Valerie

Valerie has the soft sparkle of a chandelier seen through rain on a window. The French form of the Latin Valeria — a Roman family name drawn from valere, to be strong — it was carried by an early Christian martyr before it became a mid-century American staple, the name on the cast list of a dozen films and on the lips of at least as many songs. Steve Miller sang it; The Zutons sang it; Amy Winehouse covered the Zutons and made it hers. A name that inspires that many musicians has something in its sound worth paying attention to.

Valerie held a long and comfortable reign through the mid-twentieth century, the kind of name that meant something specific about a certain generation's taste, and it has arrived at a second moment now, carried back in by parents who remember it from their childhoods as warm and underused. It currently sits at rank 147 on the girls chart, part of a broader return of mid-century classics that sat out the nineties and are now finding their way back.

Three syllables — VAL-er-ee — opening strong and softening through the middle into a bright open close. It pairs naturally beside Summer or Sienna or Ember in a sibling group, names that share its warmth and vintage ease. The Valerie you know has a laugh that announces her from two rooms away and a way of making the room feel warmer simply by walking into it.