Mona

Two round syllables, one luminous name. Mona carries an Arabic reading of munā, the plural of wishes granted, and a separate European life as a diminutive softened from Madonna or the Irish Muadhnait. Leonardo's sitter ensured the sound would echo for five centuries across paintings, pop songs, and novels. In the United States it had its real moment between the 1920s and 1950s, then slipped into the quiet, elegant middle distance where it has lived ever since. The vowels are unguarded, the ending unfussy. Mona feels like a name chosen with patience rather than flourish.