Lucy

A candle carried through a dark Scandinavian December, a girl in a white dress with a wreath of lighted candles on her head — Saint Lucy of Syracuse, the third-century Sicilian martyr who reportedly had her eyes torn out before being killed in the Diocletian persecutions, gave her name to the December 13 winter-light festival celebrated across Sweden, Norway, and parts of southern Italy. The etymology agrees with the iconography: Lucia comes from the Latin lux, meaning light, and the name has carried that brightness since at least the third century.

Lucy is the English softening, with the same root and almost the same age. The name has drifted in and out of English fashion since the Middle Ages, reliably reappearing every few generations with fresh charm. C. S. Lewis's Narnia novels (1950 onward) gave us Lucy Pevensie, the youngest of the four siblings, the one who finds the lamppost in the snowy wood; the Beatles gave us "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in 1967; the I Love Lucy show gave us Lucille Ball's redheaded mayhem (her real name was Lucille, Lucy was the show name).

Lucy currently sits at rank thirty-four in the United States, higher than it has been in nearly a century, riding the broader vintage revival. Famous Lucys also include Lucy Liu, Lucy Hale, Lucy Boynton, and the three-million-year-old hominin skeleton Lucy (named after the Beatles song that was playing at the dig site). Two brisk syllables — LU-see — all bright vowels and no fuss. Pairs beautifully with floral or vintage middles (Lucy Rose, Lucy Mae, Lucy Wren). A name that turns on lamps.