Jason

Jason set sail from Greek mythology before the word mythology was invented. The captain of the Argo, the man who went to the end of the known world for a fleece that turned out to be less important than the voyage, his name comes from the Greek Iason meaning healer — a different kind of heroism than the quest suggested, and maybe the more honest one. The name appears in both the Iliad's orbit and the New Testament, a rare crossing between Greek epic and early Christian text.

Jason reached the peak of American popularity in the 1970s, climbing to number two on the boys chart in 1977 and saturating the era so thoroughly that it became a generational signature. Jason Momoa and Jason Statham have kept it present in the popular imagination — two very different expressions of the same physical confidence the name always seemed to promise. It has settled now at rank 148, the comfortable plateau of a name that had its moment and earned the right to stay without performing.

Two syllables — JAY-sun — clean and forward, the long opening vowel carrying the name with an easy confidence and the N close giving it weight. It pairs naturally alongside Bryson or Arlo in a sibling set. The Jason you know has probably been underestimated by someone who didn't do their research and found it was the last time they made that particular mistake.