Luther

Derived from the Germanic name Leuther, combining elements for people and army. In the United States, it began as an honorific for Martin Luther. By the late nineteenth century, it was a standard southern and Midwestern given name.

The name reads as a man who knows how to replace a fan belt and owns a coat with metal snaps. It suggests front porches, gospel records, and leaving a phone to charge in another room. Today the average Luther is around fifty-nine years old, though a small trickle of newborns has begun to appear again. It carries no decorative flourishes.