The Puritans of early New England had a strong sense of morality, and they often gave their children virtue names to reflect this. Examples of virtue names include Mercy, Temperance, Reliance, Experience and Patience. (I found all of these on old gravestones near my house on Cape Cod, in fact.)

As you can imagine, many of the virtue names that were fashionable during the Puritan era are no longer stylish. For instance, names like Obedience, Silence, Chastity and Modesty tend to sound archaic -- even sexist -- to modern parents. Likewise, the names Prudence and Constance, which were popular during the first half of the 20th century, sound dated today.

But certain virtue names have managed to remain popular. The most enduring names seem to be the simplest: Grace, Faith and Hope. In 2006, these names were the 17th, 64th and 200th most popular girl names in the United States, respectively. (The Spanish word for hope, Esperanza, ranked 675th.) Faith and Hope together also happened to be the the 13th most popular pair of names for twins.

Charity, Patience and Felicity have recently become more common as well. Charity and Patience weren't often used in the mid-1900s, but they have since been revived. Felicity, on the other hand, is now becoming popular for the first time due to the success of the TV drama Felicity.

Even more interesting than the re-emergence of older virtue names is perhaps the creation of new ones. Serenity has soared in popularity over the last several years, and it now ranks 135th. The same goes for Liberty and Harmony (which can be viewed as a musical name as well).

Masculine virtue names are also popping up more frequently. Clement may be long outmoded, but Sincere has been popular exclusively for boys since the year 2000 (ranking 637th in 2006). There's also Justice, which has been used in equal measure for both boys and girls since the mid-1990s.

Finally, there are the virtue names that have never been popular on a national level, but that (in my opinion) have a good shot at making the list one day. Both Amity and Verity are pleasant-sounding names that have remained under the radar, for instance. I've also met girls named Merit and Freedom, and have heard through the grapevine about babies named Wisdom and Charisma.