Clara

Clara arrives with natural light, the way a white-washed room feels in morning sun. From the Latin clarus, bright or clear, it was carried through the Middle Ages by Saint Clare of Assisi, who traded Italian nobility for a life of stark luminous poverty. The name has returned to American nurseries in force, climbing into the top 80 after decades of quiet, now given to roughly one in every 500 girls. Two soft syllables, no clutter. It suggests a child who reads early and asks careful questions, the sort of name that works at six, sixteen, and sixty without ever needing to be redesigned.