Lily

The lily has meant purity in Western iconography since medieval annunciation panels, where the angel Gabriel arrives carrying a white stalk in hand to tell Mary she will bear a son — and the name carries some of that quiet, devotional light without ever feeling preachy. The flower itself, by way of the Latin lilium and the Greek leirion, has been cultivated for at least four thousand years, with stylized lilies appearing on Minoan frescoes and in Egyptian funerary art. The name comes straight from the flower, with no detour through a saint's calendar or a royal house.

For a long time Lily was a nickname people grew out of, a diminutive of Lillian or Elizabeth that never quite stood up on its own. Then in the 1990s and 2000s, Lily Allen released hit singles, Lily Collins started showing up in films, Lily Tomlin kept being Lily Tomlin, J.K. Rowling gave us Lily Potter (Harry's mother), and parents realized the name was too good to tuck inside a longer one. Lily entered the American top 100 in 1992 and the top 20 in 2007, where it stayed for over a decade.

It currently sits at number twenty-eight, a softly persistent fixture. Famous bearers also include Lily James, Lily Aldrin (How I Met Your Mother), Lily Rabe, and the Pulitzer-winning poet Lily Brownstone. Two soft syllables, all l's and i's — LIL-ee — a name that sounds exactly like its shape. Pairs beautifully with both floral and vintage middles (Lily Rose, Lily Mae, Lily Pearl, Lily Wren). Nicknames are rare; the name is already a contraction. Floral, gentle, quietly luminous.