Ira

Ira is a two-syllable name that has lived several lives. In Hebrew it means watchful, and appears in the Books of Samuel and Chronicles; in Sanskrit, Ira is a goddess associated with speech and earth. For much of the twentieth century it was a Jewish American classic, worn by the lyricist Gershwin, the novelist Levin, the playwright Aldridge. Today, at 975 and unisex, it has an understated mid-century cool to it, the kind of name you might find typed on a manuscript or stitched into a band's liner notes. Spare, intelligent, quietly rhythmic, Ira knows exactly how much to say.