Thomas

The apostle who needed to touch the wounds before he believed — Thomas in Aramaic means twin, and the name has carried that stubborn, show-me honesty ever since. The biblical Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, refused to accept the Resurrection until he had seen and touched the risen Christ's wounds; the gospel writer John records the moment, and "Doubting Thomas" became a phrase in nearly every European language.

The name has been worn by saints, doctors of the church, and an extraordinary range of historical figures: Saint Thomas Aquinas (the thirteenth-century Dominican philosopher whose Summa Theologiae remains the structural backbone of Catholic theology); Sir Thomas More (the sixteenth-century English chancellor who refused Henry VIII's break with Rome and was beheaded for it); Thomas Jefferson (third U.S. president, author of the Declaration of Independence); Thomas Edison (the inventor); Thomas Hardy (the Victorian novelist); Thomas Wolfe; Thomas Mann; Thomas Pynchon. The name has stayed in the American top 50 for the entire modern charting era, currently at rank thirty-nine.

Famous Thomases of the present include Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Thomas Sadoski, Thomas Rhett (the country singer, born Thomas Rhett Akins Jr.), and the philosopher Thomas Nagel. Two syllables, quiet and squared off — TOM-uss — with a soft opening TH that has long been pronounced simply as T in most English mouths. Pairs cleanly with everything (Thomas James, Thomas Henry, Thomas Wren). Nicknames span Tom for the everyman, Tommy for the affectionate, Tomás for the Spanish, Tomás de Aquino for the formal. Vintage, biblical, reassuringly unflashy.