Roderick + surnames

[ouronlylight.livejournal.com]

So, I'm taking a class on medieval Spanish culture, and we just recently learned about the last Visigothic king of Spain, Rodrigo. In English, his name is generally anglicized as Roderick, though, and I seem to have fallen in love with that name.

Thoughts? It has a kind of romantic, knight-in-shining-armor feel to it, but I'm not sure how it would work on a small child. It doesn't really lend itself to nicknames aside from Rod, which I hate (and I feel would be a horrible nickname for a teenage boy), and Rick, which I like but am not overjoyed about.

Also - what do y'all think about the middle name Brien? O'Brien is a family name, and I've thought that it would be nice to pass that on in some manner, but it might be a pain considering that Brien is generally spelled (at least in the US) as Brian or Bryan. :/