Nash

Nash is a one-syllable English surname with a botanist's origin story — from the Middle English phrase atten ash, at the ash tree, misheard and reshaped by centuries of use into Nash. It carries Ogden Nash's light verse, John Nash's Nobel mathematics, Steve Nash's crossover dribble. As a first name it began appearing in the U.S. in the early 2000s and broke the top 250 in 2015. It fits comfortably beside Cash, Ash, and Knox — short, punchy, a little cowboy at the edges. A name like a handshake: firm, quick, no second-guessing. Modern without trying too hard.