“A pronounced name is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. Whoever can pronounce my name correctly, he can call me and is entitled to my love and my service. -Henry David Thoreau

I have been loving names much of my life.

The very first name I remember thinking was really cool was doing some family genealogy and realizing that my great-grandmother – Virginia Dare Addington – had a name from history.

Everyone called her Ginnie from the time I first remembered, but when I found out she was named after Virginia Dare – the first child born in the New World in 1587 on the island of Roanoke in present-day North Carolina – it was important to my then-inquisitive mind.

Oh, my mind is always curious, these days it just paces.

Over the past few years, I’ve come across people’s names that have really sparked an interest in why we find names for our children.

I’ve heard the names Brooklyn, Alabama, Georgia, and Savannah used for girls’ names and found them to be really thoughtful and exclusive.

Have you ever read – or remembered – famous names from history and they caught your eye, but you just went on without thinking about it?

I have always thought that the name Hiram Ulysses Grant catches the eye as to the name of the 18th President of this nation.

Now, I’m not casting a shadow over Hiram’s first name, but will we remember his name today in history if he went by his birth name, Hiram, or will we remember the general’s name from the Civil War because it was Odysseus – and distinctive?

I wonder.

We remember – or at least have read about – the mythological Greek warrior Achilles. Now there’s a top-notch nickname.

Have you ever noticed that we have words in English like “nickname”, and they have become somewhat archaic?

I think it’s because it’s just easier to use the word “name”. The nickname seems a little strange.

And the name Attila? Now there’s a different name to the story, especially since it belonged to an infamous figure named Attila the Hun – one of the world’s most powerful rulers of the fifth century.

I have always been sensitive to the first name Agrippina, a powerful Roman empress.

How about a well-known name from past history – Cleopatra. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of a modern woman with that name, but it would certainly be distinctive – and unforgettable.

Or that distinctive name from the story – Godiva, as in Lady Godiva.

Let’s remember her name if she hadn’t rode naked on horseback – at least in legend – through the streets of Coventry, England, to obtain remission of the oppressive taxes her husband had imposed on his tenants, with only her long hair covering her body? It kind of conjures up the idea that she was the first tax patriot of the eventual American Revolution.

Well, that’s a thought.

Or, Hannibal, that famous name of the great general who took over the Roman Empire with his army led by elephants.

Now I have found a relative from my genealogical past – who made one of the first voyages on the Mayflower since the founding of the New World – named Kenelm. That’s a name to get your attention.

The Anglo-Saxon name comes from Saint Kenelm, who was revered in medieval England and mentioned in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”.

I’ve always been fascinated by the name Lucrezia, as in the famous Italian-Spanish noblewoman from the famous/infamous House Borgia — of history.

Saladin’s name is etched in the history of the past, which struck terror among Christian crusaders in Jerusalem and the Middle East.

Of course, Saladin is the bastard name of the great Islamic general.

As many Western peoples were unable or unwilling to pronounce it correctly, the Crusaders gave Saladin this name because they were unable to pronounce his name correctly – Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn.

A unique name from ancient history is Xerxes, a king of the ancient Persian/Achaemenid Empire, who attempted to conquer Greece.

Of course, here in America, many names come from the Holy Bible. Names like James and John, Luke and Esther, Mary and David, have existed for much of our history. Presidents like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln – all had first names that come straight from the Bible.

Today’s names probably don’t come from history, but are no less unique.

Baby names like Liam, Noah, Sophia, Poppy, Willow, Phoebe, Paige, Harper, Finley, Harrison, and Hunter are popular names today.

It seems the names go back and forth between modern and not-so-modern. I guess it’s all in what your imagination can come up with.

We’re stuck with our names, but at the same time, they are what we make them.

Now I’m expecting the first baby named Covid.