Dexter

The name Dexter is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "dyer, right-handed". The jazzy, ultra-cool Dexter, like most names with an "x," has a lot of energy and dynamism. Over the years, it's been attached to a number of diverse real and fictional personalities—C. K. Dexter Haven, the witty Cary Grant character in The Philadelphia Story; Dexter Green, the protagonist of the F. Scott Fitzgerald story "Winter Dreams"; great jazz tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon; the boy-genius protagonist of cartoon Dexter's Laboratory; and the most recent TV series Dexter based on the books by Jeff Lindsay, whose lead happens to be a genial but sociopathic serial killer. Dexter was chosen by hip musical couple Diana Krall and Elvis Costello for one of their twin boys, and by singer Charlotte Church. Dex is an equally appealing nickname, now sometimes used on its own.