stephan huller

I looked this name up on trismegistos http://www.trismegistos.org/nam/detail.php?record=4631 It is about as rare as Marcion, which is to say almost non-existent. There are only five attestations for all of antiquity. I wonder if this is even a real name:

Hippolytos

Name details
Greek: Ἱππόλυτος
Latin:
Egyptian:
Coptic: ⲏⲡⲟⲗⲏⲧⲉ
Other:
Sex: Male
Language: Greek
Bibliography:
Attestations in Trismegistos People
This name is attested 8 time(s) in Trismegistos People: » show attestations
Graphs
Attestations by century (based on attestations in Greek papyrological texts [Duke] assigned to a single century; opens in a new window)
Attestations by provenance (based on attestations in Greek papyrological texts [Duke] assigned to a single century; opens in a new window)
Variants of this name:
Variant Language Text attestations
1. Ἱππόλυτος Greek 5
2. Ἱππόλιτος Greek 1
3. ⲏⲡⲟⲗⲏⲧⲉ Coptic 1

The name comes from the mythical son of Hippolyta the Amazon - a mythical person associated with the Christian mistress of Commodus, Marcia.

DCHindley

Wouldn't that database cover primarily Egypt? Hippolytus was a Roman Bishop.

DCH

stephan huller

True but it is a Greek name.

Toto

Is there a problem with an unusual name?

Wikipedia disambiguation lists

Hippolytus (play), a tragedy by Euripides
Phaedra (Seneca), sometimes known as Hippolytus, play by Seneca the Younger

and

Hippolytus (mythology), son of Theseus
Hippolytus, son of Aegyptus, killed by the Danaid Rhode
Hippolytus, one of the Gigantes, slain by Hermes
Hippolytus, a lover of Aegiale (wife of Diomedes)
Hippolytus, father of Deiphobus of Amyclae (the one who cleansed Heracles for the murder of Iphitus)
Hippolytus, successor to Zeuxippus as king of Sicyon, son of Rhopalus, grandson of Phaestus and father of Lacestades
Hippolytus, beloved of Apollo

The most famous Hippolytus, in Euripides' play, was noted for his devotion to chastity. It would be a suitable name for a Christian to take on.

stephan huller

Right, that's my point. It wasn't a birth name and interestingly Marcia, the influential Christian mistress of Commodus was Hippolyta the queen of the Amazons. For his ninth labor, Hercules had to get the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Commodus was Hercules to her Hippolyta. Indeed the portrait of Marcia in the Philosophumena (generally thought to be written by Hippolytus) is surprisingly flattering to Marcia giving her the title of philotheos which is generally only reserved for gnostics (= Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses etc). My interest is whether the name was adopted by Hippolytus in the Commodian period.

Let's not forget that Hippolytus is our earliest witness for Xmas. I have always suspected that Marcia = Marcellina the Harpocratian.