My ex is heavily into genealogy, and will often give our son updates on the information he has found. Ex really gets into it, and there are some interesting names in his family tree.
An intriguing one he recently discovered is the name Salathiel. Evidently, it is a legitimate, Biblical masculine name. The more I say it out loud, the more I like it. Had I known of this name at the time we were expecting our son, I might even have considered it. It is enough like Nathaniel or Daniel, with that -iel ending, to sound not so weird, and I happen to love Sal as a nickname for a boy, (I have a great-uncle Salvatore on my Italian side who goes by Sal.)
Do y'all like it? I'm not having any more children; that train left the station long ago, but I was wondering if it really is kind of a cool name, or is it too oddball for a kid of the 21st century? The Salathiel in the family tree lived in the 1800s.
It's definitely got a biblical ring to it.
I probably read too much horror and fantasy, because Salathiel sounds a bit like either an angel or a demon or some kind of supernatural entity. It puts me in mind of angels like Uriel and Remiel, or demons like Agiel or Belial.
POD. It strikes me first as a bit more "fantasy," or "mystical religious," than purely Biblical or historical. I do think it's a harmonious-sounding name, but I feel like it would be rather out-there for a child. On the other hand, if all the kids in the family had out-there names with a solid family history basis, particularly Biblical, maybe it would work through sheer force of will. Amy and Salathiel, for example, would just make Salathiel seem that much weirder. Salathiel and Hepzibah might work, though.