Cataleya

The flower exists first: the Cattleya orchid, Colombia's national bloom, named for the English botanist William Cattley, known for wide ruffled petals in magenta and lavender. Cataleya is a respelling of that name, moving the double-t into something more lyrical, and it owes its existence as a baby name almost entirely to one film.

Luc Besson's Colombiana gave its heroine the name in 2011, and by 2012 it had cracked the U.S. top 1,000 — a near-perfect example of a single film creating a name from nearly nothing. It has climbed steadily since, particularly popular among Latino families for whom the Colombian origin adds an extra layer of meaning. It now sits at rank 236, a name with deep roots in a national flower and a cultural moment in cinema.

Three syllables move with a particular openness — ca-ta-LEY-a — the stress landing on the third, the final vowel leaving the name unresolved in the best way. It pairs beautifully with names from its orbit — Cataleya Selena, Cataleya Mariana, Cataleya Kaylani — and shortens to Cat or Leya when the occasion demands something shorter. The girl named Cataleya tends to be the most interesting person in the room and knows it, which she wears with considerably more grace than she should be able to manage.