Chandler

Chandler smells faintly of beeswax and hot tallow. The Middle English word for a candlemaker, from the Old French chandelier, it was one of the great medieval trade surnames, alongside Baker, Fletcher, and Cooper. Raymond Chandler, creator of Philip Marlowe, gave the name a trench-coated literary shadow; the 1990s sitcom Friends then introduced a new generation to Chandler Bing. Ranked 738 and unisex, it still registers slightly more male but has been moving toward center. Two syllables with a soft, flickering sound, a name lit from within, still faintly carrying the glow of its candle-maker ancestor.