My real first name is a German name. It would be nice to have my son's name reflect his ancestry.
My ancestry is German, Dutch, and English (the latter two are german anyway, lol). My grandparents on my mother's side are immigrants. I am very proud of my heritage and also a very patriotic American.
My intent is to give him a name inspired by someone who did something great. Founding fathers of the US, influential philosophers, great leaders throughout history, that sort of thing.
My daughter's name is Alexandra, after Alexander the Great.
The problem is that some names have negative personal connotations, too.
Personally, I think James (after James Madison), Thomas (after Thomas Jefferson), Friederich (after Friederich Nietzsche), Arthur (after Arthur Schopenhaur), William (after William James), Patrick (after Patrick Henry) would all be great names. Problem is, all of them remind us of someone we personally hate.
Otto (after Otto Von Bismarck) is the first name I've come up with which is a) German, b) representative of a very important person, c) has no negative personal feelings attached to it.