132 Boy Names That Start With X and Might Just Open Portals When You Say Them Out Loud (With Meanings & Origins)

There are names that introduce a person and names that announce one. X names belong to the second category without exception. The letter itself is the rarest opening consonant in the English naming tradition, a character so phonetically unusual that it produces entirely different sounds depending on which language system it is operating within. In Greek, X is the chi sound, a hard, aspirated consonant that carries the full authority of the ancient world. In Spanish, X can be the SH of Xochitl or the H of Xavier or the KS of classical tradition. In Chinese romanization, X represents a sound that does not exist in English at all. Every one of these systems produces names of extraordinary power and equally extraordinary rarity.

A boy named with an X name carries something that almost no one else in his school, his office, or his city will share. He carries a name that people remember the first time they hear it, that looks distinctive on every document it appears on, and that carries the specific quality of a letter that Western civilization has always associated with the unknown, the extraordinary, and the mathematically unknowable. X is the variable that represents what has not yet been determined. It is the mark of the signature and the unknown. It is the letter that begins the names of Persian kings and Greek saints and Mesoamerican flower gods and Chinese revolutionary leaders simultaneously, which means it belongs to no single tradition and can be claimed by any family willing to begin a name with the most interesting letter in the alphabet.

This collection gives you 132 of the most powerful, most beautiful, most genuinely distinctive boy names that begin with X, from the popular and immediately accessible to the magnificently rare and thoroughly ancient. Popularity rankings are based on the most recent Social Security Administration (SSA) data.

Quick Note on Popularity: Names ranked above 1000 on the SSA database are considered truly rare and unique. Names closer to 1 are among the most popular in the United States today.

Popular and Modern X Names

Xavier

• Origin: Arabic/Basque
• Meaning: New house, bright
• Popularity: #63

Saint Francis Xavier carried this Basque place name across three continents as one of the founding Jesuit missionaries, reaching India, Japan, and China before dying at the edge of the Ming Dynasty’s borders, and the name carries that specific combination of spiritual authority and extraordinary geographical ambition that belongs to someone for whom the known world was simply the starting point.

Xander

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Defender of men
• Popularity: #113

The compressed form of Alexander that carries the Greek defender-of-men tradition in a form of sharp, modern confidence, Xander belonging to a boy whose name has the quality of Alexander without the four syllables, the same Greek authority in a form that lands like a decision rather than a declaration.

Xavi

• Origin: Basque/Spanish
• Meaning: New house, bright
• Popularity: >1000

The Spanish and Catalan diminutive of Xavier that Barcelona’s greatest footballer Xavi Hernández made synonymous with a particular kind of football intelligence, calm, precise, and always moving the ball toward something better than where it started, Xavi carrying both the Basque heritage and the specific contemporary warmth of a name beloved across the Spanish-speaking world.

Ximeno

• Origin: Basque/Spanish
• Meaning: Son, gift
• Popularity: >1000

An ancient Basque and Spanish name of considerable medieval authority, Ximeno was carried by Navarrese kings and Castilian nobles and belongs to the Iberian naming tradition at its most specifically regional and most completely itself.

Xenon

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Stranger, guest, foreign
• Popularity: >1000

The noble gas discovered in 1898 that carries the Greek word for stranger in its element name, Xenon belongs to a boy whose name simultaneously references the periodic table, the ancient Greek tradition of hospitality to strangers, and the specific atmospheric quality of something that exists in the air all around us but is encountered so rarely that its discovery required a century of careful chemical investigation.

Xylon

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: From the forest, woodland
• Popularity: >1000

The Greek word for wood and forest used as a given name, Xylon carries the ancient Greek botanical tradition in a form of considerable contemporary cool, belonging to a boy whose name sounds like it belongs to someone from a world where forests were understood as living entities with their own authority rather than simply a resource.

Xenophon

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Foreign voice, stranger’s voice
• Popularity: >1000

The Athenian soldier and historian who led ten thousand Greek mercenaries on the famous retreat from Persia and wrote the Anabasis to record it, Xenophon carries the Greek foreign-voice tradition in a name whose bearer literally traveled to the edges of the known world and wrote about what he found there with the specific clarity of someone who had walked every step of the story.

Xylon

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Forest, wood
• Popularity: >1000

The Greek forest name that carries the ancient association of woodlands with divine presence, shelter, and the specific kind of intelligence that grows in places where the light comes through in pieces rather than all at once.

Xerxes

• Origin: Old Persian
• Meaning: Hero among rulers, ruler of heroes
• Popularity: >1000

The Persian Great King who bridged the Hellespont with boats, carved a canal through the Athos peninsula, and led the largest army the ancient world had assembled into Greece before being stopped at Thermopylae and Salamis, Xerxes carries the most dramatic X name in ancient history and belongs to a boy for whom the conventional scale of human ambition was never quite sufficient.

Xanthos

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Yellow, blonde, bright
• Popularity: >1000

The name of one of Achilles’s immortal horses who could speak and prophesied his master’s death at Troy, Xanthos carries both the golden brightness of its meaning and the specific Homeric mythology of a creature so extraordinary that even its horse nature could not contain everything it needed to say.

Xylon

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Of the forest
• Popularity: >1000

A name that carries the Greek understanding of the forest as a sacred space where the boundaries between the human and the divine were thinner than anywhere else and where the most important conversations a person could have were most likely to occur.

Xorge

• Origin: Spanish/Greek
• Meaning: Farmer, earth worker
• Popularity: >1000

A Spanish variant spelling of Jorge that gives the Greek earth-farmer tradition the X initial of Basque and Nahuatl-influenced Spanish naming, Xorge belonging to a community where the X opening was understood as entirely natural rather than exotic.

Greek and Classical X Names

Xenophanes

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Foreign appearing, stranger manifestation
• Popularity: >1000

The pre-Socratic philosopher who was the first thinker in Western history to argue that humans created gods in their own image rather than the reverse, Xenophanes carries the Greek philosophical tradition of someone who looked at what everyone else believed and calmly explained why they were wrong, belonging to a boy whose name announces that conventional wisdom is always available for examination.

Xanthippe

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Yellow horse, blonde horse
• Popularity: >1000

The wife of Socrates who has been described by history as a difficult woman but whose difficulty was possibly simply the difficulty of being married to someone who spent all day talking to other people about virtue while neglecting to feed his family, Xanthippe carrying the Greek yellow-horse tradition in a name of considerable historical complexity.

Xenocles

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Foreign glory, stranger’s fame
• Popularity: >1000

An ancient Greek compound name combining the stranger tradition with the glory tradition, Xenocles carries the Greek understanding that glory achieved in foreign places was among the most admirable forms of achievement, belonging to a naming culture that sent its best men abroad and celebrated what they found there.

Xiphias

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Swordfish
• Popularity: >1000

Named for the swordfish, the fastest and most aggressive large predator in the Mediterranean, Xiphias carries the Greek tradition of animal naming that understood particular creatures as expressions of particular qualities worth giving to sons, the swordfish being simultaneously the most precise and the most formidable hunter in its domain.

Xenodoros

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Gift of a stranger, gift to strangers
• Popularity: >1000

A compound of the Greek XENO for stranger and DOROS for gift, Xenodoros carries the ancient Greek tradition of XENIA, the sacred obligation of hospitality to strangers, in a name that declares its bearer either as a gift from a stranger or as someone who gives gifts to strangers, both of which belong to the highest tier of ancient Greek moral praise.

Xuthos

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Yellow, tawny, swift
• Popularity: >1000

In Greek mythology the son of Hellen and ancestor of the Ionians and Achaeans, Xuthos carries the mythological genealogy of the Greek peoples in a name of warm, tawny color and considerable speed, belonging to the tradition of Greek origin myths that understood every people as descendants of a divine or semi-divine ancestor.

Xenagoras

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Leading strangers, guide to foreigners
• Popularity: >1000

The Greek geographer who measured the height of Olympus and whose name carries the tradition of the guide who leads strangers through unfamiliar terrain, Xenagoras belonging to a boy whose name announces that his defining quality will be the capacity to orient others in conditions that disorient them.

Xeinias

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Of hospitality, belonging to Zeus Xenios
• Popularity: >1000

A name connected to Zeus Xenios, the aspect of Zeus who protected the sacred law of hospitality that governed relationships between hosts and guests in the ancient Greek world, Xeinias carrying the divine protection of a moral code that the Greeks considered one of civilization’s most fundamental requirements.

Xenophilos

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Lover of strangers, friend to foreigners
• Popularity: >1000

The Greek musician and Pythagorean philosopher who lived to over a hundred years with his mental faculties entirely intact, whose name means lover of strangers and whose life demonstrated that a commitment to the philosophy of harmony could sustain a human mind beyond the ordinary limits of what age was supposed to do to it.

Xanthippos

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Yellow horse, blonde horse
• Popularity: >1000

The father of Pericles and one of the Athenian generals who defeated the Persian fleet at Mycale in 479 BCE, Xanthippos carries the Greek yellow-horse tradition in a name that belonged to a man who helped save Greek civilization from Persian conquest in the battle that followed Salamis.

Xenarchus

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Ruler of strangers, lord of foreigners
• Popularity: >1000

An ancient Greek compound that combines the stranger-tradition with the ruler tradition, Xenarchus carries the Greek political understanding that the capacity to govern those who are foreign to you is among the most demanding and most admirable forms of political skill.

Xanthias

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Yellow, golden one
• Popularity: >1000

The name of the slave character in Aristophanes’s comedy The Frogs whose practical intelligence and comic observations often make more sense than anything the supposedly wiser characters around him are saying, Xanthias carrying the golden tradition in a name that belonged to a character who understood that good judgment was not correlated with social status.

Xenomedes

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Foreign counsel, stranger’s advice
• Popularity: >1000

An ancient Greek mythographer who recorded the history of the island of Keos and whose name carries the tradition of foreign wisdom as a valuable commodity in a world that understood that the best advice sometimes came from someone who was not invested in the outcome.

Xerxion

• Origin: Greek/Persian
• Meaning: From Xerxes, heroic ruler
• Popularity: >1000

A name connecting the Greek and Persian traditions in a form that carries the Xerxes-hero-ruler mythology in a slightly more accessible and less historically weighted form, Xerxion belonging to a boy whose parents wanted the Persian imperial authority without the specific baggage of the historical king’s military failures.

Xeniades

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Son of the stranger, descendant of the foreigner
• Popularity: >1000

The Corinthian who bought Diogenes the Cynic at a slave auction and was then instructed by his new property that the appropriate relationship between them was for Xeniades to follow Diogenes’s orders rather than the other way around, Xeniades carrying the specifically Greek philosophical tradition of a man whose encounter with a stranger changed his understanding of who was actually in charge of the situation.

Spanish and Latin American X Names

Xochitl

• Origin: Nahuatl
• Meaning: Flower
• Popularity: >1000

The Nahuatl word for flower that carries the Aztec mythological tradition of flowers as sacred objects of divine beauty and sacrifice, Xochitl belonging to the Mesoamerican naming tradition where the most beautiful natural phenomena were considered worthy of becoming human identities, the flower tradition producing names of extraordinary warmth and equally extraordinary mythological depth.

Xolo

• Origin: Nahuatl
• Meaning: From Xolotl, deformed dog god
• Popularity: >1000

Named for Xolotl, the Aztec dog-headed deity who guided the dead through the underworld and who gave his name to the hairless Xoloitzcuintli dogs that were buried with their owners so they could serve as guides on the journey, Xolo carries the Aztec underworld tradition in a name of considerable contemporary Mexican warmth.

Xico

• Origin: Nahuatl/Mexican
• Meaning: From Xicotencatl, the place of wasps
• Popularity: >1000

A Mexican name connected to the ancient Tlaxcalan city of Xicotencatl whose name means place of wasps and whose people were among the most formidable opponents of the Aztec empire before they became allied with Cortés in the Spanish conquest, Xico carrying the pre-Columbian indigenous Mexican tradition in a name of considerable historical depth.

Xiuhcoatl

• Origin: Nahuatl
• Meaning: Turquoise serpent, fire serpent
• Popularity: >1000

The name of the fire serpent weapon wielded by Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec sun god, in his mythological battle against his sister Coyolxauhqui at the moment of cosmic creation, Xiuhcoatl carries the most dramatic weapon in Aztec mythology in a name that belongs to a boy who arrived in the world already armed with something worth noting.

Xipe

• Origin: Nahuatl
• Meaning: The flayed one, lord of the flayed skin
• Popularity: >1000

The Aztec deity of agriculture, seasons, and renewal whose rites involved wearing the skin of sacrificed victims as a symbol of the earth putting on a new green skin each spring, Xipe carries the Mesoamerican mythology of death and renewal as the same event viewed from different temporal perspectives.

Xolotl

• Origin: Nahuatl
• Meaning: Deformed dog, slave, servant
• Popularity: >1000

The Aztec dog deity who guided the dead through the nine levels of the underworld Mictlan and whose image was the hairless Xoloitzcuintli dog, Xolotl carries the Aztec mythology of the companion who accompanies you through the most difficult passage available in a name of considerable underworld authority.

Xbalanque

• Origin: K’iche’ Maya
• Meaning: Jaguar sun, hidden sun
• Popularity: >1000

One of the Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh, the Maya creation epic, who defeated the lords of the underworld Xibalba through clever disguise and eventually became the sun and moon, Xbalanque carries the Maya mythological tradition of heroism as a form of intelligence rather than simply force.

Xibalba

• Origin: K’iche’ Maya
• Meaning: Place of fear, place of fright
• Popularity: >1000

The Maya underworld itself used as a given name, Xibalba carries the K’iche’ Maya mythology of the land of the dead as a place ruled by lords of disease and death who were ultimately defeated by the cleverness of the Hero Twins, belonging to a boy whose name is simultaneously the most formidable landscape in Maya cosmology and a declaration that it is possible to pass through even the most frightening place and emerge.

Xul

• Origin: Maya/Nahuatl
• Meaning: End, black, the dark one
• Popularity: >1000

A Maya and Nahuatl name connected to the concept of endings and dark colors, Xul carries the Mesoamerican understanding of darkness not as an absence but as a quality in its own right, belonging to a boy whose name announces that he is most completely himself in the hours when everyone else has retreated from complexity.

Xochimilco

• Origin: Nahuatl
• Meaning: Where the flowers grow, place of flowers
• Popularity: >1000

Named for the ancient floating gardens of the Aztec civilization that are one of Mexico City’s most extraordinary surviving pre-Columbian landscapes, Xochimilco carries the Nahuatl flower-place tradition in a name that belongs to somewhere the flowers were so important that an entire engineering system was built to ensure they could continue growing.

Xicotencatl

• Origin: Nahuatl
• Meaning: Place of wasps, wasp hill
• Popularity: >1000

The name of the Tlaxcalan leader who initially fought the Spanish and later allied with them, whose decision shaped the outcome of the conquest of Mexico, Xicotencatl carrying the indigenous Mexican political tradition in a name of considerable historical weight and phonetic grandeur.

Xihuitl

• Origin: Nahuatl
• Meaning: Year, turquoise, comet
• Popularity: >1000

The Nahuatl word that simultaneously means year, turquoise, and comet, a triple meaning that speaks to the Aztec understanding that these three concepts were connected through the calendar, the sacred color, and the celestial event, Xihuitl belonging to a boy whose name carries an entire cosmological system in its syllables.

Xtabay

• Origin: Maya
• Meaning: The entangling woman, Maya spirit
• Popularity: >1000

The name of a Maya spirit who appears as a beautiful woman near the ceiba tree and whose name connects to the tradition of supernatural feminine figures who lure men with their beauty, Xtabay carrying the Maya mythological tradition in a name of considerable atmospheric depth.

Chinese X Names

Xiang

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Fragrant, lucky, auspicious
• Popularity: >1000

The Chinese character for fragrance and auspiciousness that carries the traditional Chinese association of sweet scent with divine favor, Xiang belonging to a boy whose name announces that his arrival was considered favorable in the most literal possible sense, a good omen in the form of a person.

Xiao

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Morning, dawn, small, filial
• Popularity: >1000

The Chinese character that carries the dawn tradition alongside the virtue of filial piety, the respect for one’s parents and ancestors that Confucius considered the foundation of all other virtues, Xiao belonging to a boy whose name carries both the temporal promise of the morning and the moral architecture of the Confucian tradition.

Xiong

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Bear, hero, masculine
• Popularity: >1000

The Chinese character for bear that carries the tradition of the bear as a symbol of masculine strength and heroism across both Chinese and broader Eurasian naming traditions, Xiong belonging to a boy whose name announces a quality of natural, unceremonious power.

Xin

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: New, trust, truthful
• Popularity: >1000

The Chinese character that carries both the concept of newness and the virtue of trustworthiness, Xin belonging to a boy whose name announces simultaneously that he represents something new in the world and that the world can trust what he represents.

Xuanwu

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Dark warrior, black tortoise
• Popularity: >1000

Named for the Black Tortoise of the North, one of the four symbols of the Chinese constellations and the guardian of the northern quadrant of the sky, Xuanwu carries the Chinese celestial mythology of the dark warrior who protects the most difficult and most important direction.

Xun

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Swift, fast, wind
• Popularity: >1000

The Chinese character for speed and the wind that carries it, Xun belonging to a boy whose name announces the quality of decisive motion, the specific speed of someone who has already decided where they are going and has begun moving before the announcement has been completed.

Xiulan

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Elegant orchid, refined bloom
• Popularity: >1000

A compound Chinese name combining the elegance of XIU with the orchid of LAN, Xiulan carrying the Confucian orchid tradition of virtue expressed as natural beauty in a name of considerable lyrical warmth.

Xueyang

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Snow and sun, bright as snow in sunlight
• Popularity: >1000

A compound Chinese name combining the snow of XUE with the sun of YANG, Xueyang carrying the Chinese poetic tradition of the two most extreme expressions of natural light, the reflected white brilliance of snow in sunlight being one of the most visually intense phenomena in the northern Chinese landscape.

Xinjiang

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: New frontier, new territory
• Popularity: >1000

The name of China’s westernmost region used occasionally as a given name, Xinjiang carrying the Chinese geographic naming tradition in a form that declares its bearer associated with the edge of the known territory and the beginning of what lies beyond it.

Xianfeng

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Sage wind, brilliant abundance
• Popularity: >1000

The reign name of the ninth Qing dynasty emperor who ruled during the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion, Xianfeng carries the Chinese imperial naming tradition of reign names as aspirational declarations of what an emperor hoped his reign would embody, with results that were somewhat more complicated than the name suggested.

Xingfu

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Happiness, fortune, blessed
• Popularity: >1000

The Chinese compound word for happiness and fortune used as a given name, Xingfu carries the Chinese naming tradition of giving sons names that describe the quality of life the family hopes they will lead rather than the qualities of character they hope they will develop, happiness being considered both a personal achievement and a communal gift.

Xiaolong

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Little dragon
• Popularity: >1000

Bruce Lee’s Chinese name was Lee Jun-fan, but he was called Xiaolong, the little dragon, and the name carries the Chinese dragon tradition in its most affectionate form, the diminutive dragon belonging to someone whose power is acknowledged without ceremony and who does not need the full-sized version to make the point.

Xilun

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Happiness and prosperity
• Popularity: >1000

A compound Chinese name carrying the dual aspiration of happiness and prosperity in a name that belongs to the Chinese tradition of giving sons names that are simultaneously good wishes and declarations of expected outcome.

Xuzhao

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Morning sun, dawn light
• Popularity: >1000

A compound Chinese name combining the morning tradition with the dawning light, Xuzhao belonging to a boy whose name carries the Chinese poetic understanding of the first light of morning as the most hopeful and most beautiful moment of any day.

Xuebin

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Snow and refinement
• Popularity: >1000

A compound combining the snow of XUE with the refinement and cultural polish of BIN, Xuebin belonging to the Chinese naming tradition of pairing a natural phenomenon with a virtue to create a name that carries both the aesthetic and the moral simultaneously.

Persian and Middle Eastern X Names

Xerxes

• Origin: Old Persian
• Meaning: Hero among rulers, ruler over heroes
• Popularity: >1000

The Great King of Persia whose invasion of Greece in 480 BCE became the defining event of Greek civilization’s self-understanding, whose bridge of boats across the Hellespont and canal through Athos announced a level of engineering ambition that the ancient world had never seen, Xerxes carrying the Old Persian tradition of a name that was itself a declaration of the highest possible human achievement.

Xusraw

• Origin: Avestan/Persian
• Meaning: Good reputation, good fame
• Popularity: >1000

The Avestan form of Khosrow, the name of multiple Sasanian Persian emperors whose reigns were considered golden ages of Persian civilization, Xusraw carrying the Iranian tradition of fame and good reputation as the most enduring qualities a man could cultivate across a lifetime of public life.

Xandros

• Origin: Greek/Persian
• Meaning: Defender of men
• Popularity: >1000

A form of Alexander that sits between the Greek and Persian naming traditions, carrying the Greek defender mythology in a form that would have been familiar to the court of the Persian emperors who encountered Alexander’s armies and were eventually absorbed into the Macedonian empire he built.

Xvarnah

• Origin: Avestan
• Meaning: Divine glory, royal splendor
• Popularity: >1000

The Zoroastrian concept of divine glory or fortune that accompanied the righteous and the legitimately powerful, xvarnah was the visible manifestation of divine favor that made kings recognizable as kings and heroes recognizable as heroes, Xvarnah belonging to a boy whose name announces before anything else that he carries the divine favor tradition of one of the world’s oldest continuous religious traditions.

Xashayarsha

• Origin: Old Persian
• Meaning: Hero among rulers
• Popularity: >1000

The original Old Persian form of the name rendered in Greek as Xerxes, Xashayarsha carries the Persian royal naming tradition in its most linguistically authentic form, belonging to a family with deep connections to the Iranian naming heritage who wanted the name in its original language rather than its Greek translation.

Xayah

• Origin: Persian/invented
• Meaning: Shadow, shade
• Popularity: >1000

A name drawing on the Persian SAYA shadow tradition in a form with the X opening of Persian names in certain transliteration systems, Xayah belonging to a boy whose name carries the Persian poetic tradition of shadow as a form of mercy, the shade that makes the desert sun survivable.

Xordad

• Origin: Avestan
• Meaning: Wholeness, health, perfection
• Popularity: >1000

Named for one of the six Amesha Spentas, the divine emanations of Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrian theology, Xordad carries the ancient Persian religious tradition in a name that belongs to the divine principle of health and perfection as understood by one of the world’s oldest surviving religious systems.

Xenophilos

• Origin: Greek/Persian cross
• Meaning: Lover of the foreign, friend of strangers
• Popularity: >1000

A name that sits at the intersection of the Greek and Persian worlds, carrying the Greek lover-of-strangers tradition in a context where the stranger and the Persian were often the same person, Xenophilos belonging to the cultural moment when Greek and Persian civilization were actively shaping each other.

Rare and Mythological X Names

Xolotl

• Origin: Nahuatl
• Meaning: Monster, deformed one, dog deity
• Popularity: >1000

The Aztec deity with a dog’s head and a human body who served as the guide of the dead through the underworld Mictlan, Xolotl belonging to the Mesoamerican mythological tradition of a divine figure whose deformity was the source of his power rather than a diminishment of it, a god whose difference from the beautiful made him indispensable.

Xibalba

• Origin: K’iche’ Maya
• Meaning: Place of fear
• Popularity: >1000

The Maya underworld whose lords were ultimately defeated by the Hero Twins in the Popol Vuh, Xibalba carries the K’iche’ mythology of a terrifying place that could be traversed through courage and intelligence in a name that belongs to a boy who arrived in the world already familiar with the most frightening territory available.

Xbalanque

• Origin: K’iche’ Maya
• Meaning: Jaguar sun, young jaguar
• Popularity: >1000

One of the Hero Twins who defeated the lords of Xibalba and became the sun, Xbalanque carries the Maya creation mythology in a name of extraordinary epic weight, belonging to a boy whose mythological ancestor became the light by which everyone else navigates the world.

Xiuhteuctli

• Origin: Nahuatl
• Meaning: Turquoise lord, fire lord
• Popularity: >1000

The Aztec god of fire and time who was considered the oldest deity in the pantheon, Xiuhteuctli carries the Mesoamerican mythology of fire as the most ancient and most sacred force in the universe in a name of considerable ceremonial grandeur.

Xmucane

• Origin: K’iche’ Maya
• Meaning: Mother of the Maya creation
• Popularity: >1000

While traditionally a female figure in the Popol Vuh creation narrative, Xmucane as a given name carries the Maya creation mythology at its most fundamental level, belonging to the grandmother figure who oversaw the creation of the first humans from corn in the Maya cosmological tradition.

Xquic

• Origin: K’iche’ Maya
• Meaning: Blood woman, blood girl
• Popularity: >1000

The Maya mother of the Hero Twins who escaped the lords of the underworld by her own cleverness and whose name carries the K’iche’ Maya mythological tradition of blood as a sacred and generative substance rather than simply a biological one.

Xingtian

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: The headless giant, punishing heaven
• Popularity: >1000

The headless giant of Chinese mythology who continued to fight even after his head was cut off by the Yellow Emperor, using his nipples as eyes and his navel as a mouth, Xingtian carrying the Chinese mythological tradition of a determination so complete that even the removal of the head could not stop it.

Xiwangmu

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Queen Mother of the West
• Popularity: >1000

The Chinese goddess who ruled the western paradise and whose peaches of immortality ripened only once every three thousand years, Xiwangmu carrying the Chinese divine-feminine tradition in a name that belongs to a boy from a family that understood the most powerful forces in their mythology wore feminine names and did not consider that a reason not to give them to sons.

Xanthus

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Yellow, blonde
• Popularity: >1000

The name of the immortal horse of Achilles who spoke and prophesied, of the river god of Troy, and of a son of Zeus in Greek mythology, Xanthus carrying the golden-color tradition across multiple layers of Homeric and mythological meaning simultaneously.

Xesus

• Origin: Galician/Spanish
• Meaning: Jesus, God saves
• Popularity: >1000

The Galician form of Jesus used as a given name in northwestern Spain where Galician is spoken, Xesus carrying the Hebrew salvation tradition through the specific phonetic system of one of the Iberian Peninsula’s most ancient languages.

Short and Striking X Names

Xan

• Origin: Greek
• Meaning: Defender of men
• Popularity: >1000

The most compressed form of Alexander that carries the Greek defender tradition in three letters of complete, decisive authority, Xan belonging to a boy whose name has been edited to its most essential syllable and found that the syllable is more than sufficient.

Xen

• Origin: Greek/invented
• Meaning: Stranger, peaceful
• Popularity: >1000

A name that carries both the Greek XENO stranger tradition and the sound of the Eastern concept of ZEN, Xen belonging to a boy whose name operates across two traditions simultaneously, the Greek hospitality-to-strangers and the Buddhist contemplative peace, without belonging exclusively to either.

Xu

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Slow, gentle, dignified
• Popularity: >1000

The Chinese character for dignified slowness and gentleness, Xu carries the Chinese virtue tradition of the person who moves with deliberate care and whose unhurried approach to everything is not inefficiency but the most complete form of attention available.

Xi

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Hope, rare, bright
• Popularity: >1000

The Chinese character for hope and rarity, Xi belongs to the Chinese naming tradition where a single character carries enough meaning to constitute a complete philosophy of what a name should announce about its bearer.

Xao

• Origin: Hmong
• Meaning: From the sky, sky child
• Popularity: >1000

A Hmong name of considerable warmth that carries the Southeast Asian mountain people’s tradition of celestial naming in a form of extraordinary brevity, Xao belonging to the Hmong diaspora community’s naming tradition that has carried the sky-child mythology from the mountains of Laos and Vietnam to communities across the United States and France.

Xul

• Origin: Nahuatl/Maya
• Meaning: End, dark one
• Popularity: >1000

The Mesoamerican name for ending and darkness that carries the pre-Columbian understanding of darkness as a quality rather than simply an absence, Xul belonging to a boy whose name announces before anything else that he is comfortable in conditions that others find difficult to navigate.

Xev

• Origin: Slavic/invented
• Meaning: Variant of Slav, glory
• Popularity: >1000

A name of Slavic glory-tradition with an X opening that gives the Eastern European naming culture an immediately distinctive visual quality, Xev belonging to a boy whose name carries the Slavic glory tradition in a form that looks unlike anything else on any document it appears on.

Xaro

• Origin: Dothraki/invented
• Meaning: Fictional, created
• Popularity: >1000

Known to fantasy audiences from Game of Thrones as the name of a powerful merchant of Qarth, Xaro carries the invented phonetic authority of a name designed to sound like it belongs to someone who controls something significant and knows it, belonging to the contemporary tradition of parents who found a fictional name convincing enough to give to a real person.

Xan

• Origin: Celtic/Galician
• Meaning: God is gracious
• Popularity: >1000

The Galician form of Juan, itself from the Hebrew John, Xan carries the Hebrew grace-of-God tradition through the Galician phonetic system that gives the name an X opening entirely natural in that linguistic context, belonging to a naming tradition where X was simply the letter you used rather than a declaration of unusualness.

Xiu

• Origin: Chinese
• Meaning: Elegant, cultivated, beautiful
• Popularity: >1000

The Chinese character for elegance and cultural refinement that carries the Confucian tradition of the cultivated person whose external beauty is the visible expression of internal moral development, Xiu belonging to a boy whose name is both an aesthetic description and a philosophical aspiration.

Fantastical and Invented X Names

Xavion

• Origin: Invented/American
• Meaning: Modern creation
• Popularity: >1000

An American invented name that takes the Xavier tradition and adds the ION suffix of Greek scientific and noble naming, Xavion belonging to a boy whose parents wanted the authority of Xavier in a form that felt more completely their own invention rather than borrowed from a Spanish saint’s biography.

Xandrel

• Origin: Invented
• Meaning: Created
• Popularity: >1000

A compound of the XANDER compressed-Alexander tradition and the DREL suffix of fantasy naming conventions, Xandrel belonging to a boy from a family that wanted the Greek defender mythology in a form that sounds like it stepped directly out of a fantasy epic with no apology for the audacity of the combination.

Xerneas

• Origin: Invented/Nordic-influenced
• Meaning: Created for fiction
• Popularity: >1000

Known as the life Legendary Pokémon whose name draws on Nordic and Germanic phonetic traditions, Xerneas carries the contemporary cultural mythology of a creature associated with renewal and the preservation of life in a name that parents occasionally choose for boys of a generation that grew up with these creatures as genuine mythological figures.

Xathos

• Origin: Invented/Greek-influenced
• Meaning: Created
• Popularity: >1000

A name constructed from the Greek XANTHOS golden tradition with a compressed ending, Xathos belonging to a boy whose name sounds like it was found in the margin of a Greek manuscript that has not yet been fully translated, carrying the authority of ancient tradition without being reducible to any single documented source.

Xevion

• Origin: Invented
• Meaning: Created
• Popularity: >1000

A name assembled from the X initial of the unusual and the EVION suffix of invented grandeur, Xevion belonging to a boy whose name sounds like it belongs to a character in the kind of story where names carry power and where the act of naming something is the same as the act of calling it into existence.

Xandril

• Origin: Invented
• Meaning: Created
• Popularity: >1000

A compound of the XANDER defender tradition and the RIL suffix of fantasy naming, Xandril belonging to a boy whose name carries the Greek protective mythology in a form designed to sound like it belongs to someone who has been defending something important for considerably longer than his apparent age would suggest.

Xorvane

• Origin: Invented
• Meaning: Created
• Popularity: >1000

A name constructed with the XOR opening of computational logic and the VANE suffix of the wind-measurement tradition, Xorvane belonging to a boy whose name sounds like it was designed by someone who understood both the mathematics of the impossible and the meteorology of changing directions.

Xelion

• Origin: Invented/Greek-influenced
• Meaning: Created
• Popularity: >1000

Drawing on the Greek HELIOS sun tradition with the X opening that displaces the H and amplifies the solar quality, Xelion belongs to a boy whose name carries the sun mythology in a form that is simultaneously classical in its roots and entirely invented in its specific construction.

Xaverian

• Origin: Latin/invented
• Meaning: From Xavier, new house
• Popularity: >1000

The adjectival form of Xavier used as a given name, Xaverian belonging to a boy whose name carries the Basque new-house tradition in a form so elongated and so Latinate that it sounds like a descriptor applied to an entire movement rather than a simple personal designation.

Xerion

• Origin: Greek/invented
• Meaning: Dry, from Xeris
• Popularity: >1000

A name drawing on the Greek XEROS dry tradition in a form that sounds like something discovered in an ancient text rather than invented for contemporary use, Xerion belonging to a boy whose name has the quality of something that was always there, waiting in the Greek vocabulary for someone to recognize its potential as a given name.

Xolvane

• Origin: Invented
• Meaning: Created
• Popularity: >1000

A name assembled from multiple phonetic traditions with the X opening of the extraordinary and the VANE ending of something that turns in the wind, Xolvane belonging to a boy whose name announces before anything else that he is oriented by something other than the direction everyone else is facing.

Xavindra

• Origin: Invented/Sanskrit-influenced
• Meaning: Created
• Popularity: >1000

A compound of the Xavier new-house tradition and the INDRA strength suffix of Sanskrit naming, Xavindra belonging to a boy whose name carries the Basque place name and the Sanskrit divine-strength tradition in a form assembled by someone who saw no reason not to combine the Iberian and the South Asian in a single declaration of naming ambition.

International X Names

Xoaquín

• Origin: Galician/Hebrew
• Meaning: God will establish, God will strengthen
• Popularity: >1000

The Galician form of Joaquín, itself the Spanish form of the Hebrew Joachim, Xoaquín carries the Hebrew divine-establishment tradition through the specifically Galician phonetic system that gives X its initial position as naturally as English gives J to the same name.

Xurxo

• Origin: Galician/Greek
• Meaning: Farmer, earth worker
• Popularity: >1000

The Galician form of Jorge and George that carries the Greek earth-farmer tradition through the northwestern Spanish linguistic tradition, Xurxo belonging to the Galician naming culture where X was simply the letter you used for sounds that other Spanish dialects rendered differently.

Xela

• Origin: K’iche’ Maya
• Meaning: Under the ten, Quetzaltenango
• Popularity: >1000

The short name for Quetzaltenango, the second city of Guatemala, whose name in K’iche’ Maya means under the ten and refers to the ten Quetzal birds that were seen in the area, Xela carrying the Maya geographical and ornithological traditions in a name of considerable Central American cultural warmth.

Xolani

• Origin: Zulu/Ndebele
• Meaning: Please be peaceful, bring peace
• Popularity: >1000

A Zulu and Ndebele name of considerable warmth that carries the African tradition of naming sons for the desired quality of their effect on the world around them, Xolani belonging to a naming culture that understood the capacity to bring peace as one of the most honorable qualities a man could demonstrate.

Xiomaro

• Origin: Spanish/Germanic
• Meaning: Famous in battle
• Popularity: >1000

The masculine form of Xiomara that carries the Germanic battle-fame tradition through the Spanish naming culture, Xiomaro belonging to a boy whose name announces before anything else that fame achieved through courage in difficult circumstances is his family’s primary measure of a man’s worth.

Xolile

• Origin: Zulu
• Meaning: Be peaceful, the peaceful one
• Popularity: >1000

A Zulu name of peace that carries the Southern African tradition of giving sons names that describe the quality of their relationship to the world rather than their position within a social hierarchy, Xolile belonging to the Ubuntu naming culture that understood peace as a quality created in relationship rather than simply possessed individually.

Xpantzay

• Origin: K’iche’ Maya
• Meaning: Flower water, water and flowers
• Popularity: >1000

A K’iche’ Maya compound name combining water and flowers in the Mesoamerican naming tradition that understood the combination of these two elements as the most basic expression of natural beauty and divine generosity, Xpantzay belonging to the ancient Maya naming culture in a form of considerable phonetic complexity.

Xhaka

• Origin: Albanian
• Meaning: Unknown Albanian origin
• Popularity: >1000

The Swiss-Albanian footballer Granit Xhaka gave this Albanian name its greatest contemporary visibility, his technical midfield play and sometimes volcanic temperament giving Xhaka the specific quality of a name that belongs to someone whose gifts and whose difficulties are equally obvious to everyone watching.

Xoán

• Origin: Galician/Hebrew
• Meaning: God is gracious
• Popularity: >1000

The Galician form of Juan and John that carries the Hebrew grace-of-God tradition through the ancient Celtic language of Galicia in northwestern Spain, Xoán belonging to the naming culture where this was simply the ordinary way of writing the name that everyone else rendered as Juan.

Xuso

• Origin: Galician/Spanish
• Meaning: Jesus, God saves
• Popularity: >1000

A Galician form of the name Jesus that carries the Hebrew salvation tradition through the Galician phonetic and orthographic system, Xuso belonging to the northwestern Iberian tradition of names that look completely foreign to speakers of standard Castilian Spanish and entirely familiar to the Galician-speaking community.

Xaysavanh

• Origin: Lao
• Meaning: Beautiful paradise, heaven’s beauty
• Popularity: >1000

A Lao name of considerable beauty that carries the Buddhist paradise tradition in a compound of considerable phonetic warmth, Xaysavanh belonging to the Lao naming culture that understood paradise not as a distant theological abstraction but as a quality achievable in the present world through the cultivation of beauty.

Xiong

• Origin: Hmong
• Meaning: Bear clan
• Popularity: >1000

One of the major Hmong clan names that has become a given name in the Hmong diaspora community, Xiong carries the bear clan tradition of the Hmong people whose clan system was one of the most fundamental organizing principles of their social world across the mountains of Southeast Asia and now across communities in Minnesota, California, and France.

Xabi

• Origin: Basque
• Meaning: New house, variant of Xavier
• Popularity: >1000

The Basque diminutive form of Xavier that Spanish football made famous through Xabi Alonso, whose elegant passing and intelligent reading of the game gave this Basque name the specific cultural mythology of a player who understood the game at a level most of his contemporaries could only appreciate after the fact.

Ximo

• Origin: Valencian/Spanish
• Meaning: New house, variant of Ximo
• Popularity: >1000

The Valencian diminutive of Joaquim and Xavier that is beloved in the Valencia region of Spain, Ximo carrying the Valencian linguistic tradition in a name of warm, regional specificity that belongs to a naming culture deeply proud of the distinction between Valencian and Castilian Spanish.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why are there so few common boy names starting with X?

A: X is the second rarest initial letter for names in English, primarily because in the English language X rarely begins a native word, and when it does it typically produces the KS sound of xylophone rather than any of the sounds represented by X in Arabic transliteration, Spanish, Chinese romanization, or Greek. Most X names in the English-speaking world come from other language traditions, whether the Greek XENO and XANTHO roots, the Basque Xavier, the Nahuatl and K’iche’ Maya names, or the Chinese romanization system. This rarity is precisely what makes an X name so consistently memorable.

Q: How is X pronounced in different X names?

A: The pronunciation of X varies considerably depending on the name’s origin. In Greek-rooted names like Xerxes and Xenophon, X produces a Z sound at the beginning. In Spanish names like Xavier, it can be either SH as in the Mexican pronunciation or a simple H sound. In Nahuatl names like Xochitl, X produces a SH sound. In Chinese romanized names like Xiao and Xiang, X represents a sound between English SH and CH that does not have an exact English equivalent. Understanding the origin of the name is the most reliable guide to its pronunciation.

Q: Which X names work best in English-speaking countries?

A: Xavier is by far the most established X name in English-speaking contexts, with Xander close behind as a familiar compressed form of Alexander. Xavi works well in communities with Spanish or Catalan connections. Xander, Xen, Xan, and Xavier are all comfortable in everyday English-speaking settings. Names like Xochitl, Xolotl, and Xbalanque carry their cultural traditions completely and require their bearers to do some active carrying of the name’s background in anglophone contexts, which some families consider an advantage rather than a difficulty.

Q: Can I invent an X name that sounds genuine?

A: The most convincing invented X names follow the phonetic patterns of an actual naming tradition. An X name built on the Greek XENO or XANTHO roots, the Spanish Xavier/Xavi pattern, or the Nahuatl XO or XI opening will feel rooted and genuine even if the specific combination has never been documented. The key is understanding which tradition’s phonological system you are working within and staying inside its sound patterns rather than simply placing X before a random collection of other letters.

Q: Are X names too unusual for everyday use?

A: Xavier has been in the top 100 US boy names for over a decade, proving that X names are entirely functional in everyday settings. The unusual quality of the X initial, while distinctive in English, simply becomes that child’s name once people know them, and distinctiveness in a name tends to be remembered as an advantage rather than a burden by the adults who carry unusual names. The practical consideration is pronunciation. Names with clear pronunciation guides from their cultural tradition, like Xavier, Xander, and Xavi, require less active management than names like Xochitl or Xbalanque whose sounds require introduction.

Conclusion

X names carry something that no other initial can offer, the specific quality of genuine rarity combined with the full weight of civilizations that considered X a natural and important way to begin a name. From the Greek philosophers who asked questions about strangers and knowledge, to the Persian emperors who crossed continents with their armies, to the Maya heroes who defeated the lords of the underworld through cleverness and courage, to the Chinese poets who named their sons for snow and morning light, X names belong to traditions that understood the letter as the beginning of something significant rather than simply a curiosity. A boy named with one of these names carries all of that history in his introduction, the instant signal that he arrived from somewhere original and will continue going somewhere worth tracking. Find the X name that sounds like the opening of the story you most want to tell, the one that makes people lean forward slightly when they hear it, the one that sounds like exactly the right combination of the ancient and the completely itself. Which name is your favorite? I would love to hear in the comments below!