Lincoln

An English cathedral city named for a Roman fort built beside a Celtic lake — Lindon colonia, lake colony — and by way of that city, a surname borne by a Kentucky-born lawyer who kept the Union together and was shot in a theater box in April 1865. Lincoln the given name was essentially dormant for a century after his death, then rushed up the charts after 2003, propelled partly by the Lincoln MKZ era and partly by America's fondness for honest, granite-jawed two-syllable presidents. It now ranks 73 and is given to about one in 376 boys. The name carries a top hat and a steady voice.