Alexis

Alexis comes from the Greek Alexios, meaning "defender" or "helper," and belonged to saints, Byzantine emperors, and Russian tsars long before it arrived in modern nurseries. In the United States it began the twentieth century as a boy's name, then shifted sharply toward girls during the 1980s after the character Alexis Carrington anchored the nighttime soap Dynasty. Today it is genuinely unisex and sits at 484. Three syllables move briskly, the central X giving it crispness and bite. Alexis reads as polished and self-assured, a name that straddles traditions with ease. Strong, stylish, and equally at home in any era.