Happy Fathers’ Day! Let’s freshen up those Dad Names.

　　Dad Names are boy names that peaked in the 1980s and 1990s. This means they’re most likely to belong to men in their twenties and thirties now: today’s new dads.

　　If you’re a first-time parent, you might not know many young children yet, so you may not realise that name fashions have moved on for the next generation. Today’s “typical” names are not all the ones you grew up with. While some classics endure, like William and James which are still in the Top 10, others have faded a little and the name pool is becoming more varied and diverse. A boy born today is more likely to be named Mateo or Carter than Matthew or Christopher.

　　This is useful information, whatever your name style. If you want to give your son a name that blends in with his peers, the options may be wider than you realize (and calling him a past-its-peak name like Justin could make him stand out more than you intend). But if you want a bold statement name, you may need to up the bar even higher. Even if you don’t know anyone called Maverick or Ryker, tens of thousands of them will be starting school in the next few years.

　　To inspire you with options fresh for this generation, here are alternatives to the most popular names of the 1980s and 1990s combined. They have a similar sound, style or origin, and all would be stylish — and not weird — on a boy of today.

　　Just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with any of these Dad Names. In fact some of them are even more popular now than they were back then. But these alternatives offer cool, rising options that are distinctive for boys born today.

Top 100 Boy Names of the 1980s and 1990s

　　2 Christopher → Sebastian

　　3 Matthew → Mateo

　　4 Joshua → Josiah

　　5 David → Davis

　　6 Daniel → Dashiell

　　7 James → Henry

　　8 John → Jack

　　9 Joseph → Reuben

　　10 Andrew → Anders

　　11 Robert → Gilbert

　　12 Ryan → Orion

　　13 Justin → Justice

　　14 Nicholas → Nico

　　15 Brandon → Beckett

　　16 William → Wilson

　　17 Anthony → Arthur

　　18 Jonathan → Julian

　　19 Jacob → Asher

　　20 Jason → Grayson

　　21 Kevin → Kieran

　　22 Brian → Callum

　　23 Tyler → Cooper

　　24 Eric → Soren

　　25 Zachary → Zakkai

　　26 Thomas → Tobias

　　27 Kyle → Niall

　　28 Adam → Abel

　　29 Steven → Simon

　　30 Timothy → Theodore

　　31 Benjamin → Benedict

　　32 Aaron → Ari

　　33 Alexander → Evander

　　34 Richard → Hudson

　　35 Jeremy → Remy

　　36 Charles → Oliver

　　37 Austin → August

　　38 Nathan → Nolan

　　39 Jeffrey → Jasper

　　40 Cody → Bodhi

　　41 Jose → Angel

　　42 Mark → Magnus

　　43 Patrick → Oscar

　　44 Jordan → Kobe

　　45 Samuel → Emmanuel

　　46 Sean → Finn

　　47 Stephen → Silas

　　48 Travis → True

　　49 Paul → Pax

　　50 Jesse → Jude

　　51 Scott → Walter

　　52 Christian → Cillian

　　53 Dustin → Deacon

　　54 Kenneth → Campbell

　　55 Gregory → Graham

　　56 Bryan → Briar

　　57 Dylan → Owen

　　58 Jared → Jethro

　　59 Derek → Ryker

　　60 Juan → Tiago

　　61 Bradley → Harvey

　　62 Alex → Axel

　　63 Shawn → Shea

　　64 Edward → Edison

　　65 Cameron → Callahan

　　66 Corey → Cosmo

　　67 Luis → Lorenzo

　　68 Peter → Piers

　　69 Marcus → Atticus

　　70 Carlos → Arlo

　　71 Chad → Chester

　　72 Evan → Van

　　73 Ian → Gianni

　　74 Nathaniel → Ezekiel

　　75 Antonio → Apollo

　　76 Gabriel → Raphael

　　77 Caleb → Gideon

　　78 Trevor → Rhys

　　79 Shane → Zane

　　80 Keith → Kai

　　81 George → Louis

　　82 Cory → Rory

　　83 Taylor → Baker

　　84 Donald → Declan

　　85 Logan → Lorcan

　　86 Ethan → Ezra

　　87 Joel → Yael

　　88 Devin → Calvin

　　89 Brett → Beau

　　90 Jesus → Santos

　　91 Phillip → Phoenix

　　92 Ronald → Ronan

　　93 Victor → Hugo

　　94 Seth → Eli

　　95 Luke → Luca

　　96 Blake → Brooks

　　97 Adrian → Cassian

　　98 Erik → Leif

　　99 Vincent → Valentine

　　100 Noah → Noam

More Fathers' Day Inspiration:

　　Feminizations to Honor Dad 

　　Creative Family Names

About the Author

Clare Green

　　Clare Green has been writing for Nameberry since 2015, covering everything from names peaking right now to feminist baby names, and keeping up-to-date with international baby name rankings. Her work has featured in publications such as The Independent and HuffPost. Clare has a background in linguistics and librarianship, and recently completed an MA dissertation researching names in multilingual families. She lives in England with her husband and son. You can reach her at [email protected]

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