Hayden

Hayden comes from the Old English for a hay-valley or heathered hillside, originally a surname attached to the kind of Englishman who could name every hedgerow bird. It crossed into first-name use quietly, then crossed the gender line with the same ease, buoyed in the 2000s by actors Hayden Christensen and Hayden Panettiere pulling the name in two directions at once. Now solidly unisex in the U.S. 150s, it has a pleasant two-beat cadence and a pastoral undercurrent. Hayden wears flannel well, reads late into the night, and never needs to explain itself twice.