{"id":15695,"date":"2022-01-12T16:47:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T20:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=15695"},"modified":"2022-08-13T08:34:38","modified_gmt":"2022-08-13T12:34:38","slug":"baby-name-to-consider-theseus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2022\/01\/12\/baby-name-to-consider-theseus\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Name to Consider: Theseus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle\u2014<\/p>\n

This should (hopefully) be a quick-ish question! To cut to the chase, my partner and I are expecting a baby boy in mid February and are, as of recently, concerned with 1) the usability (period) of our current top choice, and 2) the name\u2019s usability alongside our daughter\u2019s (significantly less whimsical) name.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Lara and my partner is Jamie. Our 1.5 year old daughter is Dorothy May (called Dorothy, Dot, or Dottie depending on the day). Dorothy was named after my grandmothers (Dora and Katherine called Kathy) and Jamie\u2019s mother (Maria called May). She has Jamie\u2019s surname\u2014which sounds like Flower without the F\u2014as will this baby. For a middle name this time around, we are set on Gus or Gustaf after Jamie\u2019s grandfather (his full name was Gustaf but went exclusively by Gus).<\/p>\n

The baby\u2019s potential first name\u2014our current frontrunner\u2014is Theseus.<\/p>\n

A few questions. One, is this name usable? Or is it too mythological, whimsical, grand (etc)? We love the length, melody, and fact that it can be shortened to Theo (or even Teddy maybe) if our son decides it\u2019s too \u2018out there\u2019 when he\u2019s older. We don\u2019t think the Greek myth\/hero association is an issue necessarily, however, we are aware that it might be too much weight for a kid to carry. We\u2019re also aware that the name shares similar sounds\/roots with Dorothy\u2014though is pretty stylistically different\u2014and cannot decide if this is an issue or not. (If the baby mostly goes by Theo, I see no problem with Dottie and Theo together, but who knows.)<\/p>\n

We love the name but feel we\u2019ve entered an inescapable echo chamber, here, and would appreciate external (non-familial) advice. Any insight you or your readers have would be helpful! If not Theseus\/Theo, we would return to our initial lists. Mine is: Atticus, Cyrus\/Cy, Jacoby, Tobias\/Toby. Jamie\u2019s is: Leonard\/Leo, Francis\/Frankie, Felix. This will definitely be our last kid so potential future sibling names aren\u2019t a part of the equation. And if the baby were a girl we would probably have used Beatrice.<\/p>\n

Thanks for all your help :)<\/p>\n

Lara and Jamie<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I started by checking the Social Security Administration<\/a>‘s database to see the current usage of the name Theseus: in 2020 (the 2021 figures should be out this May), the name was given to 22 new baby boys. So it is not unused, but it is very rare.<\/p>\n

Next I gave it a day or two to settle in. I pictured a classroom of second-graders, and imagined that one of them was named Theseus. At the grocery store, I looked at store employees and various fellow shoppers and imagined finding out that one of them was named Theseus. I mentioned the name to the kids to see what they thought. I imagined bringing my child to the doctor’s office and saying “This is Theseus; he has a 2:00 appointment.” Or calling to make him an appointment, and giving the name Theseus. I imagined a man at Starbucks, ordering a drink and giving the barista the name Theseus.<\/p>\n

I associate the name with mythology<\/a>, of course—but more importantly, I don’t associate it with ANYTHING ELSE: there is no other Theseus in my experience to dilute that association. “Theseus—like the mythological king, like the Ship of Theseus, like the guy who killed the minotaur” is the only clarifying reference. Like Odysseus, like Sisyphus, like Prometheus—these are mythology names, and for whatever reason we don’t see them used much for current children. (Though perhaps now that we’ve dug out many of the less-familiar biblical names and made them mainstream, mythology will be next. I can picture using Perseus\/Percy. And I know a child named Athena.)<\/p>\n

I find it difficult to say with the surname: Theseus Flower-without-the-F.<\/p>\n

It reminds me of the word thesis.<\/p>\n

Here is my own opinion: I would not use it, and I would not want to have that name for myself—but I don’t think it’s unusable. (And how else do we bring fresh names into usage, except by USING THEM?) I do think it is the sort of name where the parents would need to not only tolerate but WELCOME a steady stream of reactions and questions. It’s not a name that can be given casually: it’s an attention-getting name, and everyone who hears it will know that the parents knew that when they chose it.<\/p>\n

I think it helps that it is somewhat similar to the popular name Theodore. I think it helps that some people will know the name from mythology, so they won’t be starting from scratch. I think it is absolutely CRUCIAL that it works to use the nickname Theo, in case the child is not the sort of person who enjoys having an attention-getting name.<\/p>\n

But I think it would work better as a spectacular middle name. And in fact, what I would suggest is swapping the names you’re considering: Gustaf (or just Gus) Theseus Flower-without-the-F. Dorothy and Gustaf; Dot and Gus. It bothers me that then the first AND last names are from one parent’s side of the family (that also bothers me if it’s the middle and last)—but Dottie and Gus is so good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name update:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Swistle\u2014<\/p>\n

Happy August and hope you\u2019re doing well!<\/p>\n

I wrote to you back in January about naming our son (top choice at the time was Theseus), brother to Dorothy, surname Flower-without-the-F. <\/p>\n

Well. It\u2019s been almost half a year since that letter, and I realized the other day we never updated you on the outcome of our mini conundrum. <\/p>\n

Our son was born in February and is almost 6 months (wild!). We were very inspired by your readers comments\u2014thanks immensely for all the assistance\u2014and ended up choosing a suggestion we hadn\u2019t previously considered. <\/p>\n

We scrapped Theseus (just felt a bit too out there after reading your note), and went with Ignatius instead! Ignatius James is his full name. <\/p>\n

We switched the middle to honor my father, as per your suggestion about balancing honor names. James also happens to be a fun nod to Jamie\u2019s name, so it worked perfectly.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve actually been calling him Gus\u2014trying to make it stick! Oftentimes he\u2019s also Iggy. Dorothy is smitten. As are we :)<\/p>\n

Thanks again for all your wonderful advice. We appreciate it. <\/p>\n

Our best,
\nLara and Jamie<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle\u2014 This should (hopefully) be a quick-ish question! To cut to the chase, my partner and I are expecting a baby boy in mid February and are, as of recently, concerned with 1) the usability (period) of our current top choice, and 2) the name\u2019s usability alongside our daughter\u2019s (significantly less whimsical) name. I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-459","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15695"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15967,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15695\/revisions\/15967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}