Gwen

A single pale syllable, like chalk on slate: Gwen comes from the Welsh gwen, meaning white, fair, or blessed, a word that threads through Arthurian legend via Guinevere and surfaces in a dozen compound names — Gwyneth, Gwendolen, Bronwen, Gwenllian — before appearing here in its most stripped-back form. On its own it feels pared back and modern, the kind of name a poet might choose for its economy, keeping all the resonance and shedding every extra letter.

Gwen Stefani gave it pop-star swagger in the 1990s; Marvel's Gwen Stacy, particularly in the Spider-Verse films, handed it to a new generation and made it quietly heroic. The soft opening and the abrupt final consonant give the name a balance of gentleness and decisiveness that's harder to achieve than it looks. It's currently sitting in a comfortable mid-range, well known without being overused, which is probably its natural home. Gwen works beside almost any sibling name because the single syllable bends — it can be soft beside Rosalind or sharp beside Colt. A name that says exactly what it means and then stops.