Sabrina

She predates Shakespeare by centuries. Sabrina is the Latinized name of the river goddess of the Severn, that long river dividing England from Wales, and her story appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's chronicles before John Milton borrowed her for his 1634 masque Comus — a water spirit called up from the depths to rescue a virtuous young woman from enchantment by force of her own purity. Three silken syllables, sa-BREE-na, with a long bright center vowel and a soft landing on the last unstressed syllable.

Audrey Hepburn wore the name in the 1954 film Sabrina — the chauffeur's daughter who returns from Paris transformed into someone new — and the name's association with quiet glamour and self-reinvention dates precisely to that performance. The 1990s teenage-witch sitcom then added a sparkle of mischief that balanced the old elegance with something warmer and more approachable. Sabrina Carpenter has brought it to a new generation through pop music. The name currently sits at rank 357, holding its ground with the calm of a name that has never needed a single trend to justify itself.

Three syllables with a long vowel at the center — a name with shape and a waist. It pairs naturally with sisters named Azalea or Julianna, names that share its length and its literary depth; an Annabelle or Elora beside it would make a household full of myth and accumulated story. The girl who carries Sabrina well knows precisely who she is, and finds the project of demonstrating that fact to other people mildly beneath her attention.