I have seven minutes before I have to do something else, but I wanted to tell you I’m reading a book in which a man’s middle name is Rejoice, and I think it would be fun to return to this type of thing—which I think of, perhaps incorrectly (history has always been a weak point) as Early American, or Colonial, or Settlers, or Pioneers. Is that when we had names such as Peace-That-Passeth-Understanding Jones or whatever it was? I’m not suggesting we go that far, but middle names such as:
Benevolence
Bravery
Charity
Compassion
Considerate
Constance
Courage
Diligence
Empathy
Endurance
Equality
Equanimity
Faithful
Fidelity
Fortitude
Freedom
Generosity
Gentle
Gracious
Gratitude
Happiness
Happy
Harmony
Heart
Honesty
Honor
Hope
Independence
Integrity
Joyful
Justice
Kindness
Knowledge
Liberty
Love
Loyal
Loyalty
Luckiness
Mercy
Merit
Patience
Peace
Perseverance
Persistence
Pleasant
Practicality
Providence
Prudence
Reason
Reliable
Rejoice
Service
Simplicity
Sincerity
Strength
Sympathy
Temperance
Tenacity
Thankful
Tolerance
Tranquility
Trust
Truth
Unity
Valentine
Verity
Victory
Virtue
Wisdom
Worth
would be fun/interesting. (I am avoiding Chastity/Modesty/Purity.) And I wonder if you could add to this list while I go balance the checkbook and then start dinner. I put “virtue” in the post title but they don’t have to be virtue names per se.
Increase! Like Increase Mather.
Felicity! I’ve had a soft spot for it since the American Girl doll.
I have a friend who found the name “Prosper” in her husband’s family tree. They used it for their first son.
Prudence
Faith
I actually have aunts named Constance and Charity (different sides of the family, neither very colonial-virtue inclines AFAIK.
An acquaintance from college named his daughter Harper Bliss. I’m a fan.
I have a female ancestor named Waitstill, nicknames Waity. I’ve always wanted to pass it on; unfortunately, it comes from the practice of naming a firstborn daughter because you have to “wait still” for a son. Gross. But then my Waity ended up being an ONLY CHILD and a BADASS matriarch so…take that, Puritans.
<3!
Amity
Grace
I actually used Verity as middle name for one of my daughters.
Also, True.
I like the name Comfort.
I actually named my son Clement. We call him Clem. Aside from that, I always loved Praise for a middle, boy or girl.
Girls
Amity
Modesty
Clarity
Innocense
Boys
Prosper
Loyalty
Noble
Steadfast
I never thought of Noble, but I love that for a middle name!
I know brothers Knox and Noble.
My husband’s grandfather was Noble and very important to my husband/his family. It was a name i was willing to go with for sentiment but then really grew on me. It is an almost outdated sounding virtue but wouldn’t it be great if there were more people who behaved in a nobel way?
I know several men named Innocent and women named Mercy.
I love and would use Constance, Verity, Providence, Blythe, Patience, and perhaps Clarity. Clement for a boy is a favorite (so noble!).
My 21 month old son is Clement ❤
I work with a man called Givemore. We like to call him Gift.
As a side note, my husband and I love virtue names and the front runners for our belly babe (if she’s a girl) are Patience Faith or Temperence Joy.
Know a boy named Arthur Welcome Lastname.
Then there another boy named Triumph.
We know of a Triumph..but he was named after his father’s motorbike… (luckily it wasn’t a Honda)
I know a woman named Delight.
Truly/True
Hope
Wonder
Devoted/devotion
Just
Beloved
Radiant
I know a Constance (60-something).
I think of these as Puritan names–not pioneer names. I love most of them. My favorite is Mercy because of The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and Constance, because it sounds so pretty and the meaning is so great. I was seriously considering using Constance but then my mom said that she would call her Connie and, while Connie is super cute, we don’t really “do” nicknames so I went with something else.
Loyal is a character in a Louis L’Amour novel, and his character names are historically correct for the time period represented in each of his books. I’ve always loved the name Loyal. I have no issues with the virtue names Modesty, Chastity, or Purity (other than teasing potential), but I struggle with Patience. It is a hard virtue to master!!!!
I’m not sure this quite fits the category, but there’s a Nigerian politician whose first name is Goodluck. It always makes me smile when I hear his name in the middle of a serious news story. I’ve also heard the names Welcome, Praise, Blessing and Happy in Anglophone African countries.
I floated Makepeace as a middle name option but DH was not onboard and we went with something else. I plan to reintroduce it in the future!
Alas, he laughed at my suggestion of Patience for a first name and dislikes Verity. Sigh. But then his very evangelical family has a history of virtue name use, and those bestowed with them sometimes end up compared unflatteringly with the virtue…a hazard of the genre.
I remember as a child being fascinated by Pleasant T. Rowland’s name (founder of the American Girl dolls). I have come across a very WASPy Comfort (she bore it well) and also knew a Given (as in Given by God). I think Given has a great sound but unfortunately it is misheard as Gibbon or Gidden often.
There is a religious sect/cult/community in NZ where most of the residents have named such as Peaceful. Hopeful, Glory, Honour.
I know the one your talking about! Some of the names are quite cool, my favourite example probably being the name Dove. However they do tend to have a very gendered idea of what consists of a virtue, and so a boys can get names Courageous and Bravery while a girls get names like Meek or Purity which is off-putting to say the least.
I know nothing about Puritan or Colonial names, but I do know virtue names. Based on this list, my favorites are Brave(ry), Compassion, Freedom and Liberty, Honor, Independence (nn Indy), Justice, Loyal, Temperance, Unity and Victory. Not on this list, but I really like Silence and Hero.
Other virtue names:
Innocentia
Immaculée
Empatia
Igualdade
Libertad
Fidelia
Fé
Graça (nn Gal)
Gentileza
Esperança / Esperanza
Amor
Leal
Sorte
Mercedes
Paz / Pax
Silêncio
Sinceridade
Verdade
Is the book The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman? I just finished reading that the other day and it seems like I noticed that name in passing, but I can’t find it now.
Yes!
I remember reading of a puritan with No-Merit in the middle which makes a strong statement. Not sure I’d go that way though. I love these names but my middle might as well be Not-Brave-Enough :).
I do know a family with the surname Loveday which I love!
I’m sure the No-Merit middle is referencing the theological position that we, alone, have no merit, but the Savior has all glory. It wouldn’t mean that the child had no merit in comparison to other mortals.
Yes, I understand the position and the sentiment. I still feel though that it is a heavy name to have. I prefer the positive concepts in naming but this is a view representative of the culture and times that I live in. Fascinating.
My favourite virtue name is definitely Glory. Has a great meaning and could be a cool alternative for well-known Gloria (which, of course, means the same but in Latin) . I really wonder why it isn’t more popular…
On a side note, virtue names were very common among early Slavic nations, and some of these names are still being used, for example: Dobrosława (dobro = goodness, sława = glory, fame) or Bogumił (derived from the words Bóg = God and miły = nice or miłować = to love [old fashioned form]).
Surely it’s because of its association with the phrase “glory hole”?!?
And what does that mean? It’s something bad? If so, that would surely explain a lot because I was REALLY wondering why such a great word with ‘name potential’ isn’t used more often. Uhm, is it safe to google it?:)
(Sorry, but English is not my first language, and I’ve never stumbled across that phrase before.)
I’m a native English speaker and I have no idea what that references. I assume Gloria just hasn’t made the rounds of popularity yet. Glory does sound a lot like gory which is a negative association. I’m not going to google it :)
A glory hole is definitely not something you would want a daughter (or a son) associated with. It is a NSFW google. It refers to a hole in a bathroom stall or a wall that a man would put an appendage through for a BJ from some generally unknown person on the other side.
Uhm, okay. That basically ruins this perfectly fine name for good…
Gosh, I sure am grateful that I patiently waited for a reply here and did NOT google it after all;)
Robin Hobbs’ Fraser trilogies have a lot of unique virtue named characters. Some of the more unusual ones:
Civil
Verity (male)
Chivalry
Dutiful
Vigilant
Sacrifice
Bounty
Shrewd
Swift
Nimble
Beloved
Steady
And many more, I’m sure. Lots of characters in these books.
Poor little Sacrifice.
Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files has a very kick-butt Charity. I would -not- want to cross her, and neither does Harry
These are great. And poised for a comeback. (Jessica Alba’s daughter, Honor, comes to mind.)
Favorites: Liberty, Blythe, Faith, Charity, Felicity, Verity for girls. For boys, I don’t care for them as much. I like Noble. Maybe Loyal for a boy. My husband’s grandfather was named Loile (different spelling but same sound). I agree with an earlier commenter who said it this trend can be gender stereotype enforcing.
I think there’s a similar trend of naming kids after nouns or other words that suggest character traits, like Poem/Poet; Story; Apple (Gwenyth Paltrow said she named her daughter Apple because it seemed wholesome); Ever. I have a friend who named her son Canyon. It’s a different feeling but reminds me of the Virtue puritan names.
I’m not sure if these are actual, real names but the two I always think of are Reverence and Revere. Then my brain helpfully recites the lyrics to the Beastie Boys’ Paul Revere. Just me and my horsey and a quart of beer.
Thanks, brain.
I saw the name Earnest (a man, I assume) on a plaque recently and am totally enamored with the way it walks the line between virtue (earnest) and “real” (Ernest) name!
I think the real name is a spelling from a time when spelling rules were flexible.
I have noticed that these names are coming back at least in my area of Oklahoma but mostly in the middle name spot and mostly for girls. Joy, Grace, Faith, etc……. I don’t see it happening for boys although I do know a boy named Praise. His mother moved from Africa to go to college and stayed. I think as a trend it is very gender normative but most names are. When people think of the virtue they want their daughter to have they think Faith, Joy, Peace, etc… When they think of virtues they want their sons to have it’s more along the lines of Brave, Loyal, True etc…..
I know a little girl named Promise.
One of my husband’s distant long ago relatives in the South had the first name Shine and I’ve always thought it would be an awesome middle name!
I love Patience. I suggested it for our daughters middle. Hubby thought it would be a joke but I knew a Patience as a kid and we never make patience jokes.
I recently met a man named Danger.
Arriving late to the party but I’ve long loved and considered Curiosity as a middle name for any future children. As a Ravenclaw and a nerd it’s a virtue that is pretty meaningful to me and I’d hope that any future child of mine would be curious and interested in learning.
Ooo… Curiosity is a wonderful name. I am not brave enough to do it, but for awhile now I felt Sincerely would make a nice name.
I have been working on my family tree and I have found that many of my ancestors were a part of the colonizers that came over in the 1600s (some of them were on the Mayflower). I have found many, many unusual names in my family tree during that period of time.
The virtue type names that I have found are Experience, Thankful, Mercy, Resolved, Patience, Desire, Love, Grace, and Honor.
The most common of these were probably Patience and Mercy, closely followed by Thankful. I have found three seperate women named Thankful on my tree.
Another interesting thing I noticed is that almost all of these virtue names belonged to women except for Resolved and Love (one Love on my family tree was a women, and the other Love was a man).
Other word names that don’t qualify as virtues include Perigrine (which is apparently an archaic word for something that comes from a different country), Pearl, Rose, Constant & Constance, and Wrestling.
I also found unusual names which look made up to me, but seem to have been somewhat common in colonial America. Those names include Mehitabel, Shubael, Meribah, Elisha, Damaris, Oceanus, Enoch, Ephraim, Bethiah, Hezekiah, Lusanna, Welthian, Apphia, Jabez, Ezekiel, Jocosa, Judah, Balthazar, Hazelelponi, and Kenelm.