Layla

A seventh-century Arabic poet named Qays lost his mind over a woman named Layla, "night," and the story — Majnun and Layla — became one of the great love poems of the Islamic world, reshaping Persian and Urdu literature for a thousand years. Eric Clapton borrowed the tale for his 1970 song, and American parents, charmed by the melody as much as the myth, began using the name in earnest. Layla now sits at rank 37 in the United States. Two liquid syllables, all L's and A's, easy to sing and easier to love. A name with a very old romance folded inside.