, a Luke form with the trendy an ending.

Lucas is a Top 10 boys' name with a slightly-less-popular almost-identical twin brother, Luke. Like Elijah and Elias, Lucas and Luke come from the same root and have the same meaning and so feel even more popular than they are.

Lucian is a sleeker, more sophisticated version of Lucius that is climbing in tandem with other Lu-starting names.

Lumen is a Latin word meaning "light", and the term used for the measurement of light output (making it an attractive choice for science-buffs).

A jovial and jaunty Irish name, the title of a long-gone TV crime drama, this would make an appealing choice. Slight downside: Maddy is already a mega-popular nickname for Madeline/Madelyn and Madison, so this Mad- name might not feel as distinctive as the stats would suggest.

An Old Testament name with a Gaelic lilt, Malachi entered the list in 1987.

Malcolm is a warm and welcoming Scottish appellation (originally Mael-Colium) that fits into that golden circle of names that are distinctive but not at all odd. A royal name in Scotland, Malcolm is also a hero name for many via radical civil rights activist Malcolm X.

Malo, the name of an important sixth century Breton saint who founded St. Malo, the charming port town in Brittany -- is considered quite au courant in France right now, ranking firmly in the Top 100.

Though ancient, Marcus now sounds more current than Mark, in tune with today's trend towards us-ending Latinate names.

Marlow is a suave, unusual surname-name that was chosen by Celine designer Phoebe Philo for her older son. Caveat: it sounds just like the feminine Marlo and, with the addition of a final 'e', has begun to be used for girls.

Marshall is an occupational surname, not having to do with anything military or martial, but stemming from the Norman French for someone caring for horses. It's been used as a first name since the nineteenth century and has been on the Social Security list since it started to publish its data in 1880.