When your love of superheroes meets your love of your child... well, there's got to be a baby name for that. While you don't have to go all-out and name your baby Batman, you might be surprised by how many of your favorite superhero movies include or inspire terrific first names.
From Tony Stark (Iron Man) to Yeoman Diana Prince (Wonder Woman), we've put together the best of the best, so take your pick — and see if your family can figure out where your baby's name really comes from.
Superhero baby boy names
Actor Nicolas Cage named his son after a superhero: Kal-El, Superman’s birth name. And guess what. Other superheroes have even more subtle birth names.
- The Green Lantern: The original was Alan Scott, however the most famous is Hal Jordan
- Batman: Bruce Wayne
- Spider-Man: Peter Parker
- Iron Man: Tony Stark
- Captain America: Steve Rogers
- Green Hornet: Britt Reid
- Incredible Hulk: David Bruce Banner
- Superman: Clark Kent
- Mr. Fantastic: Reed Richards
- Zorro: Don Diego de la Vega
- Captain Marvel: Billy Batson
- The Flash: Barry Allen
- Mr. Terrific: Stanley Beamish
- Robin or Nightwing: Dick Grayson
- Wolverine: Logan or James Howlett
- Cyclops: Scott Summers
- Phantom: Kit Walker Jr.
You can also get creative and use a whole superhero character name or a portion of one or a different spelling or just go big and name your kid Marvel. Here are some more superhero-inspired names:
- Jazz
- Lucky
- Spyder
- Marvel
- Midnight
- Flash
- Gemini
- Jett
- Ranger
- Thor
- Phantom
- Magento
- Breeze
- Blaze
- Phoenix
Next: Superheroine names
Superhero names for girls
A lot of male superhero names work great for girls too, but here are some supergirls from comic history to provide additional inspo:
- Wonder Woman: Yeoman Diana Prince
- Catwoman: Selina Kyle
- Bionic Woman: Jaime Sommers
- Batgirl or Oracle: Barbara Gordon
- Black Scorpion: Darcy Walker
- Black Widow: Natasha Romanova
- Wonder Girl: Drusilla Prince
- Storm: Ororo Munroe
Need some more ideas? These girl names are variations on superheroes, X-Men (X-Women, rather) and superpowers in general.
Many of these names, including Shadow, Flame, Rogue and Storm, would work great for a boy too.
Superhero name generator
Just for fun, you can check out this superhero name generator to find out what your own cool superhero name would be. Here are a few of mine!
- Pyrowoman
- Heat Hawk
- Gal Crow
- Ceruliana
- Cyania
- Ember Burn
- Flock Burner
A version of this article was originally published in June 2012.