Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! This is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where a new top ten list hits the web every week!

This week our topic is …

CHARACTERS I’D NAME MY CHILD AFTER

Speaking for myself, I know I’ve named more than a few pets after my favorite character of the moment, but I also thought seriously of naming my children after a few more.  In fact, several of the names I’ve listed below were discussed by myself and my wife when we were having our children.  Okay, a few might have been mentioned then dropped very quickly as soon as I say my wife’s face, but I still thought about them.

I will go ahead and admit that all of the picks below are boy names, and they are almost all ones I took a liking to when I was a child/teen.  That doesn’t mean I have never liked any female names in literature or cinema, because, honestly, I could produce another list of just female names.  However, as a father of only boys, I thought it easier to just list the names I recalled considering when I was blessed enough to have my children.

Anyway, here are a few of my favorites.

10. NEO

Yeah, I was all over The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded back in the day. (No, I do not consider The Matrix Revolutions as existing in my world.)  And, naturally, I always thought Neo would be a really unique, cool name or nickname for a son.  No, my wife didn’t like the idea.

9. SILK

As a teenager, I loved The Belgariad.  It might have been a trope filled fantasy filled with one dimensional characters and every other insult modern fantasy readers can level at it, but I adored every minute of it.  And since my favorite character was Silk, I recall thinking back then that Silk would be a really amazing name.  Not quite so sure of that now, but, hey, I was a teenage at the time.

8. CONAN

Some of my favorite books when I first entered the fantasy genre were sword and sorcery tales penned by Robert E. Howard.  Conan was my first and favorite of his creations plus I also loved the two movies with  Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Since I was a young teenager with no concept of reality, I couldn’t imagine there being a better name for my son than Conan.  I mean, everyone would have to respect a kid named Conan, right?

7. Aragorn

My biggest fanboy obsession as a teenager (other than Star Wars, of course) was Lord of the Ring, which I absolutely obsessed over.  My favorite character always being the mysterious, brave Strider/Aragorn, which is why I thought it would be kick ass to name my son after old Long Shanks himself.  Naturally, my wife was not thrilled with this idea at all.  But I shouldn’t have been surprised, since she doesn’t like Lord of the Rings either.

6. HECTOR

As a middle grade student, I read The Iliad and The Odyssey at school and became a huge Greek mythology fan.  But while I adored all the tales of Zeus, Perseus, Heracles, and all the rest, my favorite hero of the stories was always Hector, who willingly faced certain death at the hands of Achilles to protect his beloved city and people.  While the 2004 movie Troy didn’t capture the true epic nature of Homer’s tale, it did do a decent job of portraying Hector’s commitment and love for his family and his people; it also made me think back to when I was an eleven-year-old determined to name his son Hector.

5. KELSON

In my teen years I was a fan of Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni novels.  The medieval stories of kings and queens, lords and knights, church and kingdoms, capturing my attention and feeding my need for these types of historically flavored epics.  Young King Kelson was my idol back then, because I empathized with him due to our similar ages and also admired him due to his noble desire to do the right thing in every situation.  This led me to consider that Kelson might be a really cool name for a son one day.

 4. MAXIMUS

Gladiator is still one of my favorite movies ever, and Russell Crowe is one of my favorite actors, especially his older stuff.  And, yes, I really wanted to name my son Maximus.  I mean, we could have called him Max for short.  But, unlike Lebron James, I wasn’t able to get my wife to pull the trigger on Maximus.  Maybe, a grandson one day.

3. OLIVER

This name only partially comes from my lifelong love of Green Arrow.  You see, when I was born, my mother wanted to name me Oliver Wendell, but my dad would not agree.  It seems he hated the name Oliver.  So anyway, I grew up having my mom tell me I should have been Oliver Wendell, then I  discovered this Green Arrow guy named Oliver.  That got me thinking that, maybe, I should name my son Oliver Wendell.  Unfortunately, my wife hated Oliver as much as my dad did.

2. CLARK

The first superhero I ever loved was Superman after I watched Superman the Movie (1978) when I was a very impressionable six-year-old.  Naturally, my years of reading Superman comics, watching movies, and numerous tv series about Clark Kent gave me a fondness for his name, and I seriously wanted to christen my oldest son Clark.  Wife considered it before finally rejecting the name, which is bad, because my eldest son bears a striking resemblance to Henry Cavill.

1. CONNOR 

In 1986, Highlander blew my mind.  Looking back now, I don’t really know why, but, at the time, I thought it was the best damn movie since The Empire Strikes Back.  Loved the tv series years later, and I always, always said if I had a son he would be named Connor.  Hell, I would have been happy to name him Connor MacLeod if I could have.  And after whiffing on Oliver and Clark, I would not be denied on using this name, which is why my middle son, who contributes the graphic novel reviews from time to time, is proudly called Connor.