The Most Interesting Names From My Family Tree

Abijah is a truly unusual, truly unisex, truly appealing biblical name. There were several male Abijahs in the Bible, one of them, known as Abijah of Judah, was the fourth king of the House of David, and also a couple of females.

Absalom, because of its biblical and literary associations, just might appeal to the daring namegiver.

Ajax was the strong and courageous Greek hero featured in Homer's "Iliad," known as Ajax the Great. But it's also the name of a foaming cleanser, and if you find that reference too strong, you might try the shortened Jax instead.

This name has a nice mythological, historical, Three Musketeers-ish ring.

Azuba is a form of Azubah, the Old Testament wife of Caleb. The name was used among early African-Americans.

Popular with the Puritans, this name of the shrewd and beautiful wife of King David and mother of King Solomon could be a bit of a load for a modern girl to carry.

The unisex word name Bean, distant cousin of the infamous Apple, was used for the name of a child of mysterious gender in Louise Penny's novel "A Rule Against Murder." While we can imagine Bean as a cute nickname for a yet-unnamed and unborn baby, we don't recommend it for real life.

In the Bible, Beulah is a place, not a person, applied to the land of Israel by the prophet Isaiah. The land of Beulah has sometimes been considered a reference to heaven. Beulah began to be used as a given name in England at the time of the Reformation and was used by the seventeenth century Puritans.

Tough-yet-cuddly Bruno is an international name even in its origins: it derives from the Germanic word for "brown" plus a Latin ending, and was borrowed as a color word in many European languages.

A name halfway between its old milquetoast image and a more jovial Irish-sounding contemporary one.

Crispin, which was introduced into the mainstream by actor Crispin Glover and which means "curly-haired" in Latin, has an image very much like its first syllable: crisp, autumnal, and colorful.

Classic name used by the Romans, the Puritans, and the Bard, but pretty much taboo today due to the objectionable connotations of both its front and back ends.

Though most parents would shy away from Ebenezer, short form Eben is affable and creative and perfectly able to stand alone; nothing Scroogish about it. This also makes a fresh new spin on the very popular Ethan or Evan.