# Given names off the beaten path **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 24, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216 "2013-05-24T13:49:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/81 "2013-05-28T18:42:27Z")
I knew a Thor and Aristotle growing up, as well as a steady stream of boys with modern girls-names-that-were-once-English-boys-names, and umm, a bunch of other interesting ones I now forget. I grew up in Lexington, MA, which is pretty bougie, and these were all the children of first generation immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/82 "2013-05-29T22:02:40Z")
I knew an Obediah, and have a nephew named Thor. He was a high spirited child. His grandmother called him “Thorn”. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/83 "2013-05-29T22:52:12Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Rowan is a girl’s name now? I had no idea! I knew one years ago. She would be in her early 60s now, I think. However, I think she spelled it something like **Rhoen**. Oh, and I have just remembered a girl I used to know who was called something like **Armanil** (IIRC, which I may not, but it was something weird like that). ---
**Author:** ![Rollo\_Tomasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58956e/32.png) [@Rollo\_Tomasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rollo_Tomasi)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/84 "2013-05-29T23:07:33Z")
This isn’t so strange compared to others, but I went to day care with a girl named August. It was only later that I found out that that was generally a masculine name, and now I wonder what the source of her name was. I know for a fact she wasn’t born in August. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/85 "2013-05-30T02:32:57Z")
I thought of this thread today when I got an e-mail at work with one of the several men named Os(s)ama at our facility. We have a fairly large number of folks from the ME there, with names that are common in their home countries. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_I\_Am](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@Sam\_I\_Am](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_I_Am)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/86 "2013-05-30T05:07:39Z")
I know a Ptolemy. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/87 "2013-05-30T06:37:44Z")
Went to grade school with a Sage (female) and to Middle and HS with a Kiant. (male) ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/88 "2013-05-30T07:08:18Z")
I have an ex-boyfriend named Don-Juan, so there. He has a BUNCH of siblings by a BUNCH of different moms, all named variations of his dad’s name (Donald). His mom has two other children (who are much older than Don and have a different father) with extremely classic, respectable names, and she’s a classy woman who I like better than her son. Donald has little to do with many, if not all of his kids, but somehow convinced about six moms to name them after him. I’ve never met the man, but out of curiosity I would kind of like to. If I didn’t know Don-Juan’s mom, I’d think okay, they’re just stupid, but she’s not that way at all. ---
**Author:** ![Lars\_Aruns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Lars\_Aruns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lars_Aruns)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/89 "2013-05-30T08:55:29Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > Oh, and of course: I have a friend whose _first_ name is Zappa. This might sound weird to you because it’s a foreign name, but to me it sounds even weirder as a first name. It means “Hoe” - the gardening tool. It’s used as a surname in Sicily, but as a first name? Hoe Smith? When I lived in Italy I met people with badly mangled versions of English names, usually spelled phonetically. So there were a Gionni (Johnny) and a Lusi (Lucy) that were customers of my dad, and another woman in the next town over named her baby boy Geiar, this from the bad guy in _Dallas_, the 80s soap opera, J. R. Ewing. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/90 "2013-05-30T09:07:57Z")
I don’t think Benedict is that uncommon in the UK as to be remarkable. When I was an undergraduate one of my classmates was called Benedict. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/91 "2013-05-30T09:37:57Z")
A neighbor’s young son is Strayhorn, named after the surname of Duke Ellington’s collaborator. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/92 "2013-05-30T09:44:41Z")
A colleague is called **Eon** , because his father thought that was how to spell it. I think he meant \*\*Eóin \*\*which I believe is the original form of **Ian**. A friend of the family named her daughter **McKenzie** , which caused a bit of a stir at the time. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/93 "2013-05-30T11:14:23Z")
> [@Dr.Girlfriend](#): > > My boyfriend has an ancestor, a great-uncle I think, who was named Royal. My Dad’s name was Royal, and was always called such, never ‘Roy’'. He was born in 1920 fwiw. My BIL’s name is Byron. Middle name Jeremiah. He’s a fantastic guy, but not nearly as grand as his name sounds 🙂 At the barn where I used to teach riding I knew a girl named Meadow, and then later a girl named England and her little brother Paris. Yes, those were all conception names. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/94 "2013-05-30T15:08:52Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > I don’t think Benedict is that uncommon in the UK as to be remarkable. When I was an undergraduate one of my classmates was called Benedict. The BBC web site had a piece about the name Benedict (after Pope Benedict retired). > **[Growing up as a Benedict](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21425112)** > > Benedict XVI. Benedict Cumberbatch. And then there's Benedict Arnold. There are not many Benedicts out there, says Benedict Milne. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/95 "2013-05-30T15:31:32Z")
I know a young British woman named Tuppence. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216/96 "2013-05-30T15:39:18Z")
In middle school, one of my classmates was a girl named Xerxes. Not after the Persian king; supposedly it was the name of a wise woman from Atlantas. In college, I was in the band with a Kunegunda, which is apparently a not-uncommon Polish name. She said that most American Kunegundas go by “Candy”, but she enjoyed her unusual name. Also in college, I occasionally ran into an Arwen, named after the Lord of the Rings character. She was very surprised when I knew the origin of her name (this was well before the movies). And I have a cousin-once-removed named Odin. I think it must come from his mother’s family-- There’s no Norse heritage in ours. Personally, I favor the tactic someone mentioned on the first page of giving kids ordinary first names but exotic middle names that they can choose to use or ignore. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/given-names-off-the-beaten-path/659216.md?page=4)