This also belongs in the "should have been obvious" category: It wasn't until earlier this week that I realized Calvin and Hobbes, of comic strip fame, were named for philosopher-theologians John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes. I can be excused for not noticing Calvin, since that almost passes as a normal first name (almost), but Hobbes should have been a giveaway. Who the heck is named Hobbes?

Calvin, like the even less common Woodrow and Grover, owes what little currency it has as a first name to a U.S. president who was known by his middle name. Cal Worthington, not exactly a household name but at least somewhat familiar on the West Coast for his car dealerships, was named directly for the president. I know this because his full name is Calvin Coolidge Worthington. I don't know whether Calvin Edwin Ripken Sr or Calvin Klein were named for the president, but it seems plausible.

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was also named for a president. Grover Glenn Norquist probably wasn't. I suspect the blue monster from Sesame Street was.

Woodrow and Grover were both surnames. Woodrow was the maiden name of Thomas Woodrow Wilson's mother. Grover was the surname of a man who preceded Stephen Grover Cleveland's father as pastor of their church. John Calvin Coolidge was named for the 16th century theologian.

As a surname, Calvin goes back all the way back to classical Rome, where various notables had Calvinus among their names. The name survives not just in English but in French as well, but only after being deformed according to the standard pattern. Just as cantus (song) became chant and camera (room) became chambre, and just as talpa (mole) became taupe and altus (high) became haute, so too did Calvin become Chauvin.

Nicolas Chauvin, a famously patriotic Frenchman during the Revolution, became such a legendary character afterward that the word "chauvinism" was coined for him. For centuries, the term referred to excessive nationalism. More recently it has taken on a slightly different connotation.

In Latin, Calvinus is a diminutive of Calvus, which means "bald". The name of Calvary Hill, where Jesus was crucified, also suggests baldness of a sort. The Gospel of John (19:17) tells us:

Golgotha does indeed mean "skull", but King James' scholars were mistaken: the name is Aramaic, not Hebrew. When the other gospels mention Golgotha, they too note that it means "skull", which in the Latin vulgate translation was calvariae.

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