Jacob

A young man wrestling an angel all night beside the river Jabbok, refusing to let go until he gets a blessing — Jacob is the trickster who becomes Israel, and the Hebrew Yaakov, often translated as supplanter or one who follows after (the name puns on his birth grasping his twin Esau's heel), carries that complicated grace. The Genesis Jacob is one of scripture's most psychologically dense figures: he steals his brother's birthright with his mother's help, flees, falls in love with Rachel at a well, works seven years to marry her and gets her sister Leah instead, works seven more for Rachel, fathers twelve sons (the eponymous tribes of Israel), and ends his life as a patriarch with a limp and a new name.

The name has been worn by saints, English kings (in the form James), and an extraordinary range of intellectuals and artists across three faiths. It was the most popular American boys' name for a remarkable fourteen years running, from 1999 through 2012 — the longest reign of any boys' name in the entire SSA charting era except Michael's. It has since settled to rank forty-one, still one of the country's most reliable choices.

Famous Jacobs include the painter Jacob Lawrence (the Migration Series), the writer Jacob Riis (How the Other Half Lives), the Twilight character Jacob Black, the Mumford & Sons singer Marcus Mumford's middle name, and Jacob the patriarch himself. Two sturdy syllables — JAY-kub — ending on a consonant that lands like a door closing gently. Pairs with everything (Jacob Henry, Jacob James, Jacob Wren). Nicknames span Jake, Jakey, Jay, Cobi, Coby. Biblical without being ornate, familiar without being worn out. A name that shows up and stays.