Sophia for Boys

As many people have noticed I'm sure, there's a trend in U.S. naming toward Victorian, old-world style names, especially for girls. They travel well and they feel upper-class, historical, important. Girls have many popular choices in this genre, including Isabella, Sophia, Lily, Ava, Olivia, Emma, Samantha, Amelia...you get the picture. Moreover, going back to lists of given names from 100 years ago (see the Social Security Administration's lists) yields even more lovely, usable names for girls. But, as Laura Wattenberg points out, boys' names with this same feel are harder to come by. Parents who like Isabella and Sophia face the same familiar choices that parents of boys have always faced: William, Thomas, James, Edward, Charles, Jonathan, etc. All solid, traditional names, but just too normal. (As a compromise, informal observation suggests that baby William is more likely to go by his full name, and if he does get a nickname, you can bet it's "Will.")

I feel for parents expecting boys. So I took a look at lists of names given to boys in the early parts of the 20th century, which yielded a few possibilities. I also looked at popular names in Europe, and that's where the gold is. The Swedes are way ahead of Americans in choosing brothers for Sophia, and what's more, if the name appears on a European list, it's an automatic guarantee that the name travels well to that country at least. Here are some suggestions:

Adrian
Andre
Basil
Byron
Cecil
Conrad
Constantine
Cyril
Dominic
Dorian
Emil, Emile
Florian
Frederick
Hugo
Gabriel
Ivan
Ivar, Ivor
Harlan
Hector
Jasper
Julius
Leander
Linus
Louis, Lewis
Lyle
Magnus
Marius
Maximilian
Oscar
Paris
Quentin
Raphael
Raymond
Reginald
Roland
Sylvan
Thaddeus
Tobias
Victor
Vincent

It's a long list, but by no means do I think it's an exhaustive list. If tastes change just a little, some of the names that I hesitated to recommend whole-heartedly would sound great as globe-trotting come-back kids too.