Rebecca

Rebecca comes down through centuries from the Hebrew Rivka, often translated as to bind or to tie, a name belonging to the matriarch who gave water to a stranger's camels and became the wife of Isaac. Three syllables with a central K-crack, re-BEK-a, a name that has never fully left the American top 500 since record-keeping began. It reached its peak in the 1970s, softened slightly by Daphne du Maurier's haunted novel and the sitcom warmth of Cheers. The name carries a settled, literary quality. Rebecca wears glasses she does not need and writes letters by hand, a thoughtful, steady name with biblical bedrock underneath.