Isaac

Sarah, ninety years old and long past hope, laughs out loud when she is told she will bear a son — and so the boy is named Yitzhak, Hebrew for "he will laugh." It is one of the tenderest etymologies in any scripture: a whole life built on a mother's startled joy. The name has belonged to a patriarch, a Newton, a Bashevis Singer, and countless ordinary boys across three faiths. Isaac sits at rank 40 in the United States, a quiet climb over the past two decades. Two syllables with a bright opening and a soft closing consonant. Biblical, warm, and unexpectedly cheerful.