Emilio

Emilio arrives with sunlight and a rolled r, the Spanish and Italian form of the old Roman Aemilius, a patrician clan name often glossed as "rival" or "striving." It has passed through centuries of poets, painters, and footballers, softened in one country, sharpened in another, and it now ranks in the U.S. 150s, its popularity climbing alongside a broader embrace of Latinate names. Three syllables with a graceful lilt, it feels equally at home on a concert pianist or a kid kicking a ball in a courtyard. Classic, warm, unmistakably Mediterranean.