Freya

The cats that pull her chariot are the giveaway. Freya is Norse mythology's most extravagant figure — goddess of love, beauty, war, and death, owner of a cloak of falcon feathers that grants flight, seeker of the necklace Brísingamen — and her name comes from the Old Norse word for "lady," the same root that gave English its word Friday. She has been carrying all of this since before the Vikings had longships.

Long a staple in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, Freya crossed into American use more recently and has climbed steadily into the top ranks. She now sits at rank 159, fueled by a renewed appetite for Old Norse and mythological names, the same current that elevated Odin and Thor for boys while Freya arrived for girls as the better argument. The name carries power without requiring any explanation of where it came from.

Two syllables with a strong first beat and an open close: FREY-a, the diphthong broad, the ending a sigh. It pairs naturally with Elsie, Sloane, June, Hallie, and Ruth — a set that shares vintage clarity and no patience for fuss. Freya Sloane. Freya June. The girl who carries this name is the one who seems older than she is from very early on, who has complicated feelings about most things and is not embarrassed about that, and who grows up to be the person in the room with the real authority.