Virtuous Names: Saintly and Holy

Integrity may be an outstanding quality, but Honor or True may work better as names.

Joy is from an older generation of word names, which also included Merry, Bliss, and Glory -- all of which exert a certain amount of personality pressure on a child. One interesting name that means the same thing: Chara.

Justice is a fashionable word name, used for both girls and boys. Justice has the distinction of being a virtue name without the religious implications of Faith or Grace. It still feels more male than female, perhaps partly due to the classic Roman name Justus, but Justice has become a more common pick for girls in recent years.

Less common than other virtue names, Liberty is nonetheless a name with a long American heritage.

In the Anglophone world, Love is more likely to be perceived as an English word name than the Swedish form of Louis.

Love makes an endearing middle name, as in Jennifer Love Hewitt. However, more parents are considering Love as a first name — enough for it to enter the charts for the first time in 2022 as one of the fastest-rising names of the year. Other love-related alternatives include Juliet, Valentina, and Amor.

Word names are often genderless, but Lovely feels particularly feminine (cue Isn't She Lovely? by Stevie Wonder). Chris Brown chose this name for his daughter, born in 2022, which may give the name a boost.

Loyal is one of the few virtue names suitable for boys, an honorable and principled Boy Scout-esque appellation with a surprisingly long and distinguished history.