Bradley

A broad clearing in an English wood, Bradley comes from the Old English brad leah, literally wide meadow, and served for centuries as a place name before migrating to surnames and then to first names. It peaked in American usage in the 1990s alongside other surname-style boys' names and has settled into a steady mid-range rank, helped along by Bradley Cooper and General Omar Bradley before him. Two honest syllables, the D crisp at the center. The name reads as dependable without reading as dull, the kind of boy who runs cross-country and remembers your birthday. Bradley wears well across a lifetime.