Addison

An Old English surname meaning son of Adam, Addison belonged first to essayists and eighteenth-century London coffeehouses — Joseph Addison wrote The Spectator in 1711 and helped invent the modern magazine. Two centuries later, Shonda Rhimes named a neonatal surgeon Addison Montgomery on Grey's Anatomy, and the name crossed the gender line almost overnight, climbing into the girls' top twenty by 2010. The surname's patronymic meaning quietly evaporated. It currently ranks 68 and is given to about one in 485 girls. Three syllables that land with a gentle American swagger; the nickname Addie pulls it back toward porch swings and paperback novels.