Phoenix

Phoenix carries its own resurrection. The mythical Greek bird that burned itself to ash and rose renewed every five hundred years appears in Herodotus, Ovid, and medieval bestiaries as a symbol of immortality; the Arizona city borrowed the name in 1881 to honor a settlement built on Hohokam ruins. The leap to given name is twenty-first century, accelerated by the Phoenix acting family and the rise of gender-neutral word-names. It entered the US top 300 for both boys and girls in the mid-2010s and sits at 275. Two syllables, the striking PH, the kicking X. Elemental, mythological, quietly fearless.