Names with Military Meanings

If Arrow is too straight for you....

Often spelled Gauthier, this could make a distinctive way to honor Grandpa Walter, but first syllable pronounced 'goat' might be a problem.

No matter how much you love the novels of Papa H., don't saddle your son with this unwieldy appellation.

Baby-naming rule #984: forget any name that contains the syllable wig.

While Americans may be more familiar with the male form of this name, thanks to actor Viggo Mortensen, Vigga is a popular name in contemporary Denmark and prime for wider export. It's a name with a a lot of vigor.

The Mc and Mac surnames are asserting themselves as first names and this is among the most usable. MacArthur or McArthur makes a perfect honorific for an ancestral Arthur and leads directly to the nicknames Mac or Art

From the land that brought us Viggo, we now have Villads. Not as punchy as the romantic sounding Viggo, but infinitely better than the name it derives from: Willehadus.

An adolescent boy might have problems with the first syllable.

Army plus meaner equals an unappealing name.

Sargent, as in Kennedy brother-in-law Shriver, is the more familiar and usable form of this name.

Tew many conflicting word spellings.

This popular old Swedish name is not one that would appeal to many modern American parents, though shortening it to Nilla helps.

Creative surname choice, associated with the great French postimpressionist Edouard Villard.

In Greek mythology, Perses was a Titan and the father of Hecate, goddess of magic and the Underworld. His name derives from Ancient Greek pertho ("to destroy").

Irish surname-names are hugely popular for girls in the US these days, with Riley and Kennedy ranking high on the official popularity lists. Connery is uncommon, but certainly attractive and usable.

Derived from the Germanic element badu "battle" combined with Old Norse hildr "battle", this name belonged to a 7th-century English saint who became queen of the Franks after being sold to them as a slave.

A name with two strong literary associations, one overwhelmingly negative -- Lolita's pedophilic narrator Humbert Humbert -- and one positive, in the preferable European version: Italian author Umberto Eco.

Pleasant surname connected to humorist James Thurber, with a sound as happy as a baby's gurgle.