Memorial Day–formerly  known as Decoration Day–was first observed on May 30, 1868, shortly after the Civil War, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery, so that the  roots of the holiday were very much entwined with the War Between the States. It’s always celebrated on the last Monday of May–a date close to the day of reunification of the country after the Civil War.

In the course of this deadly and divisive war, there were over a thousand soldiers who reached the rank of general, many of them becoming national heroes, and namesakes for babies born during and after the war. There were countless little Grants and Lees, just as there were Lincolns and Jeffersons and Davises.  Looking at the rolls of officers on both sides, we find some interesting names–both first and last, as well as names attached to battlegrounds– that could still be inspiring today.

UNION GENERALS’ FIRST NAMES

ABSALOM
ADIN
ALBION
ALPHEUS
AMIEL
AUGUST
CASSIUS
CUVIER
DARIUS
EBENEZER
EMERSON
EMORY
ERASMUS
GREEN
GUSTAVUS
ISHAM
JASPER
JEREMIAH
JUSTUS
KENNER
LAFAYETTE
LORENZO
MARCELLUS
NAPOLEON
ORLANDO
ORRIS
PLEASANT
REGIS
ROMEYN
SPEED
SULLIVAN
THEOPHILOUS
TRUMAN
ULYSSES
ZEALOUS

CONFEDERATE GENERALS’ FIRST NAMES

ALPHEUS
ARMISTEAD
BIRKETT
BRAXTON
CADMUS
CARNOT
CLAUDIUS
CULLEN
ELKANAH
EPPA
EVANDER
GUSTAVUS
JUBAL
LEONIDAS
MAXCY (sort of cute)
OTHO
THEOPHOLUS
TURNER
TYREE
ZACHARIAH
ZEBULON

SOME SURNAMES FROM BOTH SIDES

ASHBY
AUGUR
BAIRD
BARNUM
BEE
BERRY
BOWEN
CLAY
CULLUM
DEWEY
DUNCAN
EATON
EGAN
FRAZER
FROST
GRAHAM
LOGAN
MAURY
MAXBY
McCLELLAN
MEADE
PAXTON
PERRY
POE
QUINBY
RIPLEY
ROUSSEAU
SAXTON
SHEPARD
SHERIDAN
SORREL
SPRAGUE
SULLY
SWEENY
TUCKER
VINTON

CIVIL WAR BATTLE-RELATED NAMES

AMELIA (SPRINGS)
ANDERSON
AUBURN
BAXTER
BRISTOE
CHANTILLY
CORINTH
DALTON
DOVER
MARIETTA
McALLISTER
PHILIPPI
SABINE (PASS)
SHILOH
SUMPTER

The grooviest type of new names for boys are the surname names, either the real – Carson, Hunter, Porter – or those that simply have a surname look and feel, such as Drake or Deacon.

Okay, okay, I know there are people with the surnames Drake and Deacon, Gunner and Ryder, but I don’t think that’s why those names are popular.  It’s more that they aren’t conventional first names that’s important, I think, than that they fit any other kind of mold.

In terms of names that convey the new masculine image, the huge surnameish trend is interesting because it makes boys’ names in some ways more formal and traditional than they were before.  What sounds more imposing, after all:  Jefferson or Jeff?  Jacoby or plain old Jake?

It may be the move away from family names – when’s the last time someone you know named their baby a junior? – as well as from religious and ethnic strictures is what makes these new names for boys so appealing to parents.  Names like Fletcher and Hayden convey the aura of family lineage and power without any of the nasty obligations: no endless Thanksgiving dinners or visiting Uncle Theodore in the nursing home to make sure you sew up your inheritance.

Rather, you can wear these faux family names as lightly as a Ralph Lauren sweater.  And on a similarly shallow note, the surname trend is partly inspired by celebrities and their characters who are often called by their last names: Beckham (a big winner in the 2008 popularity poll), Chandler, and Donovan, for instance.

While these names are all prominent on the 2008 popularity list for boys, many are of course used for girls too.  In the past, once a name crossed to the girls’ side, many parents abandoned it for boys, but that’s not happening as much today — a positive development, we think.  For a closer look on surname names and gender identity, see our blog on unisex names.

REAL SURNAMES

Beckham
Blake
Brennan
Bryson
Carson
Chandler
Clay
Cohen
Cole
Dawson
Donovan
Fisher
Fletcher
Grady
Grayson, Greyson
Griffin
Hayden
Hudson
Hunter
Jackson
Jacoby
Jagger
Kane
Landon
Lennon
Lincoln
Logan
Maddox
Marley
Mason
Nolan
Parker
Pierce
Porter
Quinn
Reid or Reed
Riley
Ronan
Rowan
Tanner
Tucker
Weston

FAUX SURNAMES

Braxton
Brock
Caden, Kaden and bros
Colton and Colten
Corbin
Dallas
Dalton
Dane
Deacon
Devin
Drake
Easton
Gunner
Jaxon
Jett
Kade
Keegan
Kelvin
Kingston
Kobe
Kyler
Maverick
Paxton
Peyton
Reese or Reece (or the Welsh Rhys)
Ryder
Ryker
Rylan
Sage
Slade
Talon
Tate
Trace
Trey
Trip or Tripp
Wade
Zayden et al

Tomorrow, new boys’ names imported from around the world.

The other day we talked about Princess Names, but what if the royal baby in your family is male?  Then you might need one of the Prince Names, and Charming is probably not going to cut it.

There are a handful of appealing names that mean “prince.”  Brendan is Irish, Mael is Breton, while Vladimir is Slavic for “renowned prince.”  Armel, the name of a Welsh saint who founded abbeys in Brittany, means “stone prince” in French, while Adhit is an Indonesian name with that meaning.

Prince itself is of course also a name, chosen by Michael Jackson for his son — though if you choose it, you’d have to put up with an awful lot of “formerly known as” jokes.  Better bets: King, Duke, or maybe even Earl.

Fictional princes who might prove inspirational include:

Caspian – Prince who is the rightful king in The Chronicles of Narnia.

Edvard “Eddie” – Danish prince posing as Wisconsin exchange student in deathless 2004 classic “The Prince and Me.”

Erik – The Prince in The Little Mermaid.

Moses – Biblical baby raised as a prince.

Paris – The Trojan prince who wooed the beautiful Helen, though a certain modern female Paris may knock this ancient royal name out of the running for boys.

Phillip – Sleeping Beauty’s paramour.

William “Will” — The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

And then there are the little princes born to actual royal families over the past decade or so, with William.html”>prince names equally imposing as those of their princess counterparts.  I’m especially intrigued by Aymeric, Valdemar, Casimir, Marius, Emmanuel, Froilan, Felix, Baudouin, and Sverre.

Achilleas Andreas — Greece

Aristide Stavros – Greece

Aymeric Auguste Marie — Belgium

Carlos — Spain

Christian Valdemar Henri John – Denmark

Claus-Casimir Bernhard Marius Max — Netherlands

Emmanuel Léopold Guillaume François Marie – Belgium

Felipe Juan Froilan — Spain

Felix Henrik Valdemar Christian –Denmark

Friedrich Richard Oscar Jefferson — Denmark

Gabriel Baudouin Charles Marie — Belgium

Hisahito — Japan

James Alexander Philip Theo – Great Britain

Juan Valentín — Spain

Konstantinos Alexios — Greece

Lucas Maurits Pieter Henri — Netherlands

Miguel – Spain

Nicolas Casimir Marie – Belgium

Nikolai William Alexander Frederik — Denmark

Odysseas Kimon — Greece

Pablo Nicolas – Spain

Samuel “Sam” Bernhard Louis — Netherlands

Sverre Magnus — Norway

We all know how the media likes to jump on every new ‘weird’ starbaby name, predicting dire consequences down the road for the likes of poor little Moxie CrimeFighter, Pilot Inspektor, Bronx Mowgli, and Apple. Well, only time will tell how these kids will actually meet that particular challenge as they grow up, but it might be instructive to look at the previous generation of oddball-named celebrity babes who are now young adults and see how they’ve handled it–which ones think these names have made them feel special and which have felt damaged, how many have held on to their bizarre appellations and how many have dropped them.

CHASTITY BONO. Mom Cher used the name of dad Sonny’s film “Chastity,” but though her daughter has hung onto it, she has said “most of the time it’s been a pain.” Seems when she complained about it, Sonny would say “Be thankful we didn’t name you Dweezil.” Which brings us to:

DWEEZIL ZAPPA. When the hospital refused to  register this name, the birth certificate read Ian Donald Calvin Euclid–the names of Zappa’s then-bandmates. But Dweezil, always called Dweezil, later made it his legal name. Older sister MOON UNIT has frequently insisted that she likes having an unusual name like Moon rather than something more ordinary, and presumably their other siblings AHMET EMUUKHA RODAN and DIVA THIN MUFFIN PIGEEN agree.

PEACHES HONEYBLOSSOM MICHELLE ANGEL VANESSA GELDOF, daughter of rocker-activist Bob, has bemoaned “My weird name has haunted me all my life.”  Wouldn’t be surprised if her sisters FIFI TRIXIEBELLE, PIXIE and HEAVENLY HIRAANI TIGER LILY–exhibitionists all–felt the same way.

SATCHEL FARROW. The son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen was born Satchel Ronan O’Sullivan Farrow, named for one of his father’s baseball heroes, Satchel Paige. Following a bitter custody battle, he became known as Seamus, and now, having been a prodigy who graduated from college at 15  and become  a human rights activist and journalist, he has settled on the name Ronan Seamus Farrow.  His sister also took three steps, going from DYLAN to ELIZA to MALONE.

ZOWIE BOWIE. Like Satchel-Seamus-Ronan, has had multiple identities. He was born Zowie Duncan Heywood Bowie and, although he says he loves his distinctive moniker, he first called himself Joey Bowie, and then changed his name to Duncan Jones, saying he didn’t want to be in the shadow of famous dad David.

STRAWBERRY SAROYAN. When fruitily-named Apple Martin was born in 2004, the granddaughter of William Saroyan gave a long interview about her name to the New York Times . Since she grew up among kids named Cream, Wonder and Raspberry, she didn’t exactly feel like the odd girl out, and after some ups and downs, now definitely sees the benefits of her unusual name.

TALLULAH BELLE WILLIS, sister of RUMER GLENN and SCOUT LARUE, though still a young teen, has already had dad Bruce announce on the Letterman show that she plans to legally change her name to (nickname) Lula.

So take heed, Ikhyd and Nakoa-Wolf–you might wind up deciding you’d rather be Ike or Nat.

Names from television and movie Westerns sometimes got a lot more adventurous than Josh and Jesse. In fact, Westerns are responsible for reviving scores of antiquated classics that might otherwise have disappeared completely, along with introducing unconventional animal and word names as firsts. Some Western character names from the classic shows and movies of the 50s and 60s that sound fresh and new, if a bit quirky, today:

ABELIA
ABIHU
ALBEN
AMELITA
AMOS
ARTOLA
ASH
AXEL
BARKER
BARN
BEAR
BO
BODIE
BOONE
CICERO
CLAY
CLEM
LAMBERT
LINUS
MOSS
NEWLY
PERCY
QUINT
RUFUS
THAD
WADE
ZEBULON

The newest Western names draw heavily on the place itself, or on Western-themed words. Some choices that have been used in the post-Bonanza world:

Boys

AUSTIN
DALLAS
DENVER
HOUSTON
MAVERICK
RIO
ROPER
RYDER
WEST

Girls

ARIZONA
CHEYENNE
NEVADA
SCOUT
SHILOH
SIERRA

Either

CANYON
DAKOTA
LARAMIE
PHOENIX
RENO