Felicity

The word itself is happiness, and the name knows it. Felicity comes from the Latin felicitas — "good fortune" or "bliss" — and carried the weight of aspiration early: it was the name of an early Christian martyr whose resolve became a model for the faithful, a woman who chose her fate with something that onlookers described as joy. That combination of happiness and conviction has never left the name.

In modern America, Felicity gained particular visibility through the late-nineties television series starring Keri Russell — a show whose title character was searching, earnest, and impossible not to root for. The character's warmth did considerable work translating the name from vintage to vital. Currently at rank 486, Felicity holds a gentle, literary presence on American charts, the kind of name chosen by parents who want something with history, sound, and a particular emotional note.

Four syllables move with the buoyancy of their meaning — feh-LIS-ih-tee — the stress landing on the second syllable, the name rising and then settling with its long final e. It pairs naturally beside the longer Alessandra or Carolina for siblings who share its preference for names that fill the full register, or beside Veronica when the family wants two vintage names that have both survived. The girl who grows into Felicity tends to embody the name's most earnest definition — not giddily so, but in the way of someone who has found a way to be genuinely glad, who makes the room feel like the fortune the name always promised.