Eliza

Eliza began as a short form of Elizabeth, itself from the Hebrew Elisheva, "my God is an oath." Over centuries it slipped its parent name and claimed its own literary life: Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, Eliza Hamilton in both ledgers and Broadway, Eliza Bennet's sister in Austen. The name reentered American popularity in the mid-2000s and climbed steadily into the top 150 by the late 2010s, buoyed by Hamilton's success. Three syllables that land softly, eh-LIE-zah, with a pleasing lift in the middle. Eliza reads as independent, a little bookish, unmistakably her own person.