Beckett

Beckett is the Irish playwright in the corner, smoking, waiting for Godot. The surname comes from the Old English for "bee cottage" or a small stream, and it belonged to both Samuel Beckett, Nobel laureate of stark sentences, and Thomas Becket, the twelfth-century Archbishop of Canterbury martyred in his own cathedral. As a first name, Beckett is a new arrival, a crisp unisex choice that joined the U.S. charts in the 2000s and now sits in the top 170s. Two compact syllables, two hard consonants, a literary afterglow. It reads smart, steady, and a little mysterious.