ultracrepidarian's list "Favorite Puritan Names" of 20 great name ideas: No-Merit - Revolt!

Favorite Puritan Names

Supposedly Puritans sometimes chose a random word from the Bible to use for their children's names. That would explain some of their more...interesting choices.
You just can't make this up.

No-Merit

Sorry-for-sin

Kill-sin

Job-Raked-Out-Of-The-Ashes

Joy-In-Sorrow

Judas-Not-Iscariot

Lament

Lechery

Mehetabell

More-Fruit

Moreover

My-Sake

It may have been used by the Puritans, but any modern child would chafe under this name. 

Obedience

Pardon

Persecution

Kaiser, Rex, Kingsley, and Prince have become increasingly popular in recent years and Pharaoh is one of the more unexpected members of this regal family of names. Used as the title of ancient Egyptian rulers, it was also given to more than 200 babies in 2019. 

The word pharaoh actually derives from Egyptian compound pr, meaning "great house" and well before it was used for address a person, it was used as the title of the royal palace. It wasn't until the 18th or 19th Dynasty that pharaoh was used as alternative to 'majesty', but by the 25th Dynasty, it was the most common epithet for the ruler. The pronunciation and transcription we know today however, was eventually reached after the Egyptian term was adapted into Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. 
 
As a given name, it has been used occasionally since the late 70s, with famous jazz saxophonist Pharoah [sic] Saunders (really named Ferrell) being a notable bearer. It wasn't until the mid 2010s however that it really began to gain traction. Football player Pharoh Cooper might have inspired some parents to use the name, while Nameberry writer Summer Richardson suggests its rise could be explained by the <a href="https://nameberry.com/blog/black-american-baby-name-trends">shift from virtue names to title names</a> within the Black American community.