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Personally, I find Trinity a rather bombastic name to bestow on your child (then again, I also personally wouldn't use names beginning with "Christ," but that's just me). It's not as bad as the current trend of Messiah, imo, but I still don't think it belongs on people.

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Genesis doesn't sound too bad to me, though - and you get the nickname Genny out of it, at least. While I love the sentiment of Charity, I don't find it to be an attractive word to say. And I've been around enough people named Destiny for it to feel like a person's name, but I still wouldn't give my child a name that's so... "pre-ordained."

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Regarding the other names:

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Serenity - Though I much prefer Serena, I don't find anything wrong with Serenity. Probably because I'm a Firefly fan.

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Grace - Like Charity, I don't think it's an attractive word to say, and therefore I will never understand its massive popularity.

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Chastity - Do you want your daughter to be "chaste" *forever*? Does her "chastity" honestly determine her worth as a person? This is, imo, the worst virtue name.

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Hope - Pretty word and sentiment.

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Charisma - I like it, it's unusual... but it would be terrible for a shy person.

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Verity - I like most 'V' names, and this is one of few virtue names I would consider using in real life.

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Mercy - Considering it as a name, all I can think about is the repulsive character in "The Crucible."

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Divine - NO!!! Worse than Messiah!

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Heaven - Rather insipid.

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Love - Merciless teasing. Just... school will not be fun.

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Haven - While I think Heaven is a terrible name, it's amazing what a subtracted letter can do. I quite like Haven - more as a feminine name than a masculine one, but it can work for both sexes.

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Angel - If Angel is a woman, then hopefully it's a nickname for Angela / Angelica / etc. Otherwise this only works on two people:
1. Latino men;
and
2. Joss Whedon characters.

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Sunshine - Hippie name. Hippie hippie hippie. Hippie all day, every day.

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Harmony - I don't personally like it, but it's far from an awful name to have. I just remembered that I knew a pair of sisters in school named Hope and Harmony. And their mom's name was Holly...

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Melody - Sorry, I've never liked any of the "Mel" names. Don't know why.

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This message was edited 10/13/2014, 8:21 PM

Serenity - too close to "sanity"
Grace - nothing wrong with it, but a bit of a filler
Chastity - tacky
Hope - I like it, but would't use it as a first name
Charity - nah
Charisma - tacky
Verity - same as with Hope
Genesis - she seems to have an invisible touch, yeah
Destiny - horrible
Mercy - makes me think of Merseybeat
Divine - stripper
Heaven - über-religious
Love - the Swedish name, pr. LOO-veh, is nice. The English Love is not
Haven - better than Heaven
Angel - OK if pronounced in Spanish, otherwise tacky
Sunshine - sickly sweet
Harmony - sounds like a horse
Melody - there are worse names

I don't like them as first names, I don't mind them as middle names though Grace is way overused.
In theory, I like these kind of names as middle names for boys. Alexander Sunshine, John Mercy, Thomas Divine... I like the imagery I get from those combos.

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I don't mind them when they aren't too directly about personal character or behavior (Chastity, Patience, Prudence, Serenity), and when they don't sound sanctimonious or zealous (Charisma, Trinity, Heaven, Genesis, Felicity). That doesn't leave too many ... but I think these ones are OK:
Amity
Grace & Faith - because they're so ordinary as names, that I can forget the words.
Melody
Destiny
Harmony
Sunshine - though it has enough potential to be droll, that I would never consider it a very good name.
Haven
Verity
Mercy - also has potential to seem ridiculous, but sounds enough like Marcy that it's possible to forget the word.
And Hope is alright but I just don't like the sound of it.
The rest seem kinda bad to me.
Felicity is one of the most grating. I can't believe you forgot it.

I actually don't mind "virtue" names, in theory. Some of them are really neat, and they have an interesting Puritan quality to them. Like even Genesis is kinda nifty when viewed not as a modern monstrosity but an olden-days throwback. I will say though, that I generally prefer the more obscure or unexpected names - like Mercy, Temperance, Merit, etc. - to the ones we see more often nowadays (Serenity, Destiny, and even Faith, Hope, Grace, et al).

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Seeing Serenity up there reminds me something amusing that once happened: I was sitting at a bus stop, eating some berries left over from my lunch. Suddenly a little girl, maybe 4 years old, runs up and takes a handful right out of the container, and begins tearing around madly while her grandmother chased after her yelling "SERENITY! SER-EN-I-TYYYYYYY!!!!" The irony of it all.

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Also interesting that boys don't often get these kinds of names....I wonder why?

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I'm not exactly sure what you mean by making the names "better"?

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This message was edited 10/11/2014, 9:06 PM

I like:
Serenity
Grace
Chastity
Charity
Verity
Destiny
Haven
Harmony
Melody
But Grace is the only one I would seriously use

Trinity - Never liked this one, though I do have a soft spot for Trinidad (though for a boy only, and even then only as a middle name). Something about Trinity just always sounded off somehow.
Genesis - It's a cool word, but tacky as a name.
Charity - The only reason why this one may get a pass from me is because I can get the nickname Cherry out of it (which I love). It's still odd to me as a name, though.
Destiny - Hate, hate, hate this name, always have. Even when I was little and didn't really put any thought into peoples' names, Destiny always made little me go "why?!" (the only other name to have this effect was Treasure) It's just so clunky and unattractive.
Serenity - I kind of like this one, it sounds soft and almost pretty. I'd prefer Sera or Seraphine, sound-wise, or Serena meaning-wise.
Grace - I like this one, very sweet. I love it in the first name spot especially.
Chastity - I've been kinda liking this one lately, and I'm not entirely sure why. I'd never use it, but it's okay.
Hope - Ahhh, I ADORE this one! Hope is so pretty, short and sweet, yet somehow seems to leave a large impact.
Charisma - Blargh, I'm always baffled whenever I'm reminded this is a name. It just sounds ugly to me, I couldn't imagine calling a kid Charisma, because it seems very...un-namelike to me, I suppose. I couldn't imagine calling a child Charisma anymore than I could imagine calling one "Attractiveness", or "Charm."
Verity - I love this one! It's on my list paired with Cassandra. Cassandra Verity. I think both names have a stunning charm and go together quite nicely.

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To be blunt; I dislike all virtue names. They too make my teeth grind. They are so cheesy (some more than others) and people expect the ones with the names to live up to that potential
Like someone named angle, is supost to be an angel (yeah right) or someone named hope, is supost to being hope or be hopeful
All of those on the list are just utterly tacky

Serenity: This is a female sanitary product. Also, to me it sounds like a cemetery.
Grace: I have no beef with this, especially not as a first name.
Chastity: Screams "low class" to me, more so when as so often happens it's spelled Chassity or Chasity.
Hope: This is fine.
Charity: Seems drab and silly.
Charisma: Low class again, but a good name for say, a photo studio or a salon.
Verity: Always made me think of a cell phone provider.
Genesis: Around here Genesis is a group of nursing homes. Also reminds me of eighties Phil Collins songs.
Destiny: Very tacky.
Mercy: Another drab one.
Divine: Overweight drag queen eating real dog crap.
Heaven: Gag. Porn-tastic.
Love: Ridiculous.
Haven: Sounds like a homeless shelter.
Angel: Not quite as terrible as xsome of the others but still has a cheap vibe.
Sunshine: Dog name.
Harmony: Ugly sound.
Melody: This is okay, but I had a doll when I was little that made various squeaky/honking sounds when you squeezed her arms and legs. Her name was Melody.

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Ew, ew, ew. I can maybe get behind Charity, but not the other three.

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From your list I like Grace, Hope, Verity, Mercy. I actually really like Mercy, it reminds me of a book I read as a kid.

I actually really like Charity, because it is more of a traditional name. Mercy, Hope, and Grace don't bug me either because there's a pretty strong tradition of giving these as perfectly "normal" names alongside Elizabeth and Abigail and Jane and Mary. Yes, they give off a vaguely Puritan vibe, but I still really like them. Verity fits in this category as well. The only ones I would actually think about using would be Charity, Mercy, and Grace, but never together as sisters.

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The others are all very tacky to me. There's no history to them.