I would like to ask you today about your favorite non-family honor names. Like, not your grandmother’s name, but the names of authors, astronauts, scientists, historical figures, etc., if they are names you would consider using for a child. I thought of this after watching the Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary and wishing we’d given Elizabeth the middle name Ruth (it ALSO happens to be a family name, which would have made it even better).

Lashley suggests the next installment in our Favorites collection could be favorite noun names. As with all our favorites categories so far, as soon as I start to make a list, I realize the problems: in this case, there could be so much cross-over with occupation names, place names, nature names, virtue names, etc. And as with all our favorites categories so far, I suggest that we rise right above it, floating gracefully as if we’ve never fretted a day in our lives: Do we think of it as a noun name? Can we put “a” or “an” in front of it and have something that makes sense (a rose, an archer)? Then we will put it down on the list.

And we don’t need to worry about making sure our list accurately represents our actual top favorites: mention some that come to your mind as ones you like (for your own babies or for other people’s), and you can always come back later if you think of others. And we’re not worried about duplicates; in fact, we WELCOME duplicates, since they can show how well-liked a name is. Our goal is to make a nice list together, a list that someone can browse through it for ideas and inspiration.

Here is my own off-the-cuff, not-spending-hours-researching-it-to-make-sure-I-considered-every-possible-name, casual, fret-free, just-SOME-of-my-favorites list of noun names:

Archer
August
Clarity
Clover
Emerald
Epiphany
Fern
Forest
Haven
Hope
Ivy
Joy
June
Marigold
Merit
Minuet
Rose
Starling

Let’s work on another entry for the Favorites category; it seems like once we have three entries (and this would be the third), we have enough for a sidebar menu! This time the topic is favorite biblical names.

I find this category difficult because so many biblical names have been completely mainstreamed: if a family had a Michael, a Jacob, and an Abigail, I wouldn’t think, “Ah, a biblical theme!”

And many lists contain names that weren’t used as names for individuals in the Bible: Eden, Zion, Cana, Jordan, Bethany, Selah, Shiloh—and that seems like a different KIND of biblical name.

And of course there is the Bad Guys problem: Delilah is a lovely name, and I’d go right ahead and use it—but I would not use it AS a biblical name, or put it on a list of favorite biblical names, since then I’d be using it as the namesake of a Bad Guy; I’d only use it as a non-biblical name. Ditto the name Cain, which has a great on-trend sound: I think it’s fine to use it, but I wouldn’t suggest it to parents looking for a biblical name.

And many biblical names are such that if you asked 100 people, no more than one of them would know it was a name from the Bible or know the story associated with the name.

But are we discouraged? No! We are relaxed, laid-back people, and we can cope with categories that are difficult to pin down! And so as usual with this category of post, we will not sweat it: we will just make lists of names that we think of as biblical names, and we will just mention the one or ones we like. We will not fret overmuch about making sure the ones we list are our Very Very Favorites; we will just make a little list and be done with it. We will not worry about listing ones someone else has already listed, because duplicates make this a better resource for people looking to see what names of this sort are in favor. And if we think of more names later, we can come back and add them at any time: this will be a work in progress, available for anyone who wants to add to it or anyone who wants to use it to browse for ideas.

I would add the general suggestion that anyone considering a Biblical name look up the name in the Bible before using it. (Typing the name and the word “Bible” into a search engine is a pretty good way to catch all the references—and to make sure it’s in there.)

Here is my own casual, fret-free list:

Anna
Bethany
Elizabeth
Eve
Esther
Miriam
Naomi
Ruth

Benjamin
Daniel
Ethan
Isaac
James
Joel
John
Mark
Paul
Reuben
Simon

I realize that is not a very snappy title I’ve got going on up there. BUT I AM STICKING TO IT.

This is the second in our new series of posts designed to be a brainstorming/idea-getting place for people looking for a particular kind of name. Our first post focused on unisex names. This time, I’d like us to make lists of names we really love, but that are too uncommon for our own naming style. Like, where you’d think “Oh I WISH this name would be used more, so that I could use it!,” and where, if you knew a friend who was more daring, you’d wish SO HARD that SHE’D use the name for HER child. Or maybe you’d use it as a middle name. Or they can be names that you don’t personally feel are too unusual, but that your family or spouse consider too unusual, so you’re frustrated and wish someone else could use them. It’s not that we think the names are UNUSABLY unusual—just too unusual for our own particular circumstances, or more unusual than they should be considering how awesome they are.

Remember that we are not being real STRICT around here with these category posts. Picture someone looking around the internet, thinking, “What I want is some more UNUSUAL names. I wonder what OTHER people like? I’d love to just BROWSE a LIST.” We won’t worry about whether our own standard of “unusual” matches theirs or not; we’ll just say what names we consider to be in that category, and let them browse to their own standards.

We also won’t worry about being COMPLETE. I find that as soon as I set my mind to this task, I think I need to list EVERY SINGLE unusual name I like—or that if I only list a few, they must be my VERY TOP few, and also I must have an equal number of boy and girl names. But no! That is not necessary! We can just…toss a few out, all casual-like! And we may come back whenever we want to add another one! And duplicates are fine—even desirable, to show consensus.

Here are mine:

Clover
Emerald
Ivy
Magnolia
Marigold
Millicent
Minerva
Persephone

Barnaby
Frederick
Giancarlo
Macon
Rufus