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Well, many last names were derived from the fathers first name or occupation, so some last names do lend themselves more easily for first names. For instance, there are Scottish clans of Adam, Arthur and Connor which clearly originated from first names. In general I don't care for the trend, but here are a few that I find interesting.

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Boys:
Adair
Baird
Balfour
Connor
Dallas
Desmond
Drummond
Gordon
Maxwell
Montmorency
Montgomery
Randall
Wallace

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Girls:
Reagan
Riley
Brontë
Tallis

This message was edited 2/28/2015, 4:27 PM

I like to see a good interesting family name used as a first name (e.g. Sir Cloudesley Shovell), although I wouldn't do it myself. I find most of the ones in the current charts too bland to be worth borrowing, but some of these old-school ones would be fun to see on a little boy:

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Clive
Aubrey
Spencer
Howard
Sidney
Clifford
Gordon
Graham
Stuart
Seymour
Mortimer
Wilberforce

Monroe
Miller
Avery
Jackson
Mackenzie
Taylor

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I HIGHLY prefer this trend on males. Mostly, because I think it opens up the male name pool that seems more inflexible and more traditional at times.

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I think it also depends on the name. Bonus points if it there is a historical or literary inspiration/name sake.

On boys:

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Archer
Bailey
Brady
Carter
Elwood
Fletcher
Hartley
Reid
Reilly
Taylor
Thatcher
Willoughby
Wilson

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On girls:

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Bailey
Bronte
Taylor

This message was edited 2/27/2015, 2:28 AM

A lot of surname names I don't like, and the ones I do like I mostly don't think I would ever use.

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Boys:
Kennedy
Arden
Ellis
Carey
Emerson
Bryant
Bennett
Findley
Pascoe
Chester
Jensen
Everett
Tierney
Auden
Archer
Bailey
Emery

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Girls:
Kennedy
Arden
Ellis
Carey
Bronte
Ainsley
Blair
Tallis
Linden
Blythe
Marlowe
Clairmont
Piper
Darcel (Darcelle)

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I actually really, really like Arden, and I like-almost-love Tallis. Same with Clairmont, but I wouldn't want to use it.

I like loads! These are all for boys:

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Marshall
Beckett
Tennyson
Clark
-- They are in my top ten

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Others on my list include:
Asher
Archer
Bridger
Carter
Carson
Cassidy
Cooper
Harrison
Jacoby
Lewis
Maxfield
Sullivan

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... I also have soft spots for Peyton, Logan and Morgan on girls.

Not many:

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Cameron
Dallas
Delaney
Duncan
Reed
Rhys

This message was edited 2/26/2015, 10:32 PM

I like:
Barnaby
Wyeth
Marlowe
Stanley
Willoughby
Sinclair

MacAnything :)
Tavish
Whitaker
Sullivan
Montgomery
Emerson
Odell
Avery
CAlloway
Callahan
Gallagher
Tennyson
Hudson
Flynn
Monroe
Quincy
Sterling
Taggart

I like Darcy, Foster and Rafferty. I also like Willoughby, which is my surname

I seem to like names a lot that are surnames. My favourites are Boyd, Reid, Ramsay, Lloyd, Hart, Ainsley, Carter and Mannion. I'm sure there's loads more I like as well.

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http://www.behindthename.com/pnl/149886

Like you I used to really dislike surnames as first names. However what I once thought of as kind of tacky and trendy I now see as quite handsome. Yes to surnames as forenames!

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I like:

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Beckett
Larkin
Tavish
Thackery
Howell
Murray
Archer
Willoughby
Carey
Morgan
Blair
Innes
Tully
Llewelyn
Hallam
Griffith
Flynn
Fletcher

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Eta: Sullivan, Marlowe, Adair, Ansel, Balfour, Kerr, Lennox, Lennon and Ramsay.

This message was edited 2/26/2015, 2:48 PM

I don't mind, and sometimes like, them when they sound at least as much like first-names to me as they sound like surnames.
Almost every one of the names New Chloe picked are what I would call "first-namey."
Some trendy surnames that I think are first-namey enough that I don't complain about them being surnames (although they're not names I like): Aubrey, Avery, Mason, Madison, Logan, Wyatt, Hayley.
I mind them sounding surname-y less, if they are relatively unique and don't have a common-surname vibe, and seem like they must have been a family name rather than picked for their trendy surnamey sound.

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I dislike them when they sound like they're surnames and are best known as surnames (most -er, -son, ton names), because calling someone by them makes it sound like you're addressing them by a surname ... like in a men's locker room. And I dislike them when they are distinctive recognizable corporate, brand, or celebrity names like Chase, Bentley, Harlow, Monroe, Aniston, Beckham, Presley etc ... Kennedy and Cassidy are borderline).

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A lot of these ones that I like, are really much more first-names than surnames to me, but technically they are surname names:

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Hollis
Merrick
Marshall
Camden
Vaughn
Brandon
Clark
Kirk
Drake
Elliot
Darwin
Alden
Hallam
Forest
Hollis
Kendrick
Leslie
Hunter

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This message was edited 2/26/2015, 9:46 AM

I'm not a big fan of surnames as first names myself but some are alright.

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Howard (does this count?)
Carter
James (again does this count because I love this name and I know some people with James as a surname)
Rose (again I know some people with the surname Rose)

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There's no others I can think of right now.

I don't really have favourites, but I like the idea of this and I'm either insane or bored enough to trawl through alphabetical listings of names to search for possibilities (I tell myself it's "for stories"), so here's some recent discoveries of mine:

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(note: some are wordnames too, not sure if that disqualifies them)

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Advent
Ainley
Alarie
Aleonar
Arrieta
Badger
Barbeau (like a chic version of Barbara, no?....no? Maybe for an S&M concubine?)
Barber
Baylis
Beam
Beaulieu
Berthelette
Blix
Borthistle (I mean if you're half-elven or something)
Bracken
Bramley
Brydges
Cabal
Caetano
Caister
Calderon
Callis
Calix
Caranay
Calvert
Carpenter (for the hip Christian maybe?)
Catalan
Chadney
Charron
Chisholm
Clary
Cleary

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And that's as far as I've gotten. My list is a lot longer, but that's because it includes the really fun ones like Bonecamp, Blatherwick and Bytheway, which you probably aren't looking for. For...stories.