Image by mharrsch via Flickr

If you came of age in the 1980s, today’s choice might make you think of Harry Hamlin in sandals.  And, possibly, a mechanical owl.

As suggested by Sadie, our Baby Name of the Day is Perseus.

The myth of Perseus is a biggie, chock-full of monster-vanquishing, maiden-rescuing, and dynasty-founding.  The grandson of a king, and son of Zeus himself, Perseus grew up the foster son of a fisherman.  Through a series of only-in-myth twists, he ends up being sent to claim the head of Medusa.  A heck of a task, what with her be-snaked hairdo and gaze that turns men to stone.  But Perseus pulls it off, pleasing Athena, and rescuing Andromeda on the way home.

Perseus is also free of some of the baggage other mythological names carry.  While he does fulfill the prophecy that his grandfather worked so hard to avoid, it isn’t the gory story of Oedipus.  Instead, Perseus kills his grandfather by a freak accident in nearly every account.  And while he does become king, it is less a matter of cruel fate and more of succession.

He’s an enduring subject for painters and sculptors, composers and writers.

Beyond the art and the opera, this generation knows Perseus from the silver screen.  1981′s Clash of the Titans cast former Bond Girl Ursula Andress as Aphrodite, and a pre-LA Law Harry Hamlin as the hero.  Titans was faithful to the stories and characters, with just a few exceptions – like Bubo, the mechanical owl.

In any case, the most recent generation of parents grew up with Perseus, and the next one will, too.  Rick Riordan’s series about a tweenaged demi-god and his struggles to solve various dilemmas that could only befall a part-supernatural kid.  Riordan’s hero is Perseus “Percy” Jackson, and his story was adapted for the big screen in 2010 as Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief.  There’s no definite word on a sequel, but rumors abound, and Riordan’s books provide plenty of material.

Riordan’s Perseus’ isn’t really the Perseus of myth.  His dad is Poseidon, for one, and the kids are truly having new adventures.  But 2010 was a big year for Perseus in Hollywood – Clash of the Titans was also remade, with Liam Neeson as Zeus, memorably ordering “Release the Kraken!”  Sam Worthington stepped into Harry Hamlin’s sandals.  A 2012 sequel is planned, so like Percy Jackson, the Titans franchise could keep Perseus in parents’ minds for years.

Percy isn’t related to Perseus, of course.  There’s some debate, but Perseus is likely derived from the Greek perthein – to destroy, making him a cousin to Persephone.

Other historical figures wore the name in ancient times, but he’s been largely extinct since.  Perseus has never appeared in the US Top 1000.  Even in an era when Sebastian and Tristan inhabit the Top 100, Perseus feels like an extreme choice.  Maybe it is because of that mix of masculine warrior and vaguely prissy pers sound – despite the young Mr. Jackson, there’s something about Percy that still feels lace-collared.

And yet, Atticus and Augustus are succeeding for boys, with the ancients truly having their day in the 21st century.  Perseus might surprise some, but he’d be right on trend.

Robert Pattinson; Image via Wikipedia

He was a Top Ten pick in the US for over a century, and the #1 name for fifteen years.  Today he’s fading, but a young Hollywood star might just bring him back.

Thanks to Heather for suggesting Robert as our Baby Name of the Day.

Even if you’ve never read the Twilight books, you’ve probably heard of Robert Pattinson.  His big break was the Harry Potter series, as ill-fated nice guy Cedric Diggory in The Goblet of Fire.  Then came the role of a certain glittery creature of the night, and well … More recently, he’s graduated to non-vampiric roles, co-starring with Reese Witherspoon in Water for Elephants and, later this year, with Uma Thurman in Bel Ami.

The young actor could help revive his character’s name – Edward – and might also do something for his own moniker.

While Robert remains classic, he’s undeniably fading these days.  Robert ranked #10 in 1880, and climbed steadily, reaching #1 in 1924.  He held the top spot into 1930s, and remained in the Top Ten through 1989.

Robert is one of many venerable classics to slip as parents expanded their definitions of acceptable names for boys.  He reached a low of #55 in 2009, and crept up just a tick to #54 in 2010.

But there’s more to it than just changing attitudes towards naming a son.  Other choices with similar histories, like William and Henry, have climbed during the last few decades.  Indeed, Henry is hot in Hollywood, and with Prince William’s recent wedding, he’s as high profile as it gets.

Like those evergreen options, Robert has Germanic roots, was scrubbed up by the Normans, and has been used it its current form for generations.  Robert comes from hrod – fame, along with the common -beraht – bright, shared with Albert and other ends-in-bert options.

There’s a prominent Robert in every field of endeavor:

• Kings of France and Scotland;
• A trio of medieval saints;
• More athletes than I can count;
• Creative forces, from the acting world’s legendary Robert DeNiro to music’s equally admired Bob Dylan and Robert Plant;
• From 18th century early Virginia governor Robert Carter to Bobby Kennedy, a host of politicians have worn the name.

But let’s pause and consider Bobby for a minute.  By the 1990s, Bob had become an everyman name, used for Bill Murray’s irritating psychotic in the 1991 comedy What About Bob?   Bob’s your uncle means “and there you have it.”  There’s a Brady called Bobby, and in the quirky Sandra Boynton song “15 Animals,” which gives the name Bob to fourteen of the fifteen pets in the lyrics.

Could it be a feeling that Bob is overexposed that sends parents looking elsewhere?

Maybe.  But in 2011, plenty of boys answer to William or James or Frederick, not Billy and Jimmy and Fred.  If you do want a nickname, Bob is not the only option.  Rob feels quite current, and I’ve met a Robert who answered to Bo.  Or go nickname-free and use Robert – it is no longer than Aiden or Ethan or plenty of powerfully popular choices.

With R.Patz lending the name a Hollywood heartthrob vibe, Robert feels far more current than he did a few years back.  As the current generation of Twihards graduates into their childbearing years, something tells me that their attitude towards Robert will be far more affectionate than parents today, who probably all know so many Bobs they’re dismissing the name.  Of course, if you’re looking for a classic appellation for a son today, Robert could also be just what you need – perfectly familiar, but undeniably less common than Alex or Will.

Henry is regal.  Hendrix is rock royalty.  This choice falls somewhere in between.

Thanks to Christy for suggesting Hendrik as our Baby Name of the Day.

Henry has been around for centuries.  The Normans brought him to England, and the English have been ruled by an octet of Henrys.  The French had five kings Henry, and there have been plenty of distinguished figures in the aristocracy, the church, and all realms of endeavor.

More recently, Henry has been a constant in the US Top 200, often ranking in the Top 100 and even making a few appearances in the Top Ten.

He’s an enduring classic, with oodles of spin-off names.  A boy wizard made short form Harry stylish.  Surname picks like Harris and Harrison are current, too.

But Hendrik and Henrik are largely overlooked in the US.  Thanks to Danish royals, a Norwegian playwright, and a Swedish ice hockey star, Henrik feels like the Scandinavian option, while Hendrik feels more German.  The line isn’t quite so clear and bright, though.

Likewise, you’ll find people answering to many surname forms of the name, including Hendricks and Hendrik and just Henry, too.

One of the appealing things about Hendrik is his -ik ending.  For years, every boys’ name seemed to end in -n.  Today, -r names like Asher and Gunnar are joining Connor in classrooms across the US.

Other ends-in-ik options include:

• Alaric
• Cedric
• Derek
• Eric
• Frederick
• Malik
• Patrick
• Vick

Add in foreign names, ends in -ek diminutives like the Slavic Darek or Janek, and old school choices like Theodoric and it is an electic bunch.  It is easy to imagine parents gravitating to the sound in search of something just a little different.

Notable Hendriks include:

• South Africa’s Hendrik Verwoerd was once lauded as first prime minister and prime mover in the establishment of the Republic of South Africa.  As he’s also known as the “architect” of apartheid, he’s not much inspiration for a child’s name;
• Hendrik Lorentz won the Nobel Prize in 1902 for his work in physics.  Albert Einstein’s work is built on the theories of Lorentz;
• Both an asteroid and a crater on the moon are named after Dutch astronomer Hendrik van Gent;
• Head to Amsterdam and you can see the works of early 20th century Dutch architect Hendrik Berlage.

There are more figures like these – appearing in history books, but far from household names.  Throw in a few athletes and odds are that you’ll hear Hendrik worn at some point.

The question is whether he’d wear well on a child born in 2011.  Rick is dated, but Hank is a Henry nickname on the rise.  On sound alone, it is no stretch to imagine parents discovering Hendrik.

Hendrix seems likely to catch on, but he’s more Jaxon than Alexander – the x feels just a little bit flashy.

Hendrick falls somewhere in between – he’s different, but seems restrained and dignified.  He could use short form Hank or Harry.

Maybe the biggest challenge with Hendrick is one shared by many international variants of well-established names: they retain their classic status, but you’re still stuck spelling and explaining them, just as if you’d plucked a name out of the clear blue.

And yet that’s part of his charm, too.  Hendrik is just a little bit different – so if that’s what you’re searching for, he could be the perfect fit.

Thanks to Sara for suggesting Phoenix as our Baby Name of the Day.

Message boards sometimes dismiss Phoenix as a non-name, but that’s not really correct.  There were at least two separate bearers of the name in Greek myth, both warriors, both mentioned in the Iliad.

The mythical bird is at least as old as the given name, and far more universal.  Many cultures tell of a bird that, after a long life, dies and is reborn in flame.

The exact evolution of the name is murky.  It could refer to the Phoenicians, the great traders of the ancient world, or possibly to phoinios, the Greek word for a color.  (Among other wares, the Phoenicians were known for their dyes.)

Somewhere out of that soup, the Phoenicians got their name, as did our mythical  bird, a symbol of rebirth and renewal.  A few of the more famous uses include:

• The city in Arizona was named Phoenix because the settlers built their community atop a long-abandoned Native American settlement;
• Kids know the story thanks to Fawkes, Professor Dumbledore’s loyal pet phoenix in the Harry Potter series;
• Jean Grey is a member of the X-Men and uses the alias Phoenix, in part because she re-generated.  In the movies, she’s been played by Famke Jannsen – and she’s not always a good guy;
• Most recently, the rescue capsule used to bring the trapped Chilean miners to safety was named the Fenix.

There are plenty of literary references, too, but we can’t overlook Hollywood’s influence.

River Jude Bottom was born to globe-trotting hippies.  His family renamed themselves Phoenix in honor of the bird when River was five.  A few years later, young River Phoenix was making regular television appearances, and shortly after, feature films.  1986′s Stand By Me was his breakout role, and two years later he was Oscar-nominated as Best Supporting Actor in Running On Empty.  More success followed, but the story ends in a tragedy.  On October 30, 1993, Phoenix overdosed at Hollywood’s Viper Room.  He died in the early morning hours of October 31, aged just 23.

The talented young actor should get credit for putting two names in play.  In 1994, River debuted in the US Top 1000 for boys at #923, and has since climbed to #436.

Phoenix followed, making his debut in 1995.  By last year he was up to #381 for boys.

In 1999, Spice Girl Mel B. gave the name to a daughter.  Phoenix has been catching on for girls in the US, too, climbing to #668 in 2010.

It is easy to see why the name appeals:

• With ties to mythology and the map, Phoenix is very on trend;
• The name comes by its unusual spelling honestly;
• Nicknames include Fifi for girls and Nix or Nicky for either gender;
• From Felix to Xanthe, names with an x hold a special appeal.

Phoenix makes a dramatic name for a son or a daughter.  It is perfectly wearable today, but might be best anchored with a classic middle name, lest your child sound too much like a space ship or superhero.

James Dean; Image via Wikipedia

He’s a rebel, he’s a crooner, he’s an academic.

Thanks to Sarah for suggesting the surprisingly evergreen Dean as our Baby Name of the Day.

Sarah actually suggested Dean because it sounds the same as deen, an Arabic word that translates roughly to religious, and has – I think – something of an intellectual, spiritual vibe.  The similarity makes Dean a culture-spanning choice.

But really he’s a fairly common English language name.  I can’t find his first use, but he’s always appeared in the US Top 1000, and he ranked in the Top 100 from 1956 through 1969.

Three notable figures help propel the name to popularity:

• Born Dino Crocetti, Dean Martin was a member of the Rat Pack who found success in movies, music, and television from the 1940s into the 1970s.  His legend endures, as do hits like “Volare” and many of his classic film appearances;
• James Dean made Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden in 1955, and Giant one year later.  In 1956, he died in a car crash at the age of 24.  Dean became the first actor to win a posthumous Oscar, and endowed his name with a perpetual cool;
• Second only to the Beach Boys, surfer duo Jan and Dean consisted of Jan Berry and Dean Torrence.  They peaked in the early 1960s with hits like “Dead Man’s Curve.”  The curve is a real stretch of road outside of LA, and the pair’s career was cut short when Berry nearly died in a car accident on Dead Man’s Curve.  Torrence went on to a career as a Grammy-award winning designer of album cover art.

It was James Dean’s untimely demise that catapulted his surname into the Top 100, but there’s more than one origin for Dean:

• As a last name, it likely comes from the Middle English dene and Old English denu – valley.  Plenty of places on the map share the name;
• Alternately, the Late Latin decanus referred to the commander of ten soldiers, from the Greek deka – ten.  The church borrowed the term, and it became deien in Old French.  By the sixteenth century, it referred to a college administrator.  This makes Dean another occupational surname possibility;
• Dino is best known as Fred Flinstone’s pet dinosaur, but it is also a diminutive in Italian for names like Agostino and Valentino, as well as an independent given name.

Other notable Deans from the past century or so include:

• Dean Acheson served as Secretary of State under President Truman.  Acheson developed the Marshall Plan, as well as much of Cold War foreign policy in the 1940s and 50s;
• There’s a character by the name in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.  Dean Moriarty was based on Neal Cassady, a major figure of the era;
• Dean Cain took up Christopher Reeve’s cape as Superman on the small screen;
• Tori Spelling’s husband Dean shares the spotlight in their reality TV series;
• Dean Koontz churns out bestselling supernatural horror stories;
• Fellow Gryffindor Dean Thomas attends Hogwarts with Harry Potter;
• Supernatural’s Dean Winchester, along with his brother Sam, hunts demons, spirits, and other things that go bump in the night.

The name also shows up in the middle spot:

• Richard Dean Anderson was television’s mullet-sporting can-do guy MacGyver;
• Harry Dean Stanton was Molly Ringwald’s ne’er-do-well dad in Pretty in Pink and creepy polygamist cult leader Roman Grant in Big Love;
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan has appeared in Grey’s Anatomy and Supernatural.

The biggest strike against Dean is the number of dads who currently answer to the name.  But that also helps explain his current rank – #305 – in the US.  He might not qualify as a stylish choice, but he remains a solid option.

Tennyson statue outside Lincoln Cathedral via Flickr

The saintly Dennis had his day, but if you’re looking for a fresh spin on that classic appellation, here’s one option.

Thanks to Amanda for suggesting the poetic Tennyson as our Baby Name of the Day.

Tennyson’s son ending implies that this name was given to descendants of someone called Tenny, just like Andrew’s offspring became Andersons and Harry’s kids answer to Harrison.  Tennyson implies an ancestral Dennis.

The D-to-T switch was part of the same alchemy that gave us Bob from Robert and Dick from Richard.  Denis – the dominant spelling – gave us the short forms Denny and Tenny.

Denis caught on thanks to a third-century saint, but the saint was born Dionysus.  While few other gods’ names were given directly, Dionysios seems to be the exception.  Denis is simply a contracted form.  As Denis, the name was transformed from chief of pagan revels to an impeccably Catholic choice.

Saint Denis was French; along with Saint Genevieve, he serves as patron saint of Paris.

The name appears steadily throughout the historical record, and plenty of families have adopted a surname form, too.

None of this would matter, save for the Victorian era’s poet laureate, Alfred Tennyson.  From The Charge of the Light Brigade to the Idylls of the King, he’s penned many an immortal work.  His poetry earned him the title Baron Tennyson, an honor his descendants carry to the present day.

Plenty of places were named Tennyson in his memory, too, from the US to Australia.

Speaking of Australia, Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe wife Danielle Spencer have two sons: Charles and Tennyson.

Crowe wasn’t the first to bestow Tennyson as a given name.  Back in the 1970s, Tennyson Guyer represented Ohio in the US House of Representatives.

There’s also at least one use of Tennyson for a girl, though it’s in fiction: Lesley M.M. Blume’s young adult novel Tennyson.  The novel’s young heroine is living on a crumbling Southern plantation during the Great Depression.

Kids today might also think of the young hero of animated adventure series Ben 10. He’s Ben Tennyson, brother to Gwen.

There have also been several ships called Tennyson, including one that traveled between New York and South American in the early twentieth century.

If there’s any drawback to Tennyson, it is that he sounds the tiniest bit pretentious.  But then, that’s the risk with using any hero’s surname.  Unless it becomes a Top 100 choice, at which point no one is paying much attention to which Jackson or Jordan you had in mind when you picked the name.

If you can overlook that vibe, Tennyson has quite a bit of style.  He’s more masculine than ends-in-son picks that lead to favorite feminine short forms, like Emerson or Ellison.  He’s less expected than surname choices like Tyler and Mason.  Tenn and Tenny make for fun short forms.

And if anyone asks you if you were inspired by the actor’s kid, well, you can always respond: “No, we were thinking of the poet.”

Image by lassi.kurkijarvi via Flickr

Jennifer was the #1 name of the 1970s.  Genevieve is her saintly cousin.  For parents looking for something more daring still, there’s this pretty place name.

Thanks to Clio for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day: Geneva.

Geneva makes for a stylish balance of the expected and the surprising:

• Borrowing from the map remains a great way to choose a name that is both familiar and rarely shared;
• Her Gen- syllable has been in favor for decades;
• Her -eva ending gives her that vibrant v sound that has pushed Ava and Violet, Eva and Vita to the heights of fashion.

Like many a place name, Geneva has more history of use than you might expect.  She appeared in the US Top 1000 every year between 1880 and 1995, peaking at #106 in 1920.  Genevieve had been a Top 100 choice for several years by then, and Jennie had been popular for decades.

Parents might have been inspired by the Swiss city, or by the lake.  No one agrees on the origin of Geneva, but theories abound:

• From the Celtic root genu – estuary, possibly shared by Genoa, too;
• In French, juniper is genévrier.  It Italian, it is ginevra.  The Italians call the city Ginevra, reinforcing the connection;
• As a given name, some suggest she’s not related to the place at all.  Since Genevieve was popular at the same time, it is possible to view Geneva as a variant.

Could it really be that simple?  An awful lot of parents settled on Geneva for decades.  Future First Lady Mamie Eisenhower was born Mary Geneva Doud in 1896.  Her biography reports that her middle name came from a popular song: “Lovely Lake Geneva.”

That makes sense, but the song has proved elusive.

The 1821 play Thérèse, the Orphan of Geneva was translated from a slightly earlier version in French.  It appears to be the typical story of a virtuous girl, wrongly accused of unsavory acts, but eventually redeemed. John Howard Payne is credited as the author of the English version.  Payne started out as an actor, then went on to write.  He adapted another story as Clari, Maid of Milan, and added the song “Home! Sweet Home!”  Could it be that he also added a less-remembered song to his earlier work?

The Swiss lake isn’t the only candidate for inspiring lyrics.  Wisconsin’s Geneva Lake is also a popular resort, tracing its history to the second half of the nineteenth century.  The first railroad line from Chicago reached the area in 1871.  Lake Geneva Yacht Club was established three years later.

While all of the places called Geneva retain their charms, we haven’t heard much of her as a given name in recent years.  Ginevra Weasley, better known as Ginny, in the Harry Potter series, could boost the Italian version.  And if you’d like to go even farther, Genoveva is the Spanish form.

There is a Geneva in Clive Barker‘s young adult series Abarat.  I haven’t read them, but in this excerpt, she slays a dragon with a flare gun.

Overall, Geneva could make for a trouble-free unusual name.  You’re more likely to hear “Oh, I had a great-aunt called Geneva” than “Why would you name a child after that place?”

Nature's Number 6 by CarbonNYC via Flickr

First, a question for a friend: let’s say you were expecting a daughter.  Not only is she going to be your last child, you’re the youngest sibling, so this baby is probably the last in her generation.  You’d love to pass on your maiden name.  Trouble is, your maiden name sounds exactly like a popular name, but with a totally different spelling.

For argument’s sake, let’s say the name is Reily.  It looks like a creative respelling of a popular name, but it isn’t – it’s the most meaningful name you can imagine.  You could respell it to Riley.  But you’d rather not.

What would you do?  Use Reily, knowing there’s no name more meaningful?  Accept the less meaningful Riley in an attempt to save your daughter spelling hassles?  Or are there so many girls called Rylee that you have to spell everything anyhow?

Opinions appreciated!

Elsewhere online:

• I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Harry’s Law, the new Kathy Bates show on NBC.  The character’s name is Harriet, one of my favorites.  Harriet left the US Top 1000 after 1970, and since then the only high-profile bearer of the name was the shrewish Mrs. Oleson on Little House on the Prairie.  I keep expecting to see her make a comeback.  Nickname option Hattie seems like a logical successor to Maddie and Abby;
• This post at Swistle discusses the name Hazen, for a boy.  For the parents, it’s the name of a favorite place, a state park in Vermont.  But it also sounds like the kind of invented boy name we continue to hear.  A friend of mine mentioned she knows a newborn boy named Vallen;
• You Can’t Call It “It” skims the London Telegraph birth announcements. It’s always a great read, but my favorite was Hero Genevieve Tallulah, a sister for Gus, Daisy, Archie, and Conrad.  I’d love to know the older kids’ full names;
• Look at this middle name, spotted by For Real: Roman Starling.  It’s a great combination of the very masculine and the completely unexpected;
• I try to read Voornamelijk, despite the fact that it is in Dutch.  Her recent report on reality TV from Europe turned up an intriguing list of contestants: Dilara, Lois, Meron, and Zira;
• Word is out that the most popular names in Germany for last year were Sophie and Maximilian.  Despite being known for their restrictive laws regarding given names, quite a few unusual choices made it through, including Kix and Belana;
• I love this story about a baby named after chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit at Nancy’s site.

I am absolutely bursting with excitement over my post at Nameberry for Monday.  The names range from Amoret to Sedley, Lucien to Arthemise.

Hollywood gave us just two announcements this week, but oh, what names!

• We learned that Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher named Olive’s little sister Elula.  There’s a good analysis of the name’s style up at NameCandy and Elisabeth at You Can’t Call It “It” is reporting that Elula’s full name is Elula Lottie Miriam;
• Gretchen Mol chose Winter Morgan for Ptolemy’s little sister.  I like Winter just fine, but I was expecting something far more daring – Yseult or Persephone, maybe.

Which reminds me – do you know the most popular season name?  This article at Babble reads “We all know at least one Summer, right? And Autumn isn’t unheard of. But Winter? That’s a first.”  Actually, Autumn is in the US Top 100, while Summer has never ranked that high.  And can Winter really be called a first when Nicole Richie’s Harlow Winter Kate is so visible?  Nancy tells us that 259 girls received the name in 2009, meaning that Winter ranked just a few spots beyond the Top 1000.

As for Spring, there’s always Oscar-nominated actress Spring Byington.

Speaking of spring, remember that voting for March Madness preliminaries for both Boys and Girls is open until Friday morning.

Thanks all for this week.  As always, thanks for reading!

G-ca by Too Far North via Flickr

If Cannon and Gunner are hot for boys, why not this surname that feels slightly more academic?

Thanks to Katie for suggesting Gannon as our Baby Name of the Day.

Gannon isn’t exactly Harvard, so if you’ve never lived near Erie, Pennsylvania, it might not immediately conjure up images of higher education.

But Gannon is, indeed, a four-year university founded back in 1925 by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie.  John Mark Gannon was Erie’s Bishop when the school was established.  He was also an Erie native, and a driving force for education in the region.

Gannon seems to have emerged as a surname derived from Mag Fhionnáin – yet another Gaelic appellation related to Finn, and thus meaning fair.

There’s a second – possibly more familiar – meaning to Gannon.  Also spelled Ganon, he’s the bad guy in Nintendo’s long-running The Legend of Zelda video game series.  Some sources give his full name as Ganondorf.  Let’s just say that names ending in -dorf won’t be catching on any time soon.

Between 2002 and 2006, Gannon appeared in the US Top 1000, peaking at #683 in 2003.  He’s still in use, just a little bit outside of the rankings today with, Nancy tells us, 154 boys receiving the name in 2009.

Gannon might bring to mind one of these figures, all of whom answered to Mr. Gannon:

• Bill Gannon fought with the Irish Republican Army, taking part in the conflict that sparked the Irish Civil War;
• One Life to Live‘s football-star-turned-district-attorney Hank Gannon appeared on the show for more than a decade.  There’s a whole family with the same surname – wife, daughter, long-estranged bad-guy younger brother.  Hey, it is a soap opera;
• Before Harry Morgan was Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H, he was Joe Friday’s partner on Dragnet.  Morgan played Officer Bill Gannon from 1967 through 1970, and makes other appearances in later incarnations of the series;
• If you happen to be in Davenport, Iowa, you can visit the M.V. Gannon House, the former home of nineteenth century Irish immigrant turned newspaperman, Michael V. Gannon;
• 1968 Western flick A Man Called Gannon lends the name some cowboy cred.

The list goes on, but none of these associations is strong enough to create a lasting impression.  Instead, Gannon falls somewhere between preppy surname picks like Brooks and aggressively masculine choices in the key of Slade.  Nameberry included Gannon on their list of “good” unusual baby names, in the company of choices like Eben, Lander, and Reeve.

I’m inclined to agree.  Gannon doesn’t have enough history to please everyone, but two-syllable, ends-in-n Irish appellations remain popular, and plenty of parents are bored with Ryan and Aidan.  The formula continues to dominate the US Top 100.  Gannon feels more distinguished than nouveau picks like Baylen, but he still boasts a modern vibe.

F by nickton via Flickr

With all this talk of starbabies called Ford and Flynn, could this single-syllable choice get more attention?

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

Not only does Flint share sounds with fashionable choices like Finn and Flynn, he’s also one of the few nature names that is indisputably all-boy.

Flint is a type of rock, often dark grey or black in color.  It’s been in use as a tool since the Stone Age.  It’s also incredibly useful for starting a fire.  You might have come across a flintlock rifle; while the technology has been surpassed, it was quite the innovation for more than two centuries.

As a surname, Flint probably referred to someone who lived near an outcropping of flint.  You can find Flintshire on the map in Wales, and of course there’s Flint, Michigan, too.

If he hasn’t caught on as a given name, blame an unfortunate association.  Because flint is hard, flinty has become an adjective to describe someone who is hard-hearted, even cruel.  Ebenezer Scrooge was a skinflint – a miser.

In 1966, the James Bond parody Our Man Flint featured the exploits of super-spy Derek Flint, played by James Coburn.  Coburn reprised the role a year later in In Like Flint.

Between the mock-Bond and the negative meaning, Flint has stayed firmly in the last spot, though he dipped into the US Top 1000 in 1959 and 1960, and he appears in the US Census records as a given name more often than you might expect.   Nancy tells us that 29 boys received the name in 2009.

But most uses have been fictional, like:

• Robert Louis Stevenson’s Captain Flint was a hard-hearted treasure hoarder, indeed.  After burying his massive wealth of gold coins and precious jewels, he killed all six of his crew members who had assisted in the effort;
• GI Joe good-guy Dashiell Faireborn answers to Flint;
• Sometimes Spider-Man ally Flint Marko, better known as Sandman.  He first appeared in the comics back in 1963, but his profile was boosted when the character was incorporated into 2007′s Spider-Man 3, and played by Thomas Haden Church;
• Piers Anthony used the name for a character in his Cluster series, lending the name a sci-fi edge.

Most uses tend to fit this pattern – a mix of sci-fi adventurer and tough guy, sometimes worn by a particularly unsavory character, like thuggish Slytherin House member Marcus Flint in the Harry Potter series.

But then came 2009′s light-hearted Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.  Bumbling young inventor Flint Lockwood creates a startling machine that first saves his tiny town, then threatens to destroy it.  Flint, with the help of his pet monkey, eventually saves the day and wins the heart of a weather girl, too.  If you’ve seen the movie, you might find Flint less eye-patch/gunslinger and more ordinary boy.

There’s still a chance that he’ll sound overwhelmingly masculine on a small boy, but odds are that Flint would share a playground with Slade and Gage, Cade, Cole, and Stone. It might not be the most fitting name, should he grow up to be, say, a poet.  But he’ll fit right in with his peers.