He’s an old school fashionista, a gambler and a Southern gentleman, too.
Today’s Baby Name of the Day is Beau.
If you remember your high school French, you’ll recall that beau is the word for handsome. Beau garçon means pretty boy; I’m not sure if the phrase carries the same vaguely dismissive tone in French.
In English, we’ve used the term beau to mean boyfriend since the 1700s, but today it’s quaint, even euphemistic.
It doesn’t make for a very likely given name. And indeed, most of the early Beaus were christened something else entirely:
- Beau Brummell, arbiter of men’s fashion and England’s original dandy, could’ve have his own reality series – if only television had existed in the eighteenth century. He was born George;
- In the same era, Richard Nash was a big deal in Bath, and he, too, answered to Beau;
- The fictional Michael Geste was a creation of PC Wren in his 1924 adventure novel Beau Geste. Michael was called Beau. Nickname and surname combined for a clever play on words. The novel has been adopted for the big screen more than once;
- James Walker was New York City’s mayor during the Jazz Age, a figure ultimately brought down by scandal but remembered as Jimmy Walker – or Beau James, the title of a 1957 biopic;
- Sidney Walker headlined prizefights at Madison Square Garden in the 1940s as boxer Beau Jack;
- Vice President Joe Biden passed on the family first name to son Joseph Biden III, but he’s known as Beau;
- Actor Beau Bridges was born Lloyd Bridges III, and received his nickname from a fictional figure.
The fictional Beau that inspired the Bridges was Margaret Mitchell’s creation: Beauregard Wilkes, son of Ashley and Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. It was a perfectly appropriate choice – Mitchell had assigned Ashley to real life Confederate General Pierre Beauregard’s command. The Louisiana-born Beauregard inspired plenty of namesakes, and it lends the name a decidedly Southern air.
None of this suggests that Beau would be a likely choice for a son born in recent decades, but a number of uses turned the tide in his favor.
First came Maverick, the television western that about the poker-playing clan: Bret, Bart, Beau, and Brent. Roger Moore played English cousin Beau Maverick. The show debuted in 1957; Moore’s character was a later addition to the cast, joining in 1960. The character is probably the reason the français Beau sounds right at home on the range.
Beau first appears in the US Top 1000 in 1967 and was climbing slowly when another Beauregard appeared on the small screen.
Days of Our Lives’ Bo Brady has transitioned from motorcycle-riding bad boy to upstanding police commissioner. His full name is Beauregard Aurelius, but he’s always answered to just the two-letter Bo.
Then along came another Bo, this time an athlete: Vincent Edward Jackson, better known as Bo Jackson. One of the few players to excel in two professional sports, Jackson played in both the NFL and major league baseball, before injuries ended his career. He also made waves with his Nike campaign. Jackson promoted his signature shoe with another famous Bo, Roll and Roll Hall of Famer and guitarist Bo Diddley – born Ellas.
Beau rose into the 1980s, but he never made it much higher than the 200s. As of last year, Beau ranked #397 while Bo came it at a mere #840. Even though he’s on the decline, Beau could still wear well. With Wyatt and Luke in the US Top 100, Beau could serve as an appealing alternative.
Totally unrelated sidenote: Today’s Name of the Day was scheduled to be Frederick, with credit to Kelly. But guess what? I’d written about Frederick some fifteen months back. It was a great suggestion then, and remains one of my personal favorites today. My apologies for the confusion and oh-boy-golly do I need to figure out a better tracking system!
Sorry about suggesting a name that had already been done! (From past experience I knew that the search feature on your site isn’t the best, so what I did to see if a name had been done before I ran a Google search with site:appellationmountain.net and saw if there had been a NOTD with the respective name or not.)
Beau is a good choice though (a “semi-favorite” of mine).
I forgot to mention that apparently when I searched for Frederick that one wasn’t caught.
Kelly, I did a search and didn’t catch it, either! I think I just need to rebuild my Boys’ Names/Girls’ Names pages over the next few weeks.
Don’t forget Bo & Luke Duke – it’s the first Bo I think of. Beau isn’t for me. As a nn I prefer Bo as a spelling.
HOW could I forget Bo Duke?!
As a preteen I read an abridged version of Beau Geste. I found it a fascinating read, although not in my usual style. However, to this day when I hear the name Beau, I think of Beau Geste. I do hope to sometime read the complete novel, but I hope that for so many books that I’m not sure it will ever happen! The novel’s titular character lends the name a somewhat daring and dashing charm to my mind, but I think of it as more of a nickname than a given name.
I have a sister who answers to Bo, so Beau pops up on our lists. Except Aly misunderstood Bo as “Boat,” so he now has Aunt Boat and Aunt Bird.
Someday, I will have to explain to my children that their aunts have real names …
I know both a Bo and a Beau; the latter is actually IV, but has always been called Beau. This is one of my favorite old-fashioned Southern nicknames, especially for a son who’s Jr., III or IV.
Last week at library storytime, there was a little boy (maybe 2 years old) and his name tag said “Beau”. I was all “Ooooh, not seen that one before!” in my head. The librarian didn’t know how to pronounce the name.
It’s not really my style, but it was kind of fun to spot it on another child. It does sound rather soap-opera to me, having watched ‘Days of our Lives’ for awhile.
Seriously?! The LIBRARIAN didn’t know how to pronounce it? Oh my. It’s not that obscure a word in English for goodness sake!
Hahaha! Yeah, it was a bad week for storytime! The regular storytime lady wasn’t there & there was a fill-in librarian, who didn’t know some of the words to the rhymes. So maybe she was just having a bad day.
She didn’t know how to pronounce Joaquin either, but that’s one you have to be familiar with.
I totally like that this library has you fill out name tags for your children. There’s another library I also go to and they don’t do that, so I’m always trying to eavesdrop on Moms and their kids.
There’s a rather famous Bo in the White House… Bo Obama.
My cousin’s son is Beau – he’s now in his early 20s. I like it, but not enough to use it myself.
I actually know someone who has sons named Pierce and Beau. While I might not pick either name for my son, I respect her choices and find them refreshing.
I like Beau. I know a Robert who goes by Bo, and I think it works. It’s not that much of a stretch.
I am a Beau, actually, and there aren’t that many of us around. I think I’ve only met 2 others in the last 29 years! As a kid, I swore i was going to change my name the minute I turned 18, but I’ve grown into it since then.
Still, I do invariably end up having to spell it any time I’m asked for my name, and answering a phone by saying “Hi, this is Beau speaking” generally gets the response “Hi Boris”
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I knew a girl named Beau and I think it’s just lovely. I even think that spelling is so pretty…it’s the beginning of Beautiful after all. Is Beau just too absurd for a girl? What about spelling it Bow? Like tying a bow….
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