Miranda

Miranda is a Shakespearean invention, coined by the playwright for the shipwrecked daughter in The Tempest whose name, from the Latin mirandus, means worthy of wonder. She speaks the play's most astonished line — O brave new world, that has such people in't — and lent her name, centuries later, to one of Uranus's moons. The name rose quickly in English-speaking countries during the twentieth century, bolstered by actresses and a certain Sex and the City attorney. Three syllables, mih-RAN-dah, with a confident middle stress. It wears intelligence lightly, a name for girls who ask interesting questions and remember the answers.