Knox

Knox is a name with its collar up. From the Old English cnocc, meaning a round hill, it traveled through Scottish surnames, the fiery reformer John Knox, and Fort Knox's vaulted gold before Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt put it on a birth certificate in 2008. Since then it has rocketed into the American top 100 for boys, one of the fastest-rising one-syllable names of the century. The sound is all consonant architecture: the soft K, the sharp X. It lands with a click, like a latch. Rugged, modern, and short enough to fit on a lunchbox without abbreviation.