Thaddeus

Thaddeus comes to us by way of the Latin Thaddaeus, from the Greek Thaddaios, which may in turn render an Aramaic root meaning heart or courageous-hearted. The name belongs to one of the twelve apostles, sometimes called Jude Thaddaeus, the patron of lost causes whose basilica in Rome still draws the quietly desperate. It had a strong nineteenth-century English life and has climbed steadily again in American use since the 2000s. Three syllables, THAD-ee-us, trimmed affectionately to Thad or Tad. The name reads bookish and kind, a boy's name for a child who listens closely, keeps secrets well, and usually knows where the lost keys are.