While boy names are no where near as colorful as their female counterparts, I have noticed certain naming patterns very similar to ones I have been seeing in real life. Again, I not including odd names from high fantasy/sci-fi books because I expect those to be unusual.
Classic names: You can’t go wrong with a classic and both authors and new parents seem to share this sentiment as well. Some classic boy names I have been seeing in YA books include Noah (one of my favorites but I am biased :-), Alex, Michael, Nick, Daniel, Sam and Mark.
Since celebrities have taken up this granny chic baby naming trend of naming their daughters very old fashioned names, I’m including grandpa chic under classic names as well. Some of those include: Jasper, Emmett, Edward (no guys, I didn’t get all these names from Twilight, I found them in other books as well), Henry/Henri, Warren, William, James, Carl and Archie.
Popular names: I have noticed that these names are quite popular in real life and I have come across them again and again in YA books: Caleb/Kaleb, Daimon/Daemon, Logan and Lucas.
Trendy names: While the hubs was not into trendy boy names and would not consider them for our sons, I find them appealing. Some on my favorite fictional character names are Ash/Asher, Jace, Kai, Aiden, Kaiden, Nico, Devon, Chase, Adrian, Gray, Trent, Dace and Cade.
Unusual names: While these are not names you run across a lot, some are multi-cultural and some are just, well, different. Some unusual names I’ve come across in books recently include: Kona, Mirko, Jin, Boyce, Nero and Falco.
Made up names: In my previous post, I stated that I did not like made up girl names and shockingly, outside of high fantasy and sci-fi, I really have not come across many made-up boy names! There are tons of made up girl names in YA but authors don’t seem to extend the creative monikers to boys. Why do you think this is? Are they out there and I’ve just missed them?
What are your favorite boy names in YA? Which ones do you wish you could see more of and which do you think are over done? Let me know in the comments, I would love to know what you think.
4 comments:
I like Augustus, Jem, Will (which is ALL OVER the place!), Benny, and Jase (I like the spelling in My Life Next Door better than Jace since Jace is, as my husband informs me, a Magic the Gathering card...) :). I also LOVE the name Leo (Graffiti Moon), which was my grandpa's name, and will likely be my son's name if I'm lucky enough to have one. I would love to see more classic names in YA. I'm so tired of the weird names; it's okay when a character or two have uncommon or made-up names, since that's realistic, but whole books (besides high fantasy/sci-fi) full of characters with them just seems silly. I can't help but think "really? 80% of the population in such-and-such contemporary setting all gave their kids made-up names?"
Great post! :)
I am so over the whole Kaiden thing. I feel like than name is everywhere. My favorite boy name is probably Ethan Carter Waite from Beautiful Creatures, it has such a classic southern feel.
Um, I mean it's not "made up" but the name Metias in Legend was pretty unique. Also Cassel Sharpe in Holly Black's Curseworkers series.
Lovely post idea ! You made a great point, I can't think of one "made up" boys name.
I think it's easier to experiment with girl names rather than boy ones, so maybe that's why there's more made up girl names??? I don't know. But to piggy-back off Kat, is "Cassel" a made up name? I thought that was real. Maybe not.
I like trendy names, too! Although I'm not sure if I would use one for my kid, since they're well...trendy. But I love "Nico"! I actually know a little boy with that name, and I think it's adorable.
Also, am I the only one that thinks of the show "Lost" when I see the name "Jin"? Yay! Loved his character! Let's add "Sayid" to the list of multi-cultural names! :)
OH MY GOSH! Congrats!!
Also, I just did a post on a book I found called A is for Atticus. It's about classic baby names from books!
I'm so excited for you, NC!
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