Virtue names are usually accredited to the Puritans for their earliest, most-frequent usage. However, names that had powerful and important meanings were also popular with Ancient Greeks and Romans. Around 1590, the Puritan movement developed as a sect of the Church of England. They began using the names of saints and martyrs instead of virtue names by order of the Catholic Church.
Then the Puritans fled to America to escape religious persecution. It was then that they freely used their virtue names, as well as phrase names and scriptural names such as "Fight the good fight of Faith" as a name. While these long phrase names didn't catch on, many of the virtue names did and are still in use today. Here is a list of both popular and not-so-popular virtue names for boys and girls:
Girls:
Amity
Charity
Clarity
Clemency
Comfort
Constance
Faith
Felicity
Fidelity
Grace
Honor
Hope
Joy
Mercy
Merritt
Modesty
Patience
Prudence
Remember
Sage
Serenity
Sincere
Sincerity
Temperance
Tranquility
Unity
Verity
Boys:
Able
Anchor
Bravery
Bright
Calm
Chance
Constantine
Hardy
Free
Freedom
Harbor
Increase
Justice
Loyal
Lucky
Merit
Noble
Pax
Prosper
Revere
Sage
Sincere
Tranquil
True
Valor
Vigor
Worth
Zen
Can you think of any good ones that I missed?
Then the Puritans fled to America to escape religious persecution. It was then that they freely used their virtue names, as well as phrase names and scriptural names such as "Fight the good fight of Faith" as a name. While these long phrase names didn't catch on, many of the virtue names did and are still in use today. Here is a list of both popular and not-so-popular virtue names for boys and girls:
Girls:
Amity
Charity
Clarity
Clemency
Comfort
Constance
Faith
Felicity
Fidelity
Grace
Honor
Hope
Joy
Mercy
Merritt
Modesty
Patience
Prudence
Remember
Sage
Serenity
Sincere
Sincerity
Temperance
Tranquility
Unity
Verity
Boys:
Able
Anchor
Bravery
Bright
Calm
Chance
Constantine
Hardy
Free
Freedom
Harbor
Increase
Justice
Loyal
Lucky
Merit
Noble
Pax
Prosper
Revere
Sage
Sincere
Tranquil
True
Valor
Vigor
Worth
Zen
Can you think of any good ones that I missed?
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