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While I do think of Benedict Arnold, that's not too strong of an association for me (he was a traitor, but he was a good, successful general before that; I don't think he's a good namesake, but there have been much worse). It's also been used by many popes including the current one, so take that as you will. The only other connection that I have is that there's a great character in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing named Benedick, and, being the huge Shakespeare fan that I am, I love that play. I don't mind Ben as a nickname, although most people would assume it's short for Benjamin (obviously).

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As for how to poke fun of the name, I can't think of any ways in which really young children would do it, but as they got older they'd just go for "Benedict Arnold", I'd imagine. Oh, and as I mentioned, an alternate spelling is Benedick. Yeah. (Edit: Eggs Benedict. Duh. Thanks, Alcyone!)

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For combos, I'd definitely avoid anything with an A as a middle name. Other than that, here are some that I like:

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Benedict Caleb
Benedict Conrad -- Conrade (spelled that way) is also a character in Much Ado About Nothing, though
Benedict David
Benedict Evander
Benedict Felix -- means "blessed and lucky" when put together; I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing
Benedict Galahad
Benedict Graham
Benedict Leander
Benedict Morgan
Benedict Oliver
Benedict Percival
Benedict Roman
Benedict Seth
Benedict Sidney
Benedict Wesley / Westley
Benedict Yvain

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Do you like any of them? I'd probably use it as a middle name rather than a first name, though; I'd list combos like that, but there would be far too many of them.

This message was edited 2/20/2011, 10:49 AM