Halo

Halo comes haloed, which is a rare trick for any word to pull off. From the Greek halos, the luminous ring around the sun or moon, it migrated into religious iconography as the gold disc behind every saint's head. As a baby name, Halo is a twenty-first-century creation, boosted by Beyonce's 2008 ballad and the rise of nature-meets-virtue naming. Currently ranked 512 and climbing, it fits neatly among Halos and Wrens and Nyxes, the new cosmology of short, bright unisex names. Two syllables, one circle of light, and the permission to shine without apology.