My husband still isn’t very keen on Wolfric, so in the spirit of finding something we both can love we’ve gone back to the drawing board.
Here are the names we kind of agree on.
[name]Ulrik[/name] [name]Luther[/name] - After [name]Ulrich[/name] Zwingli and [name]Martin[/name] [name]Luther[/name]. We went with the Scandinavian spelling of [name]Ulrik[/name] because it’s part of our heritage and we like the look of it better. My husband likes this name the most.
[name]Gregor[/name] [name]Horatio[/name] - Great meaning and strong sounding with good flow. I like this name the best.
[name]Johann[/name] [name]Bruce[/name] - [name]Bruce[/name] is a family name and [name]Johann[/name] is our attempt to compromise. We’re both deciding if we love this name.
Please let us know what you think about our list and also any suggestions would be appreciated. We like names that are strong sounding with good meanings and if it has a [name]Christian[/name] historical figure attached to it that would be a bonus. Thank you all in advance!
Of those three, my favorite is [name]Ulrik[/name] [name]Luther[/name]. I love both names. [name]Ulrik[/name] is very strong and tough with [name]Rick[/name] as a common nickname to bring it to the now (and I’m using it in my second book so I’m partial) and [name]Luther[/name] is one I just love. It’s strong and cool.
As a second favorite I like [name]Gregor[/name] [name]Horatio[/name]. [name]Gregor[/name] isn’t my favorite, but it’s interesting and has the common nickname [name]Greg[/name]. [name]Horatio[/name] is pretty cool but I always felt like it was too much in the first spot but it’s pretty cool in the middle.
I think it depends if you want to honor Zwingli and Luther in one fell swoop. They are both very strong style statements. It seems, perusing this short list, that the ‘style’ is very strong in the beginning and kind of peters out by the end. Johann Bruce is a little tepid in comparison.
So, why not mix and match? Why not one very outre honor name with a family/heritage name? I like Ulrik Bruce, Johann Luther, Luther Bruce, Ulrik Johannes…
Gregor Horatio strikes the right balance, right away. It’s my favorite.
Some other Reformation names, and heritage choices:
Wycliffe
Calvin
Knox
Tyndale
Theodore (Beza)
Philip (Melanchthon)
Heinrich (Bullinger)
Westminster
Friedrich, Ernst (Schleiermacher)
Fide, Fidel, Fidelio [sola fide]
Albrecht
Ansgar (“God’s spear”)
Anselm (“God helmet,” famous early Church theologian)
Axel (German form of Absalom)
Burkhart (“brave protector”)
Dietrich (German form of Theodoric)
Gottlieb (“God’s love”)
Hartwin (“brave friend”)
Hieronymus (if you want to be really awesome; after Bosch; Germanic form of Jerome)
Karsten / Carsten (low German form of Christian)
Leopold
Lorenz (also a famous mathematician)
Matthias
Menno (as in Menno Simons; means ‘strength’)
Petrus (Dutch/German variant of Peter)
Soren (as in Kierkegaard)
Tilo
Traugott (“trust God”)
Wolfram (wolf + raven)
Girls:
Katharina (Luther’s wife)
Tulip [get it? get it?]
Grace!
I’m not a huge fan of nicknames, but I do like [name]Rick[/name] better than [name]Greg[/name].
I agree, [name]Johann[/name] [name]Bruce[/name] isn’t as strong. That’s probably the reason why we’re not completely sold on it.
I really like [name]Ulrik[/name] [name]Bruce[/name] and [name]Johann[/name] [name]Luther[/name]. My only fear is that if we don’t honor both reformers at once then my husband will want to push back [name]Gregor[/name] [name]Horatio[/name] until we have a fourth son…sigh
Out of your list, [name]Wycliffe[/name] and Wolfram were my favorites, though I liked quite a few others. Also I love [name]Tulip[/name], but I’d only use it for a mn (yes, I got the theological reference; thanks for making me smile [name]Blade[/name]).
Another question, do you think it’ll be a problem if we decide to go with the ool-rick pronunciation of [name]Ulrik[/name]?
I’m pronouncing [name]Ulrik[/name] ool-rick so for me I don’t see why it would be an issue. You just introduce him to everyone that way. They hear his name usually before they see it written.
out of curiosity, what is [name]Eldon[/name]'s middle name and how did you decide on that combination? I don’t see an overt theological/Church history reference in [name]Eldon[/name]?
I’m glad that you also defaulted to the ool-rick pronunciation. With [name]Eldon[/name] we had a lot a trouble at first with people thinking he was [name]Alvin[/name], so I wanted to see if we would have trouble with [name]Ulrik[/name] if we decided to use it. I realize that we could still have some difficulty with [name]Ulrik[/name] since this isn’t a conclusive survey, but thank you for making me feel a little better.
[name]Eldon[/name] is named after his great-grandfather and his mn [name]Richard[/name]$ is my maiden name. We decided to go with family names with the first one (both boy and girl; [name]Anastasia[/name] [name]JoAnn[/name] is from family) and from the second boy/girl on we’d like to go more theological either with meaning or historical connection, though we’re not against peppering in other family names along the way.
[get it? get it?]