Think Dorothea and Theodosia are a bit much for girls?  Here’s an even more serious, bespectacled choice for son.

Thanks to Hanalise for suggesting Theophilus as Name of the Day.

No one would blink if you named your son Theodore.  At #295 in 2008, he’s long since surrendered his previous Top 100 status, but still sounds at home with current favorites like Alexander and Nathaniel.

Theophilus would raise some eyebrows.  He’s a style cousin to Atticus – a name oft-cited as fashion-forward, but still exceedingly rare.

You’ll find him in the history books as the Greek Theophilos as well as the Latin Theophilus.  The meaning is pretty straightforward.  Theos means god; philos means friend.  In the Bible, Luke addresses his Gospel, as well as the Acts of the Apostles, to Theophilus.  There’s much scholarly debate if that’s the name of an actual person, or simply an appropriate honorific used to address anyone who shared Luke’s devotion.

In either case, men named Theophilus lived at the time Luke was writing:

• A High Priest of the Temple in Jerusalem wore the name.  He’s one possible recipient of Luke’s writings;
• A historian and geographer quoted by Plutarch and Ptolemy was Theophilus;
• Theophilos briefly ruled Paropamisadae, an ancient kingdom centered around modern-day Kabul;
• There’s also a seventh century Greek medical writer;
• In the ninth century, Theophilus was a Byzantine emperor.  100 years later, the name was worn by a Byzantine general.

That’s without considering the many religious figures from second century right through the eighteenth.

He never truly faded away.  Theophilus Howard was a sixteenth century Earl of Suffolk.

The name came right across the ocean with the earliest English settlers in the New World.  The first governor of the New Haven Colony in Connecticut was Theophilus Eaton.  One of his daughters handed the name down to her son, but he was nicknamed Ellis.

American history also gives us:

• A solider in the French and Indian War, Theophilus Weeks;
• In the late eighteenth century, Theophilus Bradbury was a US Representative to Congress from Massachusetts;
• Theophilus Dortch was a North Carolina politician, serving in the Confederate Congress during the Civil War;
• Theophilus Holmes was a Confederate General.

History aside, Theophilus never appeared in the US Top 1000.  He hovered just outside during the late 1800s.

By the time Thornton Wilder published his 1973 novel Theophilus North, the name was an aged antique.  Today, the most prominent Theophilos is probably Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.  But he was born Ilias Giannopoulos.

Trends in baby names come and go, but it is hard to imagine Theophilus rising to the top of the popularity charts anytime soon.  And yet, he’s probably reasonably wearable by a modern child.  Theo is an easy, accessible nickname, and shares much in common with fashionable Leo.  And ancient names can sound surprisingly modern – Marcus, Maximus, Julius and Titus are all in the US Top 500 today.

But still, tread cautiously.  Theophilus is a lot of name!