Memphis

Memphis comes down the river with a guitar case. The original Memphis was an Egyptian capital on the Nile, its name a Greek rendering of men-nefer, "enduring and beautiful." Nineteenth-century Americans borrowed it for the Tennessee city on the Mississippi, which in turn gave the world the blues, Elvis, and Stax Records. As a baby name it carries both ancient pharaohs and Beale Street neon, a geography that reads as music. Ranked 588 and comfortably unisex, Memphis has grown with the place-name wave alongside Dallas and Brooklyn. Two syllables, one delta, and a whole lot of reverb.