Image by anyjazz65 via Flickr
Happy Thanksgiving!
For those of you in the US, I hope you’re having a lovely day filled with the ones you love.
Fetching Names: Virtuous Boys
Where every name has a story
Where every name has a story
Image by anyjazz65 via Flickr
Happy Thanksgiving!
For those of you in the US, I hope you’re having a lovely day filled with the ones you love.
I love North, and we could totally pull it off being umpteenth generation Michiganders 🙂 Noble is another favorite virtue name. I also love Makepeace, though I think that one is best for the middle spot. Prosper is also awesome and the Vulcan vibe makes it that much more appealing 😉 Great list Abby!
I think North is a pretty cool name for a boy, but being a 9th generation Southern girl, I couldn’t do it. However, naming a child South just wouldn’t have the same effect, would it? People would constantly think about “going South” and other similarly dirty phrases.
I love Oak for a boy, and surprisingly, a lot of the names mentioned in this blog really appeals to me. DH and I just found out we’re expecting our first child and while I’ve had a girl’s name picked out for several years now, we’re completely blanking out on a boy’s name. Oak is now the first name on our short list! It goes with our girl’s name, which has a nature name in the middle slot. Thanks!
Congratulations, Kat! How exciting!
And yes, I do think that South is less wearable than West or North or East. Maybe Southerly or Sutherland in the middle spot, though …
Oooo I love North, I think you would have to be careful with it though, depending on the the last name it could sound like a street name… North Washington
I’ve have Prosper in my back pocket for years, and would happily use him. Earnest, more often seen as Ernest, is another potential, if somewhat dated, choice.
No Mad Men fans with babies named Sterling Cooper, yet?
Prosper and Merit both feel feminine to me, but I love Oak as a middle name, and I think Everest has potential for growth with Ever already on trend!
I think I’ve said this before, but Everest always sounds like the name of a funeral home to me.
Once, when visiting Seattle, I met a man who introduced himself as Forgiven. I have no clue whether that was his given name or a name he chose for himself.
In India Joy is considered a masculine name. I even had a teacher who we called “Mr. Joy”.
*whom
North and Merit have long been on my list and I am also partial to Amity for a boy.
I don’t think of Sterling as being hard to carry off probably because I grew up with one.
Shelter I’ve never thought of as a name, yet Spanish has Amparo and Consuelo for girls, as well as unisex Refugio with similar meanings.
My coworkers and I as well as our friend were shocked when her grandson was named North. We thought it was so weird – three years later it’s perfectly normal and it’s him.
I like Everett; Everest being just one letter different is nice. I do wonder if there would be a lot of “climbing Everest” jokes.
Virtue names make nice middle names for those who feel they would be too much as a first name.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Someone else mentioned Noble, but this is totally on my guilty pleasure list for boys. I don’t know if it is entirely useable in my neck of the woods, but I still really like it. As I know a baby female Sterling, I couldn’t use it-for either sex. I am not really a fan-at least as a name. As jewelry, however…
One name that has not been mentioned yet is Endeavor which I think was the first name of Inspector Morse. Also I wonder if Ernest would fall into this category.
Valor I think would be a good name for a boy – I also like Hero even though I know it is female in the Shakespearian play. Also I don’t see why Honor could not work on a boy but again has been historically female.
There’s Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, the nephew of Ralph and Joseph Fiennes. His siblings are Titan and Mercy. Pretty cool!
I love Oak and North. Kirstie Alley’s now grown up son is named True (actually William True, but he goes by his middle name) and I really like it for a boy as well as a girl.
I’ve seen a birth announcement for a Pride, but now can’t remember if it was a boy or girl. I’ve also seen Fate, Wisdom, Valor, Loyal, Brave/Bravery and Noble on baby boys as first or middles.
Happy Thanksgiving!
We’ve met a little boy named Oak.
I know an Oakley, I really like it actually
I love Prosper — and Merit is really nice. I like Merritt, but prefer the simpler spelling, especially since it comes with such a great maning.
Marit is a family name for me and I’ve often thought Merritt/Merit would be a nice way to honor all the family members named Mary or Margaret. I’d use it for as a middle boy or a girl.
I love North. I think it is handsome and strong and just unusual enough to stand out.
I think virtue names, like word names, season names, month/day names are unisex. A lot of them are unusable for the majority of us, but I don’t think it would be too out there to meet boys named Joy, Mercy, Serenity or Honor, just as I’d find thrilling to meet a little one named Summer or Autumn. After all, why should these be female only?
I was at the cemetery the other day and noticed the name Pardon, born in the early 1800’s. No indication if it was a man or woman though.
Ooh I do like North, not really useable here but nice nonetheless.
Since virtue names are typically unisex [being words], we had several on both boy and girl lists — Verity, Amity, and Mercy. Then we had Merry, True, and Constance just on the boy list, Honor just on the girl list. My 7th great-grandmother was named Mercy [born in Salem in 1763!], but my husband preferred it for a boy because he said it just felt masculine to him — he really liked it with the nickname Merry. Of course, I ended up with a nephew Dru and a [female] cousin Tru, so True had to come off our list. Of the others you listed, Merit is the only other I’d consider, and we can’t use that because Merritt’s the name of a school around here. Haven is nice, but all I can think of is Angelina Jolie’s brother.
The blogger at Ecomilf (www.ecomilf.com) has a little boy called North. Sounded strange the first few times I read it, but it grew and grew on me and now I love it!