If you missed the news, we are about to embrace a full house over here in late September with the addition of baby #4 – a boy! Like most moms, I have a love/hate relationship with selecting a name for my kids. One one hand, there is something so fun about researching name meanings and history and saying it aloud along with a middle and last name and imagining what this baby will look like. What he’ll love. Whether his hair will be curly or straight. But dang, choosing something the kid will grow into and will identify him for the rest of his life is a lot of pressure! 
Growing up there were two Allison Fords in my class (one was always known as “Allison Ford with two L’s). I don’t want my kids to be the equivalent, so we always opt for a more unique first name to go with Clark. Right now we have two girls (Pippa and Larkin) and one boy (Sawyer). We struggled mightily with both girls’ names (you can read about our top choices for baby #3 HERE), but had Sawyer picked out from the beginning. All of our kids have middle names from family, so we will do the same with this little guy. Right now we only have two options for middles that we like, but without further ado here our top 5 baby boy names:
First Name Baby Name Options
Griffin: One of my favorite sites for baby names is Appellatian Mountain. She highlights Griffin as “red,” “prince,” and of course mythical beast. I also love that it has the nickname Finn (one of my favorites).
Bodhi: This unique name translates from Sanskrit as awakening. It’s the name of the tree under which the Budda supposedly found enlightenment. I love that it ends with an “i” as it goes really well with our last name (I don’t want anything with a hard ending). On the downside, this name ranks in the 300s in popularity in the US and at 30-something on Nameberry, which I’m not super keen about. Bodhi (also spelled Bode and Bodie) is known as a surfer name and has been used for babies of the famous in the past few years, which is probably responsible for it’s boost in popularity.
Kingston: This gem means “King’s Town” and what I love is that it evokes a laid back sense of place. Ever heard that song Jamaican Farewell? That’s what I hear of, and it makes me think of tropical breezes. Yet this is also a strong name AND it has the alliteration (Kingston Clark)! Don’t love that it was number 130-something on the popularity list in 2016.
Apollo: Again I like that this ends in a vowel that is different from my other children’s names. Probably best known (recently) for Apolo Ohno, the Olympic speed skater, this name Apollo hails from mythology, God of the Sun in Latin and God of Medicine in Greek myths. There is also an Apollo of Arthurian legend, adding to the adventurous history. Bonus for this name: it hasn’t yet risen up the charts the way Bodhi and Kingston have, falling at around #500.
Canyon: I also love the alliteration with this – he would be Canyon Clark. It’s outdoorsy, and feels like and adventure (sort of like his big brother Sawyer). It’s not very popular, another bonus! Nameberry has it down around #2300 in popularity, so there likely won’t be another in his class.
Middle Baby Name Options
We are down to two! Both middle names honor family members in some respect, as this is what we did with all of our current children.
Arthur: After my maternal grandfather’s middle name. This name appears to be coming back into vogue, and I love that it has that King Arthur legend quality about it. Arthur means bear and is Celtic in origin according to Nameberry.
Monroe: After my dad (his middle name). Did you know this name actually translates roughly to “red marsh?” Neither did I. If this last baby of ours were a girl, I would definitely be vying to use Monroe as her middle name. Yet I think that it fits equally well on a boy or girl, especially in our case as it’s a family name.
Ten short weeks to go! Any name combo suggestions?
My cousin is Bodhi DuVall Snyder, he’s about 11 now. His mom (Maitri) named him Bodhi because it was Tibetan for Prince. But it gets mispronounced as Body all the time.
My vote is Canyon Monroe Clark. It just sounds like a legendary outdoorsman adventurer!
That is my one worry about Bodhi! Apparently there is a lighthouse near here named Bodie, which I thought would be a good spelling (and has a fun link to NC) until I discovered it is actually pronounced Body, lol.
Howdy! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Nonetheless, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!