Leopold

Leopold fuses Germanic leud, "people," with bald, "bold"—a name made for crowned heads and consequential uncles. Belgian kings wore it, Mozart's father taught him to play under it, and Joyce sent Leopold Bloom wandering Dublin for a single June day in 1904 to cement its literary afterlife. The stress falls on that open first syllable—LEH-oh-pold—giving the name a certain Viennese lilt. Once firmly out of fashion in English, it has quietly rejoined the conversation as parents revisit grand, unapologetic classics. Leopold sits beside Theodore and Frederick with the self-possession of a child who reads at breakfast. Distinguished, and a little playful.