Aspen

Aspen trembles in a language older than naming. The tree — Populus tremula — has leaves hinged on flat stalks that flutter at the slightest breeze, which gave Old English aespe its sound-symbolic name. The Colorado ski town attached a wealthy gloss in the twentieth century, and the name leapt to girls and boys around 2000. It now holds at 265 on the US charts, fully unisex. Two clean syllables, a soft S, that bright final N. It reads outdoorsy rather than flashy, high-altitude rather than high-maintenance. A nature name with actual weather in it — cool mornings, gold leaves, silver bark.