Valentina

In 1963 a Soviet textile worker named Valentina Tereshkova strapped into a Vostok 6 capsule and became the first woman in space — orbiting the Earth forty-eight times over three days, returning a national hero, and joining the very small list of Russians whose names every American grade-schooler used to know. She was a fitting occupant of a name that has always suggested a certain unshakable strength.

The Latin Valentinus comes from valens, meaning strong, healthy, vigorous (the same root that gives us valid, valiant, value, and convalescent), and the feminine form Valentina spread through Italian, Spanish, Russian, Romanian, and Slavic Europe as both a saint's name (Saint Valentina was a third-century Egyptian martyr) and a dance-floor favorite. Saint Valentine, the third-century Roman priest associated with the February 14 holiday, used the masculine form. Valentina entered the SSA top 100 in 2008 and reached the top 50 by 2017, currently at rank forty-seven, propelled especially by Latin American popularity (it is among the most-used girls' names in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Spain).

Famous Valentinas include Valentina Tereshkova (the cosmonaut), Valentina Lisitsa (the Ukrainian-American pianist), Valentina Cervi (the Italian actress), and the drag queen Valentina from RuPaul's Drag Race. Four unhurried syllables — Val-en-TEE-na — all long vowels and a stressed third syllable, utterly singable. Pairs beautifully with both Spanish and English-language siblings (Valentina and Mateo, Valentina and Henry, Valentina and Mae). Nicknames are abundant: Val, Vale, Tina, Lina, Valita. Old-world and glamorous, equally at home on a grandmother in Bogotá and a baby in Brooklyn.