Virtue is a Virtue

The Dada Drummer has what the on-line naming message boards call a “GP”…a guilty pleasure. I love virtue names. Virtue names are popping up all around the Drummer’s world this summer. A new friend has a daughter called Felicity. There was a girl called Comfort on this season of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. And one of The Boy’s tae kwon do classmates is named Patience (um, it’s a BOY).

More traditional examples of this style of name include: Charity, Chastity, Clemency, Comfort, Faith, Felicity, Grace, Honor, Hope, Joy, Patience, and Prudence. I would be happy to see any of these on a baby…except CHASTITY. Awesome virtue. Cruel name. The rest rock.

But I especially dig hardcore Puritan style virtue names like Abundance, Justice, Innocence, Mercy, Modesty, Purity, Resolve, Silence, Sincerity, Temperance, Truth, Verity, and Wisdom. Don’t get me wrong--I would make fun of someone who actually named a baby one of these names, but DAMN, I love the names anyway!!

Verging on hippy nature names are the totally groovy off-beat virtue name choices such as Blessing, Bliss, Charisma, Courage, Friend, Love, Peace, and Serenity. Pretty? Sure. But the Drummer can’t stomach such sweetness. Ick.

You know, I bet I could invent some amazing new millennium virtue names! Optimistically, I’d pick Green, Reader, and Athletic. Pessimistically (and that’s the Drummer all over) I would say that our 2008 virtue names are probably more like Wealthy and Famous.

I’ll let Elizabeth Taylor have the last word on this posting: “The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.”