Hector

The Trojan prince who held the line against Achilles, Hector comes from the Greek hektor, holding fast, and carries three thousand years of tragic nobility on his shoulders. The name belonged to Virgil's hero and Homer's before him, to Scottish chieftains through a Gaelic borrowing, and to a steady stream of Latin American boys who inherit it from fathers and grandfathers. It holds a confident mid-range American rank, strongest in Mexican American families. Two stalwart syllables, that hard H aspirated in Spanish and softened in English. Hector reads brave and unflashy, a name for the boy who shoulders his younger siblings' burdens without being asked.