Frederick

Frederick comes from Old German and means "peaceful ruler." Frederick was a top 100 baby name for boys in the U.S. until the 1950's, but it's been used less and less since then--it seems decidedly old-fashioned at this point. Another thing that Frederick has going against it as a baby name at the moment is that the full form, Frederick, seems too formal and stiff, while the short form, Fred, generally makes us think of Fred Flintstone or Fred Mertz, and definitely sounds old-fashioned. Another common short form of Frederick is Freddy (or Freddie,) which brings to mind Freddy Krueger, so that's no help for the name, either. The name is an old classic though, and has been historically royal in Germany and Prussia. It's been abused by popular culture over the past few decades, but its chances of outliving the fame of television shows and movies are excellent, so I'm betting it will one day make a comeback. When you get past all the current connections, it's a very distinguished-sounding name. At the moment though, I'd definitely hesitate before naming a baby Frederick--at least give the kid a first or middle name with fewer interesting connections; he'll be glad you did. All that aside, Fred is a great name for a dog or cat, and we once had a fish named Fred. He was a very small bream that my brother caught in the lake and for some reason we decided to keep him and put him in an aquarium. He lived there for over a year, and seemed reasonbly happy, for a fish. Then one night someone had left the cover halfway off his tank and he made a leap for a passing fly (he loved flies,) landed on the floor, and was pretty dried out by the time we found him the next day--and obviously dead. Of course, we don't know for a fact that he was leaping for a fly, but that is probably what happened. None of that has anything at all to do with the name Frederick, but that's life.