Please do keep the suggestions coming. I had a talk with my cousin and she agreed that Halcyon [Hal] was the best one I had so far. I am also glad that I got the go ahead on the idea that future names might fit better with names like the psuedonyms of dubstep producers - Skrillex, Flux Pavillion, Nero, etc. Halcyon seems to bridge the gap between these names and names like John, Harold, etc. quite nicely. Maybe you can suggest 'dubstepy' names with H? I also like names like Fearne [from BBC radio 1], which are spelled interestingly but sound familiar, Fearne usually spoken similiar to Fun.
That's because the official dialect of Standard British English, RP or "Received Pronunciation," is non-rhotic: R after a vowel is silent. (R between two vowels is flapped like Spanish or Japanese R.) So they're saying "fern." We would do the same thing, but over here the R is not silent. Fern is a girl's name. You're not going to find any traditional names that don't have meanings. Hal is short for Harold, which is from Old Norse Haraldr, originally meaning "heroic leader." It's a combination of the Proto-Germanic words that come down to us as "harry" and "wield": someone who harries his enemies and wields his weapons. "Harry" is also a common nickname for Harold. Hugh comes to us from a Frankish word (the Germanic language spoken by the Franks before they were Romanized and adopted Latin, which evolved into French) meaning "heart and mind." Hugo, Howe and Hudd are the same name, and Hewitt, Hudson, Hutchens and Hughes are surnames derived from it, attesting to the popularity of a name with such a strong, honorable meaning. Hans is short for Johann, the German form of John. It comes through Latin Johannes and Greek Ioannes from the Hebrew name Yohanan, derived from the phrase Yehohanan, "God has been gracious." It's probably the most common male given name in Europe and its former colonies: French Jean, Spanish Juan, Italian Giovanni, Irish Sean, Portuguese João, Russian Ivan, etc.
I don't disagree, however, those names have been around long enough that the effective meaning that they carry is that they are classical names. I get the creeps thinking of the name Van because the kid was born in a Van. I hope that guy who gave that name isn't reading this.
I can't find an etymology of the given name Van, probably because it's just not very common. I would assume that it came about this way: Anglophones often re-purpose surnames as given names. They may be old family names or they may just be naming them after famous people--Jackson, Madison, Tyler and Roosevelt were U.S. presidents and those are all given names today. So imagine someone naming their child after a person with a Dutch name, such as Flemish artist Anthony Van Dyck--whose name is now usually misspelled Van Dyke. Van Dyke Parks is a famous American musician and composer. I'm sure there were lots of kids named Van Buren: Martin Van Buren was the first U.S. president not of English or Irish ancestry, the first who was born a U.S. citizen (born after the revolution), and the founder of the Democratic Party. Do you suppose people see the name Van Dyke Parks and assume that Van is his given name and Dyke is his middle name? We don't have two-word given names in the USA! So any parents who are fans of Van Dyke Parks will name their kid Van, not Van Dyke. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Thanks for those thoughts, they were some of the things that came to my mind too. I think I had said it wrong that he was born in the van, and I guess it was instead that his residence at the time of birth was a van. I heard that story in an interview on NPR.
Hi don't know if anyone's said this yet but how about Horatio, after Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
And then there is Herbie, but he might get mistaken for an old Volkswagon, but Herbie was a chick magnet.
'Hern is an English masculine given name meaning "mythical hunter".' On the weirder side now... Hyperion Of Hyperion we are told that he was the first to understand, by diligent attention and observation, the movement of both the sun and the moon and the other stars, and the seasons as well, in that they are caused by these bodies, and to make these facts known to others; and that for this reason he was called the father of these bodies, since he had begotten, so to speak, the speculation about them and their nature. —Diodorus Siculus (5.67.1) (from WIkipedia) Helios The Sun. Enough said. Hurricane ...and going a bridge too far now (in brainstorm mind spew mode)... High Hed Haze Hogwart Hip Hefner Hook Haj Hero Heat Hug Horus Help Hill Healy
Indeed, that seems likely. If I remember the story more, he lived in the van that he kept in a college campus parking lot. That way he kept costs associated with schooling lower.
I had a neighbor, since moved away, who was named Heiko and he was a hardworking family man, well liked by all who knew him. When I came across this thread, that name came to mind.
