Best Of

Anyhoo, the country has been going to the dogs since we stopped giving our kids the first name Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned and Praise-God

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise-God_Barebone

I prefer the simple virtues - charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, etc.

"Modesty Eagles" might have suited you.

For a brief moment I considered "Perseverance" for one of my kids.
Common sense prevailed...


... they really hate the name Common.

I have a friend with 2 daughters Felicity and Constance (known as Fliss and Coco), and such names are quite a marker of poshness, though also quite popular with African Christians. I work with a Mercy and a Sympathy, both great names for nurses.

One of my early cars - a Mk1 Lemon Yellow Ford Fiesta - was named Felicity by it's previous owner.

It got nicked whilst it had one of those gear lever-handbrake sleeve things on it, which was a reminder that cheap 1976 cars usually had screw off gear knobs.

The thieves abandoned it after half a mile.

The linked anecdote is people who tell you that things were better decades ago. I once nearly got into somebody else's similar car because I opened the door with my key - it was one foot in before the thought occurred that "I don't have a handbag like *that*".

Anyhoo, the country has been going to the dogs since we stopped giving our kids the first name Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned and Praise-God

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise-God_Barebone

I prefer the simple virtues - charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, etc.

"Modesty Eagles" might have suited you.

For a brief moment I considered "Perseverance" for one of my kids.
Common sense prevailed...


... they really hate the name Common.

I have a friend with 2 daughters Felicity and Constance (known as Fliss and Coco), and such names are quite a marker of poshness, though also quite popular with African Christians. I work with a Mercy and a Sympathy, both great names for nurses.

The latter should get together with a Lucifer.

The ONS list of names is quite interesting.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/babynamesenglandandwalesbabynamesstatisticsboys

Isaac and Ezra at 37 and 38. Is this from African Christians, who often favour Old Testament names?

I see Leon is sinking fast, only scraping in at 100.

Isaac has been in resurgence for many years, I think - and also other more self-consciously * biblical names such as Hannah & Ruth. Amongst white British (real version not Matt Goodwin version) I would date the start that to the House Church movement from ~1970s, but also to the Pentecostal movements from the 1930s. And with a preserved contribution from traditional non-conformism.

I think Ezra was historically in the same bracket as say Eli, which is also Old Testament but most of us have forgotten (including me until I checked).

Amongst black communities the Pentecostal tradition is parallel, but separate ("Black Lead Churches" was the category used - maybe still is?), with an overlapping set of names.

* Matthew, Mark, Luke, John etc are obviously just as biblical but have gone into the wider culture over centuries. There's a comparison to football anthems being assimiliated - "When The Saints Go Marching In" is probably a late Victorian Gospel Song that came in via jazz.

Yes, and it is striking how common Noah is as a name now, number 1 for boys in a number of localities.

I suspect religiosity makes little difference to these names. Noah is probably more because of the association with animals, which is rather a distraction from the point of the Bible story. I see the story of Noah as demonstrating the futility of trying to wipe out evil by killing bad people. Soon enough the world was in the same mess and God swore never to repeat.

Issac isn't one that I would choose, being a child sacrifice in one of the more disturbing OT stories. Nor Ezra, who was quite intolerant in his approach to the intermarrige of Jews and other tribes on the return from Babylonian exile.

I like Elijah, because of the two she-bears, who quite properly, mauled 42 children who mocked his baldness.

Anyhoo, the country has been going to the dogs since we stopped giving our kids the first name Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned and Praise-God

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise-God_Barebone

I prefer the simple virtues - charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, etc.

"Modesty Eagles" might have suited you.

For a brief moment I considered "Perseverance" for one of my kids.
Common sense prevailed...


... they really hate the name Common.

You didn't go for Anger, Jealousness, Deviousness or Bestiality?

I did have a patient named Vengance who had a twin called Retribution. They were born during an air raid.

Anyhoo, the country has been going to the dogs since we stopped giving our kids the first name Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned and Praise-God

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise-God_Barebone

I prefer the simple virtues - charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, etc.

"Modesty Eagles" might have suited you.

For a brief moment I considered "Perseverance" for one of my kids.
Common sense prevailed...


... they really hate the name Common.

I have a friend with 2 daughters Felicity and Constance (known as Fliss and Coco), and such names are quite a marker of poshness, though also quite popular with African Christians. I work with a Mercy and a Sympathy, both great names for nurses.

Anyhoo, the country has been going to the dogs since we stopped giving our kids the first name Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned and Praise-God

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise-God_Barebone

I prefer the simple virtues - charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, etc.

"Modesty Eagles" might have suited you.

For a brief moment I considered "Perseverance" for one of my kids.
Common sense prevailed...


... they really hate the name Common.

You didn't go for Anger, Jealousness, Deviousness or Bestiality?

Anyhoo, the country has been going to the dogs since we stopped giving our kids the first name Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned and Praise-God

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise-God_Barebone

I prefer the simple virtues - charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, etc.

"Modesty Eagles" might have suited you.

For a brief moment I considered "Perseverance" for one of my kids.
Common sense prevailed...


... they really hate the name Common.

Fly-Fornication, Zeal-in-the-Land, and Job-Covered-in-Ashes.

The ONS list of names is quite interesting.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/babynamesenglandandwalesbabynamesstatisticsboys

Isaac and Ezra at 37 and 38. Is this from African Christians, who often favour Old Testament names?

I see Leon is sinking fast, only scraping in at 100.

Isaac has been in resurgence for many years, I think - and also other more self-consciously * biblical names such as Hannah & Ruth. Amongst white British (real version not Matt Goodwin version) I would date the start that to the House Church movement from ~1970s, but also to the Pentecostal movements from the 1930s. And with a preserved contribution from traditional non-conformism.

I think Ezra was historically in the same bracket as say Eli, which is also Old Testament but most of us have forgotten (including me until I checked).

Amongst black communities the Pentecostal tradition is parallel, but separate ("Black Lead Churches" was the category used - maybe still is?), with an overlapping set of names.

* Matthew, Mark, Luke, John etc are obviously just as biblical but have gone into the wider culture over centuries. There's a comparison to football anthems being assimiliated - "When The Saints Go Marching In" is probably a late Victorian Gospel Song that came in via jazz.

Yes, and it is striking how common Noah is as a name now, number 1 for boys in a number of localities.

I suspect religiosity makes little difference to these names. Noah is probably more because of the association with animals, which is rather a distraction from the point of the Bible story. I see the story of Noah as demonstrating the futility of trying to wipe out evil by killing bad people. Soon enough the world was in the same mess and God swore never to repeat.

Issac isn't one that I would choose, being a child sacrifice in one of the more disturbing OT stories. Nor Ezra, who was quite intolerant in his approach to the intermarrige of Jews and other tribes on the return from Babylonian exile.

You'd be able to get a measure on it by looking at the baptismal records of Church of England churches across different policies and traditions.

"Middle of the road" or village churches will tend to have a culture following their legal duty to "residents of, or associated with, the geographical parish". Whereas those same types of settings with an evangelical consciousness may well have a policy around a "blessing" to everyone, with an emphasis for "baptism" on "bringing the child up in the family of the church".

That's practically walking a path between "everyone" and a "gathered membership".

Then somewhere with a gathered congregation (eg there are plenty of places in cities with essentially ZERO residents in the parish), somewhere like say HTB or St Helens Bishopsgate will probably have a bit of a mixture.