Caleb

The name traces to an ancient linguistic root denoting the dog. Seventeenth-century English speakers carried it across the Atlantic to colonial New England. After decades of quiet, low-level use, American parents revived it in the late twentieth century, pushing it toward its modern peak.

A Caleb reads today as a college student with a frayed lanyard and a reliable fleece pullover. The name carries the soft, two-syllable cadence favored heavily around 2002. Over half of all living bearers belong to Generation Z, which places the typical Caleb in a lecture hall or on the campus shuttle. The name tends to be pictured carrying a dented metal water bottle covered in vinyl stickers. It currently attends very few twenty-fifth high school reunions.