Monroe

Monroe arrives in black-and-white cinemascope. A Scottish surname from the Gaelic Rothach or bun an rotha, "mouth of the Roe," a river in County Derry, it crossed into history with President James Monroe and into legend with Marilyn. Mariah Carey named her daughter Monroe in 2011, accelerating its rise as a first name, especially for girls but increasingly unisex. Ranked 571, it carries a vintage film-star glamour alongside an old-country gravitas. One fluid syllable with a drawn-out ending that hangs in the air, like a final note held a beat too long, in the best possible way.