Jasper

Jasper has the clean flash of a gemstone caught against dark velvet. The name derives ultimately from a Persian word meaning treasurer, and tradition gives it to one of the three Magi who followed the star. It has carried a gentle artistic pedigree through painters like Jasper Johns and through a generation of bookish characters, and it now sits at 133 on the American boys chart, a steady climber. Two syllables, a bright J opening and a soft R closing, equally suited to a toddler in overalls and a grown man in a tweed jacket. Earthy, creative, faintly magical. Handsome in a lived-in way.