Oz

Oz means strength in Hebrew, a single syllable that lands like a small stone in the palm. The word threads through the Psalms, where God is called a tower of strength, and it has been adopted as a given name in modern Israel for its directness. English speakers will hear echoes of Baum's wizard and his emerald city, but the Hebrew original predates all of that by millennia and carries no whimsy. Worn by Israeli writer Amos Oz, who chose it as his surname when he left the kibbutz to write. Brief, muscular, unmistakable. A name that does not waste breath.