Names That Mean Spear

While not generally thought of as unisex, this is a male name that, like Perry and Barry, has occasionally been used for girls over the years.

Variation of Gertrude.

Corran is an anglicization of Corraidhín, meaning "little spear", or its patronymic Ó Corraidhín. It feels familiar, thanks to the popularity of similar names like Callum, Callan and Corey, but is actually very rare outside Scotland.

After being one of the hot upscale surnames of the nineties, Garrett has left the Top 100 and this streamlined spelling is dawdling near the bottom of the Top 1000.

No: no Picasso, no Beethoven, and no Shakespeare.

Danish form of the Old Norse Þórgeirr — Thorger is another variation.

An old-fashioned Slovene nickname for Gertruda — the Jerca variation is considered more stylish.

Unusual saint's name rarely heard outside Roman Catholic rectories until it made an appearance on a reality-TV show; has an attractive French feel.

This was a common name in early Ireland, borne by numerous saints, but pronunciation problems would make it prohibitive here.

Clunky Gertrude is heading towards obscurity in the US, but here's a variation that might intrigue - Gesine, also spelled Gesina.

Berengaria was one of the medieval queens of England - married to Richard I (also known as Richard the Lionheart). She was originally from Navarre (in modern northern Spain) and despite being the Queen of England, she only lived in England after her husband had died. Despite its royal roots, Berengaria is one of the less attractive medieval names, although it gets points for having an unusually strong meaning for a feminine name.

Derived from the Old Norse elements holmr "island" and geirr "spear". This is a widespread name in Scandinavia, and belonged to a legendary Danish hero, Holger Danske (Ogier the Dane). According to legend, Holger Danske was a fearsome warrior under Charlemagne, who never died but sleeps in the cellar of Kronborg Castle at Elsinore, ready to rise again if Denmark is ever in danger.

Modern Danish form of Esger or Asger, borne by dancer Eske Holm, evolutionary geneticist Eske Willerslev and actor Eske Forsting Hansen.

You might want to honor premier U.S. architect Frank Gehry--even though he was born Ephraim Goldberg. Gehry, pronounced like the more common surname Geary, may be a spin on the name Gary, which means spear, or derive from the Middle English word geary, which means fickle.

Somewhat reminiscent of the better known Beccan, this is an Irish saints' name – there were no fewer than five St. Bercans, as well as a noted manuscript artist called Bercanus. In Ireland, it is sometime shortened to Barry.

Variation of Rowena.

Out-of-date for a boy, innovative for a girl.

The kind of cutesy female spin not popular since Barry was big for boys, several decades ago. Consider Bara instead.

Ødger is the Old Danish form of Audogar, written as AuðgæiRR in Old Norse.

This weighty ancient name could be the perfect fits-in-stands-out choice for fans the increasingly fashionable group of girls' names that both start and end in A.