Baker

Baker smells of yeast and warm flour, a name lifted straight from a medieval English trade. Like Archer and Fletcher, it belonged for centuries to a family line defined by what the grandfather did each dawn. Its first-name debut is recent, arriving on the wave of vocational names that value craft and honest work. There is something hand-stitched about it, old-fashioned but unfussy. Now edging into the American top 400 for boys, Baker has a warm, unpretentious quality, two crisp syllables that land like a screen door closing. A name with sleeves already rolled up.