Chelsea

The name traces to the Old English Cealc-hyð, meaning a landing place for chalk or limestone along the River Thames. It spent centuries as a London riverside manor before folk recordings in the late 1960s gave it modern currency. American adoption climbed through the 1970s and 1980s, peaking in 1992 when the incoming first daughter brought it into daily headlines.

The name reads as an unmistakable fixture of 1990s attendance sheets. A Chelsea tends to be pictured with an organized binder, a landline phone cord, and an average age of thirty-two. About 72 percent of living bearers belong to the Millennial cohort, leaving the name nearly absent from modern daycares. It settles into the room with the quiet confidence of someone who once burned customized playlists onto compact discs.