Naming the Antichrist

The main premise of my newest novel is that of a fifteen-year-old boy in a hyper-religious society who discovers, to his horror, that he is fated to become the Antichrist. With the help of his three friends (a girl subject to divine visions, a quintessential zealous warrior of God, and a neutral demon) he goes on a quest to save his soul.

I need a fantastic name for him.

I want it to be religious because he will have been named by his adoptive parents (who were given him by a dark horseman). The society is impregnated with Catholic/Orthodox tradition with the inclusion of saints, relics, angels, etc. For his two friends, I've been playing around with Agnes, Lucine, Catherine, Josephine, and Florence for the prophetess and George, Anthony, and Gregor for the warrior.

For the Antichrist, here are some names I've been considering:

Anselm
Peter
Eben (which isn't really associated with Catholic tradition)
Bartholomew/Barthelemy
Cyril
Luke

But I think they're missing the *oomph* I'm looking for.

Any suggestions? PLEASE. I NEED SUGGESTIONS.

Personally, and this is just because I like the names, I like Gregor and Lucine. Just cause they're cool. As for the name of your antichrist....
Azariah- meaning he that hears the lord (Kings 4:2)
Cain- meaning possessed (Genesis 4:1)
Demetrius- meaning belonging to Ceres (Acts 19:24)
Gideon-meaning he that bruises or breaks, destroyer (Judges 6:11)
Ithamar-meaning island of the palm tree (Exodus 6:23)
Judas and/or Jude-meaning the praise of the lord/confession (Matthew 10:4, Jude 1:1)

How about something like Zachariah for the Antichrist? It sounds religious but potentially quite dark at the same time. Cyril doesn't really sound dark enough to me... I couldn't see a Cyril being a threat to the world somehow.

I like Catherine for the prophetess, and for the warrior of God I quite like the name Gregory (not Gregor though)

Ithamar would make a cool demon name! Or something else that begins with "I"... also I like the "mar" ending. So something that ends in "mar" or perhaps "bar"?

Good luck with your writing, and I hope I helped!

I really want to avoid Old Testament names (which is why I'm leaning away from my own suggestion Eben) because they're not usually seen in Catholic tradition and they're very, very Hebraic and exotic-sounding. New Testament names are generally more smooth in sound and look (like Priscilla or Lydia as opposed to Hadassah or Tzipporah; Peter or Apollos as opposed to Methuselah or Bezaleel).

I don't want to use names with sinister connotations because two religious parents would never use them. Judas and Cain are out of the question considering their namesakes are some of the most hated figures in Judeo-Christian tradition.

Demetrius and Jude are more in-line with what I'm looking for. They're New Testament names which have been circulated among the Catholic/Orthodox church for some time. Saint names are good, too. The name Catherine belongs to many saints, and George, Gregor (Gregory), and Anthony are saint names as well.

The demon is already named. His name is Penemue (peh-NEH-myoo-ay), which is the name of a lesser demon in the apocryphal Book of Enoch.

I'm sorry if I'm irritatingly picky. This just needs to be perfect. I've been at this for weeks and nothing's fitting.

Personally I like the way Left Behind handled its Antichrist name (disclaimer: that's about the only thing I like about that series): Nicolae Carpathia. "Nicolae" is a fairly common Romanian name (where this particular Antichrist was born -- in addition, it's the name of the last Romanian Dictator), and Carpathia is a mountain range in Romania. So -- they're not trying to overly stuff the name full of symbolism, but rather making it sound fitting to the world where the novel takes place. At the same time, the name Nicolae Carpathia does sound quite menacing and, well, "oomph".

So why don't you look closer to where your novel takes place, what's the child's family like, what sort of things do they themselves believe, etc? That way you'll have a wider pool of names to choose from. I feel like you're going backwards -- you're trying to pick a great name based on some meaning or connotation you want it to have. Why not try the other way around? Look around and find a good name, then see what connotations it brings.

The Left Behind series was a joke, but its Antichrist was phenomenal.

Having a name for him that's impregnated with symbolism is something I'm actually trying to avoid. He will have been raised by a humble couple in the countryside who are very religious. The setting is fictional, but in spite of that, the theology is Catholic/Orthodox, with an emphasis on saints and their interaction with people.

In the beginning, I was leaning towards Bartholomew, but there aren't any nicknames that I like (because I'm not going to have people say his full name--what a mouthful!--but I also hate Bart).

This has just been very difficult. I want a nice, clean religious name, but I also want just enough weight behind it that it's going to pack some sort of punch.

I've always liked Augustine

I was actually playing around with Augustine/August. It's growing on me.

it fits thematically, for sure.

I've also considered some stranger saint names like Columba, Fintan, Nicander, Emilian, Comgall, and Sennen, but are those too bizarre?

exotic is always good, but again, it depends on the character you're crafting mainly.

I'm casting my lot with Augustine.

There's a certain point where you have to consider the reader experience--with nomenclature more than most things as it will be a frequented word in your story. The strange saint names are strange for a reason. Augustine is accessible and, like Lou said, fits your setting well enough. Regardless, a bizarre name would definitely be the first thing I would swing at in a review of this story.

/$0.02

Jesus

Dangit cow.
August sounds pretty good to me too, but I also wanted to mention that this book looks like its going to be a good read... When it's finished, where will I be able to find it?

I like Augustine/August. Gus would be better but... we all know how much you hate TFIOS and everyone who reads your book would comment on the name.