Names that convey wisdom may not, by themselves, be enough to make your child wise, but they can’t hurt.

Of all the qualities a name can suggest, to others as well as to the person who bears it, wisdom has to be one of the most desirable.

The names here either mean wise or intelligent or are associated with a figure renowned for his or her wisdom.  They may set a high bar for your child, but it’s one worth the leap.

The selection:

Alden – This English surname, quietly but historically used as a first, means “old wise friend”.

Alfred – The charts may show Alfred still in a century-long decline, but we say this name that means “wise counselor” is due for rediscovery.

Boman – This unusual-but-accessible Persian name has a stylish sound and means “great mind”.

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by Angel Thomas, aka Dantea

Angel Thomas, best-known to the Nameberry community as Dantea, is an expert on Greek names.  Today she brings us an authoritative look at Greek names that relate to the spring season.

Spring is the time of year for gentle rains and soft winds, the greening of leaves and the growing of flowers. The animals are all awakening and the season of rebirth starts. It’s probably the most romanticized season. Historically, Spring has been known as the time for having babies, for birth and fertility and in recent studies, Spring and mid-Summer have statistically had more births. If you’re looking for a name that represents the springtime and all its lovely flowers and greenery, I have a list of generally underused Greek names just for you.

Goddesses of the Spring

Persephone – Persephone is pronounced per-SEF-oh nee and she’s the queen of the underworld, wife of Hades and goddess of spring growth. While Persephone generally has a bad rep, it’s really a very lovely name. She’s the reason we have flowers and green things during the Spring and Summer. Though her name has been attributed to having a negative meaning, it’s really an unknown as the words for ‘dark blue’ and the word for ‘sound’ both appear in her name.

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Usually, when baby names are related, the resemblance is pretty obvious.  For example, Christopher’s foreign versions include Christophe and Christos and his short form is Chris; Patricia is otherwise known as Patrizia or Patrice, Pat or Patty.

But this isn’t always the case.  Alexander might be Alistair to his Scottish cousins, Sasha to his friends.

This can come in handy if you’re looking for an invisible (to non-nerds) or at least indirect route to honoring a namesake.  Ways you can do this include finding an interesting but accessible international variation, or an unexpected nickname that can be used on its own, or a mythological, biblical, or other name switch, or dual identity.

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I was looking this morning through the list of baby names that have entered the US Top 1000 since the turn of the decade — more, much more, on that later — and I was struck by how many of them overstate the case.

I mean that they are baby names that are too much, in one way or another, for any human being to live up to.  Names like the infamous Precious.  Or Legend.  Well, we’ll detail the specifics below.

In early editions of our first book Beyond Jennifer & Jason, we included a list called Names That Are Too Much, or Not Enough, To Live Up To.  Then somewhere along the way, we dropped it.  But clearly it’s time to bring it back.

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