Rory

The last high king of Ireland was named Ruaidhrí — anglicized Rory, meaning red king — and he died in 1198, the line of high kings ending with him. The name carries that specific Celtic gravity: the red of the hair, the weight of the crown, the end of something. And then it became, centuries later, the name of a fast-talking, book-devouring teenager from Stars Hollow, Connecticut, and the balance shifted entirely.

Gilmore Girls introduced Rory Gilmore in 2000 and the American charts followed within years, moving the name toward girls while it remained in use for boys, and Rory now occupies rank 226 comfortably as a unisex name, both sides of the ledger holding steady. Two distinct personalities coexist in the same two syllables, the royal and the literary, and both are convincing.

Two syllables that roll — Ro-ry — the repetition giving it a satisfying symmetry, easy to say quickly and harder to say wrong. Alongside Milan, Lennon, Dallas, Reagan, and Karter, it occupies the confident-unisex center. The child named Rory tends to have a favorite book they've read four times, strong opinions about how things should be done, and a way of making both qualities seem completely reasonable.