Ronald

The Old Norse Rognvaldr, 'ruler's counsel,' came to the British Isles with Viking settlers and worked its way into Scottish tradition before traveling further — into English naming conventions, into Polish registries, into the broad mid-century export of Anglo names across Europe. Two syllables, that final d locking firmly into place, Ronald has the shape of a handshake.

In mid-twentieth-century America it hit the top ten, producing a generation of Rons and Ronnies before the full name became permanently attached to a presidency. Ronald Reagan so thoroughly inhabited the name that it now reads as a period piece of a very specific period: Cold War steadiness, the confident optimism of someone who has never seriously doubted the project. Currently well down the popularity charts in every country that tracks such things, which gives it a retro warmth rather than a dated feel — the sort of name a grandfather carries well and a grandchild might recover with genuine affection. The nickname Ron is spare and serviceable; Ronnie retains something of the swing-era cool the name once carried. Pairs with Albert, Emil, or Leonard.