20 Dashing Literary Baby Names for Boys

You can browse through baby name books for ideas as to what to name that little boy you're expecting. But don't forget to also page through the books you loved to read as a kid or the ones which mean a lot to you as an adult. Our guess is you'll find plenty with, ahem, character.

Below, we've put together 20 of our favorite literary-inspired names for boys. Read through and get inspired.

Albus: Of course, we were inspired by Dumbledore in the Harry Potter books. Who wouldn't want their son to grow up that smart, kind, and courageous?

Almanzo: Remember the patient farmer boy who marries Laura Ingalls Wilder? We love the rough-hewn sound of this old-fashioned name.

Arthur: … As in King Arthur, in TH White's The Once and Future King. Majestic and strong.

Bartholomew: We like the even keel of this name. Bartholomews are rarely flappable, if you remember Dr. Seuss's The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.

Benvolio: Romeo gets the girl in Romeo and Juliet, but his cousin, Benvolio, has the far cooler name.

Cash: Just like the character in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, this name's got heart to spare.

Cassio: Handsome and well-mannered, like the gentleman soldier in Shakespeare's Othello.

Charlie: Cute, wide-eyed, and unmistakably sweet, just like little Charlie in Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Caulfield: Plenty of parents have named their offspring "Holden," after the beloved narrator of Catcher in the Rye. May we suggest his equally cool, in a Wes Anderson kind of way, last name?

Dallas: Remember SE Hinton's The Outsiders? "Pony Boy" might be hard for any baby to pull off, no matter how cute, but Dallas has a quiet fortitude, too.

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Fritz: In honor of the eldest of the four sons in Johann David Wyss' Swiss Family Robinson, Fritz is one boys' name we wouldn't get sick of hearing if shipwrecked on a desert island.

Gatsby: Feel a little too swaggy? Try Gatz instead, which was Jay Gatsby's real name in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

Huck: Mark Twain didn't just write one of the best books of all time, but gave us one of the most unforgettable names, too. Boyish in the best sense of the word.

Jude: You don't have to read Thomas Hardy's overwhelmingly bleak Jude the Obscure to love this name. (It did well for The Beatles!)

Kimball: We like the adventurous nature of this name, which is shared with the main character in Rudyard Kipling's coming of age novel, Kim.

Laertes: Just like Ophelia's older brother in Hamlet, this name has heart and loyalty to spare.

Lennox: Another well-built Shakespearean name, this one from Macbeth.

Rhett: Dashing and gentlemanly, just like Scarlett's hero in Gone With the Wind.

Percy: Percy Jackson has fast become one of the biggest YA heroes, thanks to Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief. It's only a matter of time before this name catches on, too.

Ulysses: A formidable name, for sure, but we love its backbone. Try the sweet Ulee for short.

Which great literary name did we forget?

For more great baby name ideas to find your perfect baby name match, visit Baby Name Wizard.

Images via Serhly Kobyakov and suravid/shutterstock