Sullivan

Three syllables that arrive like a man in a good coat shaking rain from his hat — Sullivan is the anglicized form of the Irish Ó Súileabháin, meaning descendant of the dark-eyed one, from súil for eye. It is one of the most common surnames in Ireland and spent most of its American life on nameplates and boxing cards before parents began moving it to the first-name column.

The crossover started in the 2000s and has built momentum steadily. Sullivan now sits at rank 339, comfortable on both boys and girls, worn by neither gender exclusively. The literary and theatrical associations are real — think of Arthur Sullivan composing Gilbert's operettas, or Sullivan's Travels — and the name benefits from them without being weighed down.

The three syllables fall in a satisfying cascade: SUL-i-van, the first bearing the weight and the last letting go. Emory, Anderson, and Remington share similar territory in the unisex surname-as-given-name tradition. Picture a child who grows up to be the kind of person other people describe as having presence — not loud, not pushy, just someone who takes up exactly the right amount of space in a room, who looks you in the eye the way the name's origin promises, and who always knows where the nearest good bookshop is.