Abram Called To Be a Blessing; Image via Wikipedia

He’s part Biblical patriarch, part Gothic novelist.

Thanks to Lindsay for suggesting Abram as our Baby Name of the Day.

Many an Old Testament figure took a new name.  Abram became Abraham in the Book of Genesis, and from there became the father of the Israelites, as well as Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.  He’s significant in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and there’s really too much of his tale to tell here.  Suffice to say that either Abram or Abraham is a name that ripples with a certain spiritual currency.

I thought I’d always understood Abram’s name.  The ab- element comes from father, and -ram meant exalted.  Abraham meant “father of multitudes” – a promise from God that while he was childless, it would not always be so.  There’s some lively debate about the origins of the changed ending.  The general consensus is that -raham comes from an Arabic word, ruham, meaning multitudes, but it is a little murky.

Abraham, worn by a host of saints and martyrs as well as the ill-fated American President Lincoln, has remained in the US Top 500 every year since 1880.  As of 2010, he stood at #194.

Abram has always been a few steps behind, frequently out of the Top 1000 entirely, and coming in at just #531 last year.  Abram is also a contracted form of Abraham, the common version heard in several languages.

There is a subtle stylistic difference between the full bearded patriarchal qualities of Abraham and the slimmed down, youthful Abram.  Notables have worn both forms, but if we limit our list to the latter, there’s:

• Major-General Abram Gannibal, one of the more fascinating figures from Russian history.  Born in Africa, he came to imperial Russia as a gift for Peter the Great, and was treated as a member of Peter’s family, receiving an education and going on to distinguish himself in military service.  He knew Voltaire and Diderot; he’s the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin;
• Revolutionary War soldier turned Virginia Congressman Abram Trigg;
• Union Army general Abram Duryée, who became New York City police commissioner after the war;
• Abram Ryan, a Maryland-born Catholic priest who supported the Confederacy and penned several memorable poems about the losing side;
• Industrialist Abram Hewitt was elected mayor of New York City in 1886 and developed the plans for the city’s subway system.  His daughters established the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, now known as the Cooper-Hewitt, part of the Smithsonian;
• More recently, This Old House’s Norm Abram has achieved fame as a craftsman and carpenter.

Perhaps Abram’s greatest appeal is his spare sound, one that nudges him closer to Bram, as in Stoker, the legendary author of Dracula.  (Though Stoker was born Abraham.)  You could, of course, also use the standby Abe as a short form, one that is perfectly stylish in our era of Gus and Max, but he does feel a little stovepipe hat.

Overall, Abram seems like a great, underused Old Testament name.  He’s more interesting than Aaron, more conventionally masculine than Elijah.  If you’re looking for a globe-spanning A-name with history, Abram is one to consider.

A sincere thank you to Molly for sharing the story of her sons’ names: twins Asher and Bram.

Before we found out we were expecting last summer, my husband had been praying (out loud!) for twin boys. I laughed and kept reminding him that he should be thankful for ANY baby. Before we were married (about six years ago), we were on a long car ride and I saw the name Asher in the Bible. I asked my husband (then boyfriend) what he thought of that name. He liked it. That was the first baby name conversation we ever had and it stuck. We knew we wanted to name a future boy Asher.

Fast forward a few years and we actually thought we were closer to having kids. I started reading name blogs (including Appellation Mountain) and saw the post about the name Bram. My husband (who is the tightest name “filter” ever) actually liked it. It had the tie in with Asher since it came from Abraham (both are Old Testament names). We argued over middle names. Would we use his family name, Wesley, or my family name, William?

It didn’t matter. We ended up pregnant with twin boys due on my husband’s birthday (true story!). Our little boys are Asher William and Bram Wesley. Twin A and Twin B!

Thanks for helping us name our little guy.

Molly, thanks!  I’ve been writing since January 2008.  Believe it or not, it never occurred to me that I’d ever hear a story of a child named in part because of this site.  I’m truly honored that you shared this story.

And talk about the power of prayer!  What if he asked for triplets? 

This really is a textbook example of how to name twins.  They’re perfectly compatible names, but each boy has his own identity, too.

Thanks to Kelly for suggesting Gabriel as Name of the Day.

Gabriel is rich with religious significance:

• His name comes from the Hebrew Gavri-el, which translates to something like God is my hero, or strong man of God;
• He has significance in Judaism, Christianity and Islam;
• While there’s no Biblical basis, legend has it that a blast of Gabriel’s trumpet will signal the beginning of Armageddon.

His -iel ending is associated with popular choices for girls, from Muriel to Ariel.  Feminine forms Gabriella and Gabrielle are chart toppers for girls.

Nickname Gabe turns the angel into a rough and tumble cowboy, and makes him far more wearable.

And Gabriel is well worn.  He’s ranked in the US Top 1000 every year since 1880, and entered the Top 100 back in 1976.

He’s also highly portable.  If you need a name that can travel, Gabriel is a safe bet.  He’s in the Top Ten in places as different as Iceland and Brazil, and ranks in the Top 100 of:

• Canada;
• Australia;
• France;
• Spain;
• Sweden;
• Norway;
• Belgium;
• Austria;
• The Republic of Georgia;
• Chile.

Famous Gabriels include:

• Italy’s Saint Gabriel, who lived in the 1800s and was canonized in 1920;
• Nineteenth century French philosopher Gabriel Marcel;
• Gabriel García Márquez is a Nobel prize-winning Colombian novelist, best known for One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera;
• You’ve probably seen Oscar-nominated Irish actor Gabriel Byrne on the big screen;
• In 2003, Prince Philippe, the heir apparent to the throne of Belgium, and his wife Princess Mathilde welcomed a son named Gabriel, third in line to the throne after big sister Elisabeth and their dad;
• Gabriel is also a surname, as in musician Peter Gabriel, formerly of Genesis, later a successful solo artist and advocate for world music.

Gabriel has been in sparing use over the centuries, but became more common in recent years.  Two heroic Gabriels may have encouraged his use:

• In the summer of 1800, Gabriel Prosser led a rebellion of his fellow slaves in Richmond, Virginia.  Prosser hanged, but has since been pardoned – and honored;
• Tblisi-born Gabriel is a monk in the Eastern Orthodox Church.  He opposed communism, publicly setting a portrait of Lenin on fire in 1965.  Arrested and tortured by the KGB, today is considered among Georgia’s national heroes.

When filmmakers decided to fill in the backstory of Bram Stoker’s monster hunter Van Helsing in 2004, they changed his given name from Abraham to Gabriel.  (Turns out there’s a reason for the switch.)

NBC’s Heroes also features a Gabriel, but Gabriel Gray is not a good guy.  He’s better known as bad guy Sylar.

You’ll find him depicted in countless works of art and referenced in pop culture, especially thanks to his horn-blowing.  And another muscular incarnation of Gabriel is headed to a theater near you in just a few weeks.  Paul Bettany plays Michael, the angel of the side of humanity while Kevin Durand’s Gabriel tries to take us out in Legion.

It is easy to see why so many parents love Gabriel.  His popularity makes for his only real drawback.

But you, faithful readers, responded with so many great ideas that I’m evening the field.  This week will be five days’ of boys’ Names of the Day.

Today’s name was supposed to be Bram, for Bewildertrix.  While I tend to enjoy all of the names I write about, Bram has long been a personal favorite.  In fact, I knew quite a lot about Bram.

Which wasn’t surprising.

Because he was Name of the Day back in October 2008.

So I’ve done something I’ve never done before – edited and re-issued a revised post.  (You’ll see a note at the very end, indicating the date of revision.)

And I’m substituting another interesting choice for today’s post.  In this case, he’s a Top 100 pick, an interesting mix of the artistic, the Southern-fried and the nouveau.

But you’ll have to check back later to read all about him.

Today’s Name of the Day is Bram.

Traditionally, Bram is short for Abraham.  The name’s meaning is usually given as “father of many,” from the Hebrew, and that matches up with the Biblical patriarch’s tale quite well.  Besides significance in Christianity, Abraham features in Judaism and Islam, too.  When he first appears in the Old Testament, his name is Abram. After his revelation, he takes on the extra syllable.  In this case, a subtle alteration carries quite a bit of meaning.

If you’re entertaining Abraham, Bram might feel like a better nickname than honest Abe.  Parents might also arrive at Bram through an English surname like Bramwell or Bramley.  But Bram could stand on his own, too.  He’d be right at home with single-syllable names for boys, like Finn and Gus, Max and Jack.

Some suggest that Bram has a secondary derivation, unrelated to the Bible – the Gaelic word for raven.  That makes him even more appealing as a stand-alone appellation – and even more appropriate for Halloween!

Speaking of Halloween, Bram Stoker (yup, he was born Abraham) was born in Dublin back in 1847.  He spent years researching folklore before penning Dracula.  His novel debuted in 1897 and was popular, but it would take the movie versions to cement the vampire in our popular imagination.  In 1931, Bela Lugosi created the Count Dracula that most of us think of when we hear “vampire.”  The movie was a hit, and so we’ve seen Bram Stoker’s tale re-interpreted countless times since.

There aren’t many other notable bearers of the name.  Sharon, Louis and Bram are a Canadian musical trio best known for singing catchy tunes for children, many of them about elephants.  (That Bram started out as a Bramwell.)  The creator and CEO of file sharing software BitTorrent is Bram Cohen.  South African lawyer Bram Fischer (born Abram) was a notable figure in the anti-apartheid movement, especially celebrated because he turned his back on a privileged life to defend Nelson Mandela.

Bram’s never cracked the US Top 1000, but all of this could change.  It’s a fairly popular given name in Belgium and has ranked in the Top Ten in the Netherlands in recent years.

Very few names combine all of Bram’s qualities – he’s short and unusual, vaguely exotic but easy to spell and pronounce.  And while he has a Gothic edge that will appeal to some parents, it’s still a reasonably mainstream moniker that won’t burden your child.  As a nickname or on his own, Bram could wear very well.

Note: Post Revised December 14, 2009

Cathedral of Prince St. Vladimir; Image by Oleg Mirabo via Flickr

If boys are answering to Kannon and Slade, maybe this Slavic classic can overcome his bloodthirsty Gothic vibe.

Thanks to Lola for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day: Vladimir.

If your family tree branches back to Eastern Europe, odds are you’ve got an ancestor wearing some variant of this name in your past.  In Old Church Slavonic, vlasti or volod means rule or ruler, while miru means peace – think of Mir, the Soviet space station.  Others suggest that the final element is related to mer for famous or miru for world.

Plenty of Vladimirs have been rulers, but peaceful ones?  Not always.

The first famous Vladimir attained sainthood after converting to Christianity and bringing most of Kiev with him, in the late tenth century into the eleventh.  While he founded schools, this Vladimir also spent plenty of his later years at war with his neighbors – and his sons.  He remains a patron saint of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia, as well as a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church, so little wonder his name has endured.

The Vladimirs that follow him are notorious:

• There’s Vlad II, Duke of Wallachia, better known as Vlad Dracul.  While he was a successful general, defending his lands from the Ottoman Empire, he’s best known for fathering Vlad III;
• Vlad III is better known as Vlad the Impaler.  Junior had a tough road of it, being sent as a hostage to the Ottoman rulers and having to scrap for power.  In Wallachia – Southern Romania – he’s remembered as a defender of the homeland, if a ruthless one.  In Western Europe, reports paint him as a tyrant who enjoyed torture and never hesitated to kill in furtherance of his goals.  Lest you think this is merely history, Bram Stoker based his 1897 Dracula on the historical Vlad III;
• Communist and Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin cemented the name’s ruthless flavor.

Of course, not every Henry, William, or Edward was noble and just, and plenty of Slavic princes and ordinary folks wore the name without incident.  Today, Vladimir might just conjure up ice hockey players and vodka.  He’s popular in the Ukraine and the Czech Republic; variants include:

• The German Waldemar, worn by a grandson of Queen Victoria;
• The Scandinavian Valdemar, popular in Denmark where it was worn by four kings;
• Short form Waldo, in steady use in the US through the 1940s, but out of vogue for everyone except certain cartoon characters since.

Waldemar appeared in the Top 1000 a few times near the turn of the twentieth century, but Vladimir has yet to chart.

For a literary reference free of vampire bats, here’s one that some might enjoy – along with Estragon, Vladimir is Waiting for Godot in Samuel Beckett’s play.

In the middle spot Vladimir offers the perfect combination of heritage, history and unexpected charm.  As a given name, Vladimir is a tough sell.  He lacks an easy nickname, and sounds terribly aggressive.  Then again, Gunner and Cannon are headed to kindergarten in a few years, so why not a little Vlad?

Note:  This post was originally published on September 23, 2008, and was revised and reposted on April 28, 2011.

But we’re not just spelling it out here on ApMtn. Or maybe we are.

We’re talking about a few underused, less considered names for baby boys that all happen to begin with the letter B.

Here goes …

• Bay – Nature names often seem to be reserved for girls – Daisy, Willow, Ruby. But there are a select few that work nicely for boys, and the simple, direct Bay is among them. It’s a body of water, a leaf and a color of horse. It’s also a surname, so that makes Bay fair game. (Bay has never appeared in the Top 1000.)
• Beckett – The nickname Beck appeals to many parents, and the super-stardom of David Beckham might lead some to consider the formal name Beckham. But we at ApMtn suggest that Beckett is a far more appealing choice. It has literary overtones, thanks to the Tony-award winning play about the life of Saint Thomas Becket. But it is the two-T version – Beckett – that broke in the Top 1000 at #758 in 2006.
• Beau – We’ve noted that Beau is an appealing option for girls, and it remains equally charming for boys. If you’re looking for a name for your little cowpoke, this is a good pick – and a strong alternative to the worn-out Cody. (Beau was #438 in 2006.)
• Becan – Celtic names are cool, whether you’re Irish or just like to toast with Guinness. But many are woefully overexposed – Aiden, Connor and Ryan spring to mind. Saint Becan was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland (though at my last count there are about 15 of them) and his name remains obscure. It has never been in the Top 1000 in the US. With the short form Beck and the two-syllable sound of Becan, this offers an interesting choice to parents looking for a lesser-known Irish charmer.
• Bodhi, Bode – The first time I spotted Bodhi, I’ll admit I thought it was an outlandish choice. Then I Googled it. Turns out that Bodhi is Sanskrit for enlightened – the Buddha achieved enlightenment while sitting under the Bodhi tree. The name might’ve caught parents’ attention back in 1991, when Patrick Swayze played a bad guy surfer called Bodhi in Point Break. The spelling Bode, worn by the famous American alpine skier Bode Miller, offers an alternative spelling that might seem more masculine. (Bodhi has never been in the Top 1000, but Bode entered at #848 in 2006.)
• Bram – Traditionally a nickname for Abraham – which made our A is for Boys post – Bram could stand on its own. The most famous Bram is doubtless the author of Dracula, Bram Stoker. (Bram has never been in the Top 1000.)
• Barney – This old-fashioned name would be a daring choice for parents, indeed. Not only is there the purple dinosaur, there’s sidekick Barney Rubble on The Flinstones, Homer’s drinking buddy Barney on The Simpsons and the hapless Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show. And yet, if Henry is hot, Barney might just make a comeback. Today the most famous Barney on TV may be the character played by Neil Patrick Harris on How I Met Your Mother – the womanizing Barney Stinson – a far-cry from the saccharine children’s show. (Barney has not been in the the Top 1000 since 1976.)
• Bryson – It must be said that I don’t care for the name Bryce, and find Brycen absolutely dreadful. But the surname alternative Bryson has real appeal. Travel writer Bill Bryson lends the name some cachet. In fact, this name is almost too popular to rate a nod from ApMtn – it came in at #176 in 2006.