Boy names that mean ocean
Every name here means salt water: the open sea, a wave on it, or the god who owns it. Names about fresh water — springs, pools, rain — live on the water page, and named rivers on the river page. Sea names cluster in island languages, and Hawaiian supplies four of them.
- DylanDIL-unWelsh
Sea, great tide — usually parsed as Welsh dy (great) + llanw (tide). Currently #41 in the U.S.
- MorganMOR-ganWelsh
Built on mor, sea. The second element is the half nobody has settled — “sea-born” and “sea-circle” are both offered.
- KaiKYSeveral origins
Sea, in Hawaiian. The same syllable is triumph in Chinese and something else again in Frisian; #93 in the U.S.
- Kekaikeh-KYHawaiian
The sea: ke + kai, sea water, tide, current.
- Kaimanaky-MAH-nahHawaiian
Sea power, from kai and mana. It is also the Hawaiian for diamond, and both readings are current.
- NaluNAH-looHawaiian
Wave, surf, the swell of water. In a separate dictionary sense, to ponder.
- AlonAH-lonTagalog
A wave — the Tagalog noun, used unchanged.
- HaiHIGHVietnamese
The sea, 海 — the same character Japanese reads as kai.
- KaitoKYE-tohJapanese
The characters decide, but the great majority begin with 海: sea plus the Dipper, sea plus soaring, sea plus crossing.
- MinatoMEE-nah-tohJapanese
Harbour — analysed as mi (水, water) + to (門, gate): the water-gate where a river meets the sea.
- TaoTOWChinese
涛 — big waves, billows, the noise of surf.
- YangYAHNGChinese
洋, the open ocean, and by extension the wide world abroad. A different character from the sunlit-slope Yang.
- ArnavAR-nuvSanskrit
Ocean, flood — from arṇa, a wave: the sea named as movement rather than as a place.
- AhtiAH-teeFinnish
The Kalevala's god of the sea, the lakes and everything in them.
- CaspianKASS-pee-unPlace name
Of the Caspian Sea — the largest inland body of water on earth, and a name Narnia made usable.
- KyleKYLEScottish
Gaelic caol, narrow: in the Highlands, a narrow sea channel. Geography before character.
The sea, the wave, and the sea god
The sea as a place. Hai, Kekai, Kai, Kaito and Yang are the flat, factual options — a noun and nothing else. Dylan is the one that has fully naturalised in English, and it arrived carrying a drowned Welsh sea-child in the Mabinogi along with it.
The sea in motion. Nalu, Alon, Tao and Arnav all name a wave rather than an ocean, which gives them a quicker, less monumental feel. Sanskrit arṇa is the clearest case: the sea defined by the fact that it never holds still.
Edges and owners. Minato and Kyle are the sea's boundaries — a harbour mouth, a narrow channel — and Ahti is the Finnish deity who governs the whole of it. Caspian and Kaimana sit slightly apart: one is a specific sea, the other is the sea's strength borrowed for a person. For the sky above it, see sky; for what happens when it turns, see storm.