Koda

Koda lands with the brisk friendliness of a name you could shout across a mountain meadow. It draws on a Dakota/Sioux word for "friend" or "ally," though American parents likely first met the name through the 2003 Disney film Brother Bear, where a young cub named Koda stole the show. The two syllables are tidy and percussive, beginning with a hard K and softening at the close. At 464, it sits comfortably in that modern pocket of short, outdoorsy boy names alongside Bodhi and Arlo. Unpretentious, adventurous, and immediately likable without trying too hard.