wow, this is indeed a tough choice! pray hard about it. it took me a long time and I went through about 7 saints before making my choice.
here is some advice I bed you to heed: DON'T pick your saint according to his name. I have a friend who picked her saint because the name sounded really regal, and she doesn't know one thing about her!
personally, I disliked the name "Tikhon". But I love St. Tikhon of Moscow and all he did for the Church. I have grown to love my "Christian name".
choose the saint for who they were and what they did, not how their name sounds!!!!
good luck
For what it is worth, in the Old World and in the early immigrant Church in America, I think that it was common to see the same Saints honored with frequency.
I fondly remember on the All Soul's Saturdays or at Baptisms as an altar boy remarking how many people were named John, Joseph, Mary, Anna, George, Michael, Suzanna, Elizabeth, Helen, Vasil and so on. Whenever an 'odd' name (I recall 'Metro' who I later learned was not named after the subway, but a shortening of Dimitry!) was given or remembered we would giggle. At least one child in a family would named after a national patron, i.e. Nicholas for the Greeks, Vladimir for Ukrainians etc... Another common name choice was based upon the village parish's patron. In my paternal grandfather's case the village church was dedicated to SS. Cosmos and Damian. Hence, he was Damian (thankfully not Cosmo! - just kidding- ) My mother in law was given the name of Paraska ( St. Paraskevia) after the village church in Europe. Interestingly, Damian became known as "James' in America and Paraska was dubbed 'Peg' by her first grade teacher which morphed over the years into Marge. Another was the patron of the family's profession, such as a herder of animals using the name George.
There are indeed many reasons and many choices. Think hard and pray often for it is a once in lifetime choice. I would urge that you not pick based upon obscurity or sound or solely based upon a particular ascetic's life style, but rather upon how you are guided through the process of becoming Orthodox and whose life or writings have truly influenced you upon the journey or whose life you might wish to emulate.
Perhaps I am getting old, but it seems to me that too many new parents choose exotic names for their children in order to be fashionable or appear overly pious. It is a tough decision indeed.
