Maggie

Pearl is what it means at the root — Margaret, from the Greek margarites, polished and luminous — but Maggie has earned enough personality of its own that the etymology feels almost incidental. It has been a standalone name for over a century, stubbornly refusing to feel like an abbreviation. Maggie Smith commanded the stage and screen across seven decades with that name; Maggie Gyllenhaal carries it into film and directing with a different but equally specific intelligence. George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss gave English literature its most famous Maggie Tulliver in 1860, fierce and searching and never quite at peace with the world as she found it.

The name has held near the top 300 for decades without dramatic swings — a steady performer, the kind of name that doesn't need a trend to justify its presence. It currently sits at rank 300, which reflects its permanent-classic status: not fashionable exactly, but reliably chosen by parents who want something warm and rooted. The Simpsons' baby Maggie has been on air since 1989, a small silent presence who turns out to be considerably more formidable than she looks.

Two syllables that feel like one — MAG-ee, the first landing blunt and the second lifting — a name that moves quickly and sticks. It pairs warmly beside Rosie or Evie, names that share its preference for informality and its refusal to be diminished by it. The girl named Maggie tends to have very decided opinions about things that nobody expected her to have opinions about, and she is usually right.