Big ups for Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy on the birth of their bouncing baby boy. Well-named themselves, Claire and Hugh resurrected the inimitable Cyrus from pop stardom. Then there was a celebrity baby Magnus. Magnus again. The new boy at our school is called Atticus. My husband is absolutely obsessed with Cassius, and friends have a Linus. ”-Us” names for boys are hitting the big time, and replacing ‘en’dings and ‘O’ Boys at a quick clip. I love how divergent their origins are: Persian, Swedish, Ancient Roman and Scottish, to name a few.
More stylish “-us” possibilities include:
Acacius
Aldous
Aloysius
Amadeus
Angus
Atticus
Augustus
Caius
Cassius
Cyrus
Darius
Erasmus
Fergus
Gus
Ignatius
Julius
Justus
Lazarus
Linus
Lucius
Magnus
Maximus
Nicodemus
Octavius
Odysseus
Petrus
Perseus
Pius
Quintus
Rufus
Seamus
Thaddaeus
Titus
Vitus
Zacchaeus
Zosimus
I could happily choose a name off this list. Could you?
Above: Poster Angus & Julius by Audrey Jeanne
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
I know a baby Lexius, named after his grandpa. Comes with the great nickname Lex!
I know a Seamus, who goes by Shae, and an Augustin, who goes by Gus.
I also know a Linus who is in elementary school. Our dog is named Linus, and as a result, it will never feel like a human name to me.
Our second son is Julius (big brother is Miles). It’s certainly less common than Julian, but goes better with our last name and honors a family member whose middle was Julius. Not everyone likes it, but I think most people do.
We debated forever about what to use as a nickname, since I’m not crazy about Jules, but so far we just always call him Julius!
I would love to have an Atticus. Magnus Augustus are doable. Angus might actually pass dh approval first.
My two year old is Linus. Best -us name out there!
Gus and Atticus are also favorites of mine.
My baby brother is Aloysius “Wishy”, his little friend is Augustus “Augie” and I have a cousin called Magnus. I know toddlers called Atticus and Angus (also Silas and Lewtas), and older kids called Cyrus, Thaddeus, Darius, Rufus, Marius, Magnus Emilius, Seamus and Fergus (also Zacharias, Francis, Olegas and Elvis). My personal favourite is definitely Cassius, and I also like Cyrus and Finnius.
Where are you from? Is this a British thing, because as a group those names don’t sound very American! Love them all.
I’m from near Melbourne, Australia.
My guess was going to be Aussie…
Darius is such an awesome name.
I would add Atlas to this list. Not an “-us” technically but the sound is similar.
Cyrus is my #1 (future) boys’ name! We haven’t started trying to make one yet, but my husband and I are pretty much decided on Cyrus John for a someday son.
What about Phineas/Phineus?
My son’s name is Augustine (Augie). Like the saint, not the city.
Thaddeus is my favorite! I see great things for Thaddeus.
Aloysius I really like but wouldn’t feel comfortable using. But it could grow to become usable for me, especially if I used a nickname like Alo.
I wanted to name my son Linus, but my husband couldn’t get past the Charlie Brown’s friend connection.
How about Marius?
Love it!
Rufus?! Yikes I hope to never hear thaton a human child. Too furry for my liking
My nephew is Magnus (he’s six) and it fits him perfectly. Aloysius is in my top five for boys, and I blame those addictive Preston & Child novels.
And the underused Xanthus, Zephyrus, and to go out on a limb, Camus.
Our son due in June will be Maximus. Needed a strong name to match the family middle name Fulton. He’ll be Max most of the time, I’m sure.
I like Caius, Gus, Ignatius & Rufus
Marcus is pretty neat too
I have a Markus, we love the more Scandinavian spelling.
I like Arcturus, nick name Archie.
I love Gus and Rufus.
I have an Augustus (Gus) who is two. We also considered Julius, my great-grandfathers name. And if we had the chutzpah, we both love Gaius and knowing Gus now, I think he could have pulled it off.
I love the name Augustus.
With our son Micha I was due on July the 31st, and I was certain he’d be late and therefore would be born in August. So we wanted to name him Micha Augustus…
But he decided to be born exactly on his due date! So now he’s just Micha (which I’m totally fine with and secretly happy that he doesn’t have another name to compete with his well thought out first name)
This list is fabulous. I’m kind of loving Lazarus now. Lazarus and Susannah? Yes, please.
Just choosing off this list, I like Thaddeus and Erasmus, but both seem a little heavyweight for my taste.
Ah I love Cyrus, Augustus & Atticus!
I have a little Elias who is six months old. The ends-in-”us” is definitely here where we live: we attend a play group that includes an Otis, a Jarvis, and a Wallace.
‘Fraid the only one I like off this list is Thaddeus, without the extra a.
Titus was my great-grandfather’s name, but now people seem to have a penchant for naming their canine friends Titus, so it’s ruined it for me.
I did not actually know that Zosimus was a name…the only time I’ve ever heard that word is in the book The BFG by Roald Dahl…the Big Friendly Giant says that dreams are made of “zosimus”.