Boy names that mean fearless
Fearless is a harder meaning to source honestly than brave, because few languages coined a word for the absence of fear. What they did coin was bold, fierce and unflinching — and Hawaiian, which has makoa, fearless, and means it.
- Makoamah-KOH-ahHawaiian
Fearless, brave, courageous; also energetic and active. Pukui and Elbert list it plainly.
- SimbaSEEM-bahSwahili
A lion — and in use, a fearless man. Calling someone simba is not about the mane.
- BalderBAHL-derOld Norse
Usually taken from Proto-Germanic *balþaz, bold; the god's name is disputed.
- LeopoldLEE-uh-poldGerman
Bold people: liut (people) + bald (bold). The leo- is a later reshaping.
- KoenKOONDutch
Short for Koenraad — and standing alone, koen is still the Dutch word for bold.
- ArchieAR-cheeScottish
Genuine and bold, from ercan (precious) + bald, by way of Archibald.
- GarrettGA-ritEnglish
Spear plus hard: unflinching, via the Norman given name Gerard.
- Bernardober-NAR-dooPortuguese
Bern (bear) + hard (brave, hardy) — the animal has never been disputed.
- Riccardoreek-KAR-doItalian
Rīk (power) + hardu (hard, brave). The doubled c is genuinely held.
- LeonardLEN-erdGerman
Lion-hard: lewo (lion, borrowed from Latin) + hart (hardy, brave).
- LennartLEN-nartSwedish
The Nordic Leonhard, with the doubled n held. Same lion, same hardness.
- Yavuzyah-VOOZTurkish
Stern, resolute, formidable. Selim I is Yavuz Sultan Selim in Turkish histories.
- Efeeh-FEHTurkish
A zeybek chief of the Aegean, and so a brave, upright, faintly swaggering man.
- LorcanLOR-kanIrish
Little fierce one, from Old Irish lorc (fierce) with the diminutive -án.
- Yaroslavyah-ruh-SLAHFRussian
Fierce glory: jary (fierce, ardent) + slava. The first element carries heat.
- Jarosławya-RAW-swahfPolish
The Polish form of the same fierce glory; the j is the y of yes, always.
- JaromírYAH-ro-meerCzech
Jarý (fierce, vigorous) + mír — fierceness kept for peacetime.
- LaythLAYTHArabic
A lion, and in classical usage the daring one; by extension a fearless man.
- HungHOONGVietnamese
Valiant, manly, imposing — 雄, the character behind anh hùng, a hero.
- TakeshiTAH-keh-sheeJapanese
Brave, fierce, mighty; the character 猛 puts the emphasis squarely on ferocity.
- DikeDEE-kehIgbo
Master of strength — a champion. Igbo uses it of the man who does not step back.
- Akinlabiah-keen-LAH-beeYoruba
"It is a hero that we have borne", built on akin, a brave one.
Bold, fierce, and hard to move
The honest core of this list is bold. Proto-Germanic balþaz is the direct ancestor of English bold, and it survives in Balder, Leopold and Archie; Dutch kept it as a living adjective, which is why Koen can be read without any etymology at all. Hawaiian is the outlier that actually says fearless: Makoa needs no gloss, and Simba works the same way in Swahili, where the lion stands for a man who will not back off.
The second strand is fierce — a hotter word than brave, and not always a compliment when it was coined. Slavic jary means ardent to the point of harshness and drives Yaroslav, Jarosław and Jaromír; Irish Lorcan is from a root glossed fierce or cruel; Turkish Yavuz once meant closer to harsh than to admirable. The third strand is hardness: the Germanic element hard that ends Garrett, Bernardo, Riccardo and Leonard does not mean brave so much as unmoved. Compare brave and strong.