Leah

The overlooked sister in Genesis, with eyes described as tender or weak depending on the translation, Leah becomes the mother of six of Israel's twelve tribes, her quiet fertility outpacing the favored Rachel. The Hebrew root suggests weariness, though linguists also point toward the Akkadian for wild cow, a pastoral compliment lost on modern ears. Either way, the sound survives: two clean vowels, no hard edges. It moved into the American top hundred in the 1970s and has stayed there, currently ranked 53 and given to about one in 406 girls. Princess Leia borrowed the sound; so did a thousand indie singer-songwriters.