Delilah is hot, with her lilting l sounds and the chart-topping Plain White Tees single.  But what of the legendary strongman she brought down?

Thanks to Laura for suggesting Samson as Name of the Day.

The Biblical Samson had the strength of Hercules.  In one story, he tears apart a lion with his bare hands; in another, he fells one thousand attackers with a weapon fashioned from a small bone.

Samson is usually pitted against the Philistines.  They’re the ones who bribe the fair Delilah to learn the secret of his strength.  When she learned that Samson’s never-been-trimmed hair fueled his strength, Delilah called for the shears.

He gets the last laugh, though.  The Phillistines fail to keep up the manscaping while he’s in prison.  His locks grow back.  When Samson is summoned to their temple, he’s strong enough to bring down the house, killing his captors – and himself.

Besides the Old Testament tale, Samson appears in the Tanakh and the Talmud.  Basque mythology includes tales of the giant Sanson, who did things like kick up mountain ranges.

Sanson was apparently based on Samson, and Samson probably came from the Hebrew word for sun – shemesh.

You’ll find him in use in Medieval England, but the source is a Welsh-born saint.  The future Saint Samson established monasteries and evangelized much of Brittany.  He died sometime in the 5th century.  There’s a second Saint Samson from around the same time – Saint Samson the Hospitable, of Constantinople.

But it is the first Samson commemorated on the map throughout France.  He’s also the reason the name was in use amongst the Normans who came to England.  You’ll spot him in the historical record, most notably in the eleventh century as the given name of an influential Bishop of Worcester.

Samson fell out of favor over the years, possibly as artists embraced the Biblical tale.  John Milton published Samson Agonistes in 1671; Rembrandt was just one of many to depict Delilah’s legendary betrayal.

Even as parents discover more and more obscure Old Testament choices for their sons – Hezekiah and Zevidiah, anyone? – odds are that the Bible isn’t inspiring parents to pick Samson.

Instead, Samson started to appear in the US Top 1000 in the 1970s – the same time several now-popular picks surfaced.  Also spelled Sampson, he could strike many parents as a legitimate surname choice, similar to:

• Jackson has artistic style and offers parents a fresh take on the evergreen John.  He ranked #32 in 2008;
• Farther behind are I’m-just-wild-’bout Beatlesque Harrison, at #219;
• Newcaster Anderson, at #326;
• Surname/whiskey Jameson, at #382;
• Other ends-in-son surnames in favor include Carson, Mason and Tyson.

Samson’s best showing was #829 in 1988.  As of 2008, he stood at #948.  Odds are that many parents dismiss Samson in favor of one of his style-siblings when they think of the Biblical tale.

But Top 25 favorite Samuel has been bestowed on more than 125,000 newborn boys since 2000 alone.  Another 5,000 boys were named Sam – and that’s without considering Samantha and company.

If you’re comfortable disregarding the Biblical tale – and inevitable first-haircut jokes, Samson fits nicely with current trends and manages to be quite unusual without being too different.