Alexandria

Step into a library built of marble and lamplight and you have the atmospheric register of Alexandria. The name is the feminine elaboration of Alexander — from the Greek meaning "defender of the people" — and it shares its name with the Egyptian port city that once housed the ancient world's greatest collection of knowledge. That scholarly shadow lends it gravity before the first syllable is even finished.

Alexandria peaked in American popularity during the 1990s, a decade that favored elaborate, stately names for girls. It never fully left; it simply settled at a more deliberate altitude, now sitting at rank 463. Four syllables take their time moving through it, each one a small room in a longer corridor. The name carries its own built-in credentials, the way certain addresses do.

Al-ex-an-dri-a unfolds unhurriedly, and that unfolding is part of its character — it cannot be rushed. Nicknames are available for every temperament: Alex for the one who prefers directness, Lexi for the one who wants brightness, Andi for the one who wants something unexpected. It pairs well with Veronica, Alessandra, or Felicity in a sibling set. The girl named Alexandria has usually already read the book everyone else just discovered.