Elis

Elis is the Welsh take on Elias, a name that has drifted across the North Sea and back, finding purchase in Sweden and Norway as well as in the valleys of Ceredigion. Two syllables that rise and settle, the final s kept crisp rather than sibilant. In Wales it has a bardic, chapel-register quality; in Scandinavia it ranks among the most popular boys' names of the past decade, worn by footballers and schoolchildren alike. The unisex feel in English makes it quietly contemporary without reaching for novelty. Elis is the old prophet's name with its cloak shaken out—light, spare, ready.