Amelia

Picture Amelia Earhart, goggles pushed up, climbing into the cockpit of a red Lockheed Vega in 1932 and pointing it at the Atlantic — and you have most of what people now hear in the name. The etymology is older and quieter: Germanic amal, meaning work, by way of medieval names like Amalia and Amelinda, with the modern spelling crystallizing in the eighteenth century in the British royal family, where Princess Amelia, daughter of George III, made the name fashionable in court circles. The English then added Henry Fielding's heroine in his 1751 novel Amelia, and the literary glow stuck.

The name dropped almost out of American use through the middle of the twentieth century — for decades it lived mostly on grandmothers' tea trays and in church registries — and then came roaring back at the turn of the millennium. Amelia entered the SSA top 100 in 2002, the top 10 in 2017, and now sits firmly in the top five, with no sign of slowing down. Earhart is the lodestar, but the name has been carried into the twenty-first century by Amelia Gray Hamlin, the model; Amelia Bullmore, the British actress; Amelia Pond, Doctor Who's beloved companion; and the small army of Amelias born to American parents in the 2010s.

Four syllables that move like a small piece of music — A-me-li-a — with the central l doing soft pivot work between the open vowels. The name pairs naturally with vintage longer middles (Amelia Rose, Amelia Grace, Amelia Jane, Amelia Wren) and reads younger than its many syllables suggest. Nicknames range from Amy for the classic to Mia for the modern to Millie for the affectionate. Bright, capable, slightly windblown, with a long runway ahead.