Esther

Esther glows the way a candle does on a long table, steady and unsentimental. From the Hebrew biblical queen whose courage saved her people, with roots often linked to the Persian word for star, it has been carried by Puritans, by nineteenth-century poets, and by generations of grandmothers whose kitchens smelled of bread. American parents rediscovered it in the 2010s and pushed it back into the top 150, currently at 131. Two syllables, a sighing opening and a soft landing, a name that looks you in the eye. Nicknames Essie and Etta are having their own small renaissance. Radiant without showing off.