Aaron

Aaron opens with a vowel you almost sing, the name of Moses's older brother and the first high priest, drawn from a Hebrew root sometimes read as mountain, sometimes as enlightened. It has been in steady American use for generations, holding a remarkably flat line near the top 80 for decades, a rarity among biblical boys' names that tend to spike and fade. Aaron Burr, Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Sorkin: the name shows up in ambitious company. It is studious without being fussy, soft at the edges but quietly serious, the kind of name that hands in homework on time and grows into a person with opinions about jazz.