Legend

Legend is a word-name in the boldest sense, lifted straight from the English dictionary and placed on a birth certificate with a wink. It traces to the Latin legenda, "things to be read," originally referring to the lives of saints, though modern parents are clearly aiming at the other meaning. Legend arrived on U.S. charts in 2014, boosted by John Legend and the broader trend toward aspirational virtue names, and has since climbed to the top 160s for boys. Two clean syllables, a crisp hard g. Ambitious, unselfconscious, a little swaggering. It aims high from the first introduction.