Miles

A trumpet, a studio in 1959, the first hushed notes of "So What" setting the tone for every cool jazz record that followed — Miles Davis stamped this name with an entire musical sensibility, recording Kind of Blue with John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, and a small handful of other players in two sessions that produced the best-selling jazz album of all time. The name itself is older than the trumpeter. It comes most likely from the Latin miles, meaning soldier (the same root that gives us military and militant), though some etymologists trace it to a Slavic root meaning gracious or to the medieval English Milo, of uncertain origin.

The name arrived in English by way of Norman conquest, was carried by Miles Standish (the Mayflower's military commander, immortalized in Longfellow's The Courtship of Miles Standish), and has stayed on the quieter shelves of the boys' register ever since. Miles entered the SSA top 100 in 2002 and the top 50 by 2014, currently at rank thirty-seven.

The modern revival owes much to Miles Davis, something to Miles Morales (the Spider-Man character introduced in 2011 and given an Oscar-winning animated film in 2018), something to a broader trend of one-syllable, slightly literary boys' names. Famous Miles also include Miles Teller, Miles Heizer, and the British actor Miles Jupp. One syllable, one long vowel — MILES — and a closing S that trails like smoke. Pairs cleanly with everything from classical (Miles James, Miles Henry) to modern (Miles Wren, Miles Cash). Nicknames are scarce — Mile, occasionally Mi — but the name resists shortening. The name walks into a room without knocking.