Gideon

From the Hebrew name Gid'on, derived from a root meaning feller or hewer. The figure appears in the Book of Judges as a military leader and judge of Israel. English Puritans adopted it during the Reformation, carrying it to colonial Massachusetts where it survived in low, steady numbers for centuries.

The name reads like an eighteenth-century tract writer or a character carrying a leatherbound ledger. In reality, the average Gideon is fourteen years old and probably turning in a middle school science project. It carries an antique weight, but the demographic reality is almost entirely contemporary. It is recognized everywhere while remaining rare enough to avoid duplicate desks in a single classroom.