This page lists 76 literary boy names that start with T, running from “Tom” to “Troy”. The names come from novels, plays, poems, epics, and children’s stories. Some are heroes, some are villains, and some are small supporting characters. You can use them to name a baby, a pet, or a character in your own story.
Literary boy names are names borrowed from characters, authors, or famous works of fiction and poetry. They often carry the traits of the people who made them famous. For example, “Tristan” has passed from medieval legend into modern nurseries for centuries.
Below you’ll find the table with the name, origin, pronunciation, meaning, and description of each entry.
Name: The name itself, listed in alphabetical order. You can scan this first to spot the names that catch your eye.
Origin: The language or culture the name comes from, such as Greek, Latin, or Old English. It helps you see the roots behind each name.
Pronunciation: A simple guide to saying the name aloud. It is handy for names with unusual spellings, so you can use them with confidence.
Meaning: What the name means in its original language. This lets you choose a name with a meaning that suits your taste or your story.
Description: A short note on the character or author linked to the name, and the work it comes from. It shows you where each name made its mark.
Literary boy names
| Name | Origin | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tom | English | TOM | Twin |
| Tristan | Celtic/Welsh | TRIS-tən | Tumult, noise |
| Tybalt | English | TIB-əlt | Prince of cats |
| Troilus | Greek | TROY-lus | Of Troy |
| Titus | Latin | TY-tus | Honored |
| Theseus | Greek | THEE-see-us | Founder |
| Timon | Greek | TY-mən | Honor |
| Touchstone | English | TUCH-stohn | Test of quality |
| Tiresias | Greek | ty-REE-see-əs | Delight in omens |
| Telemachus | Greek | tə-LEM-ə-kəs | Far from battle |
| Tolkien | German | TOL-keen | Foolhardy |
| Thorin | Old Norse | THOR-in | Bold one |
| Théoden | Old English | THAY-oh-den | King |
| Théodred | Old English | THAY-oh-dred | People’s counsel |
| Tom Bombadil | English | tom bom-BAD-il | Twin |
| Tuor | Elvish | TOO-or | Unknown |
| Túrin | Elvish | TOO-rin | Master of fate |
| Tarzan | Invented | TAR-zan | White skin |
| Tiny Tim | English | TY-nee tim | Small twin |
| Tobias | Hebrew | toh-BY-əs | God is good |
| Tristram | Celtic/English | TRIS-trəm | Tumult |
| Tony | Latin | TOH-nee | Priceless |
| Tiberius | Latin | ty-BEER-ee-us | Of the Tiber |
| Tamino | Invented | tə-MEE-noh | Unknown |
| Tancred | Germanic | TAN-kred | Thoughtful counsel |
| Taliesin | Welsh | tal-YES-in | Radiant brow |
| Tam | Scottish | TAM | Twin |
| Tam Lin | Scottish | tam LIN | Twin of Lin |
| Tevye | Yiddish | TEV-yeh | God’s gift |
| Tadzio | Polish | TAHD-zyoh | Praise of God |
| Thomas | Aramaic | TOM-əs | Twin |
| Thaddeus | Aramaic | THAD-ee-us | Courageous heart |
| Theodore | Greek | THEE-ə-dor | Gift of God |
| Teddy | English | TED-ee | Gift of God |
| Tristan Shandy | English | TRIS-tən SHAN-dee | Tumult |
| Tess | English | TESS | Harvester |
| Tyrion | Invented | TEER-ee-on | Unknown |
| Theon | Greek | THEE-on | Godly |
| Tywin | Invented | TY-win | Unknown |
| Tommen | Invented | TOM-en | Unknown |
| Tobias Snape | English | toh-BY-əs SNAYP | God is good |
| Tom Riddle | English | tom RID-əl | Twin |
| Tonks | English | TONKS | Unknown |
| Teddy Lupin | English | TED-ee LOO-pin | Gift of God |
| Tiger | English | TY-gər | Big cat |
| Tigger | English | TIG-ər | Bouncy one |
| Toby | Hebrew | TOH-bee | God is good |
| Toad | English | TOHD | Amphibian |
| Tumnus | Invented | TUM-nus | Unknown |
| Trumpkin | English | TRUMP-kin | Unknown |
| Trufflehunter | English | TRUF-əl-hun-tər | Unknown |
| Tarkin | Invented | TAR-kin | Unknown |
| Tars Tarkas | Invented | tars TAR-kas | Unknown |
| Tarzan of the Apes | Invented | TAR-zan | White skin |
| Tom Joad | English | tom JOHD | Twin |
| Tom Ripley | English | tom RIP-lee | Twin |
| Tom Buchanan | English | tom byoo-KAN-ən | Twin |
| Tom Robinson | English | tom ROB-in-sən | Twin |
| Tom Canty | English | tom KAN-tee | Twin |
| Tom Brown | English | tom BROWN | Twin |
| Tom Thumb | English | tom THUM | Twin |
| Tarquin | Latin | TAR-kwin | From Tarquinii |
| Tamburlaine | Persian/English | TAM-bər-layn | Timur the Lame |
| Tartuffe | French | tar-TOOF | Truffle |
| Tevis | English | TEV-iss | Unknown |
| Tennyson | English | TEN-ih-sən | Son of Dennis |
| Thoreau | French | thə-ROH | Unknown |
| Truman | English | TROO-mən | Loyal man |
| Tennessee | Native American | TEN-ə-see | Unknown |
| Tolstoy | Russian | TOL-stoy | Fat |
| Turgenev | Russian | toor-GAY-nyef | Unknown |
| Tobiah | Hebrew | toh-BY-ah | God is good |
| Tybalt Capulet | English | TIB-əlt KAP-yoo-let | Prince of cats |
| Trinculo | Italian | TRINK-yoo-loh | Unknown |
| Thurio | Italian | THOOR-ee-oh | Unknown |
| Troy | French/Irish | TROY | Foot soldier |
Descriptions
Tom
Hero of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the mischievous Missouri boy whose pranks and adventures became an American classic.
Tristan
The knight of Arthurian legend whose doomed love for Isolde inspired countless medieval romances and later operas.
Tybalt
Juliet’s hot-headed cousin in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, whose duel with Romeo’s friends sets the tragedy in motion.
Troilus
A Trojan prince and lover of Cressida, featured in Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida.
Titus
The Roman general at the center of Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy Titus Andronicus, and also a character in Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast books.
Theseus
The Athenian hero who slew the Minotaur, appearing in Plutarch and as the duke in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Timon
The wealthy Athenian who turns bitter misanthrope after his friends abandon him in Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens.
Touchstone
The witty court jester in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, known for his clever wordplay.
Tiresias
The blind prophet of Thebes who appears in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and in T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.
Telemachus
Odysseus’s son in Homer’s Odyssey, who sets out to find his long-absent father.
Tolkien
Surname of the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes used as a first name by fans.
Thorin
The dwarf king who leads the quest to reclaim Erebor in Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
Théoden
The king of Rohan in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, freed from Saruman’s influence by Gandalf.
Théodred
Théoden’s son in The Lord of the Rings, killed in battle defending Rohan.
Tom Bombadil
The cheerful, mysterious forest dweller in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring who is unaffected by the One Ring.
Tuor
A hero of Tolkien’s The Silmarillion who is the father of Eärendil and helps found the hidden city of Gondolin.
Túrin
The tragic hero of Tolkien’s The Children of Húrin, cursed by Morgoth.
Tarzan
Edgar Rice Burroughs’s jungle hero, a British lord raised by apes in the African wilderness.
Tiny Tim
The frail, kind-hearted son of Bob Cratchit in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, famous for saying God bless us, every one.
Tobias
The name of the son in the Book of Tobit and used for several literary characters, including Tobias Fünke-style satire and Dickens-era novels.
Tristram
The narrator of Laurence Sterne’s comic novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.
Tony
Used for characters like Tony Soprano-style antiheroes and Tony in West Side Story, derived from Anthony.
Tiberius
The Roman emperor depicted in Robert Graves’s I, Claudius and appearing in many historical novels.
Tamino
The young prince in Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, whose libretto is a staple of German literature and theater.
Tancred
A Crusader knight in Tasso’s epic Jerusalem Delivered, who loves the Saracen warrior Clorinda.
Taliesin
The legendary Welsh bard of the sixth century, whose poems survive in the Book of Taliesin.
Tam
The hero of Robert Burns’s poem Tam o’ Shanter, who stumbles upon witches dancing in a haunted kirk.
Tam Lin
The knight of the Scottish ballad rescued from the Faerie Queen by his lover Janet.
Tevye
The dairyman and father of five daughters in Sholem Aleichem’s stories, later the star of Fiddler on the Roof.
Tadzio
The beautiful Polish boy who obsesses the writer Aschenbach in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice.
Thomas
Common literary name from Thomas Hardy to Thomas Buddenbrook, and the doubting apostle of the Gospels.
Thaddeus
A name used in Gothic and historical fiction, such as Thaddeus of Warsaw, a popular novel of the early 1800s.
Theodore
The real name of Laurie in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, the boy next door who befriends the March sisters.
Teddy
The nickname Laurie is known by in Little Women, also used for Teddy Roosevelt-era children’s classics.
Tristan Shandy
Variation sometimes used for Sterne’s narrator in the comic novel Tristram Shandy.
Tess
A name tied to Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, and sometimes used for boys in modern fiction.
Tyrion
The witty, sharp-tongued dwarf of the Lannister family in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.
Theon
Theon Greyjoy, the ward of the Starks in A Song of Ice and Fire who betrays the family he grew up with.
Tywin
The ruthless head of House Lannister in A Song of Ice and Fire and father of Tyrion, Cersei, and Jaime.
Tommen
The gentle young king in A Song of Ice and Fire, son of Cersei and Robert Baratheon.
Tobias Snape
Severus Snape’s abusive Muggle father in the Harry Potter series.
Tom Riddle
The birth name of Lord Voldemort in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
Tonks
Nymphadora Tonks is the Metamorphmagus Auror in Harry Potter, who goes by her surname.
Teddy Lupin
The son of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks in the Harry Potter series.
Tiger
Used for Tigger-style characters and Tiger Tim, the pet in classic children’s stories.
Tigger
The bouncy, cheerful tiger in A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
Toby
A name for characters from Twelfth Night’s Sir Toby Belch to the dog in Sherlock Holmes’s The Sign of the Four.
Toad
Mr. Toad is the reckless, boastful hero of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.
Tumnus
The kindly faun who befriends Lucy in C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Trumpkin
The grumpy but loyal dwarf who helps Prince Caspian in C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series.
Trufflehunter
The brave badger who supports Caspian in C. S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian.
Tarkin
Grand Moff Tarkin, the imperial officer in the Star Wars novels and films, appearing in many expanded-universe books.
Tars Tarkas
The green Martian warrior who befriends John Carter in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom series.
Tarzan of the Apes
The full title character of Burroughs’s 1912 novel about an orphaned English heir raised in the jungle.
Tom Joad
The ex-convict hero of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, who leads his family west during the Dust Bowl.
Tom Ripley
The charming con man at the heart of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Tom Buchanan
Daisy’s wealthy, arrogant husband in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Tom Robinson
The Black man falsely accused of rape in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
Tom Canty
The poor boy who switches places with the prince in Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper.
Tom Brown
The schoolboy hero of Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s School Days, a Victorian classic set at Rugby.
Tom Thumb
The tiny hero of English folk tales, no bigger than his father’s thumb.
Tarquin
The Roman prince in Shakespeare’s The Rape of Lucrece who assaults Lucretia.
Tamburlaine
The conqueror in Christopher Marlowe’s play Tamburlaine the Great.
Tartuffe
The hypocritical con man who dupes a wealthy family in Molière’s comedy Tartuffe.
Tevis
Used in honor of novelist Walter Tevis, author of The Queen’s Gambit and The Hustler.
Tennyson
Surname of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the Victorian poet laureate, used as a first name by his admirers.
Thoreau
Surname of Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden, occasionally used as a first name.
Truman
Used for Truman Capote, the author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood.
Tennessee
The first name of playwright Tennessee Williams, author of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Tolstoy
Surname of Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, sometimes borrowed as a first name.
Turgenev
Surname of Ivan Turgenev, the Russian novelist behind Fathers and Sons.
Tobiah
The biblical name of Tobias in the Book of Tobit, a story of a young man and the angel Raphael.
Tybalt Capulet
Full name of the fiery Capulet heir in Romeo and Juliet.
Trinculo
The jester who stumbles into the island plot of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Thurio
The foolish rival suitor in Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Troy
The hero of the ancient epic city story, and the lead of August Wilson’s play Fences.