Ella

A recording studio, 1938: a young woman steps to the microphone and scats her way through "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," and suddenly the name Ella belongs to American music. The name itself is older — a Norman import to medieval England, likely a shortening of Germanic names beginning with the element alja, "other" or "foreign" — and it has resurfaced every few generations since. Two crisp syllables, both vowels open, nothing wasted. Ella currently sits at rank 30 in the United States, a placement it has held with remarkable steadiness for two decades. A name that can swing, hush, or call a child home across a summer lawn.