Leighton

Leighton traces to an Old English place name meaning herb garden or leek enclosure, the leah of meadows joined to tun, a settlement. For centuries it stayed a surname dotted across the English countryside; then Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester nudged it into first-name fashion in the late 2000s, tipping it decisively toward girls while it remains quietly unisex. Ranked 395 in the U.S., it shares phonetic DNA with Layla and Payton, sitting between soft and sporty. Two syllables, a long A glide and a clean closing n. Preppy without being precious, garden-rooted without being rustic.