Chris

It began as an informal truncation of longer names like Christopher and Christine. American vital records began logging it as an independent given name in 1880. Midcentury households increasingly bypassed the longer formal versions, preferring to place the monosyllable directly onto the birth certificate.

The name reads as someone who arrived well before the invention of the minivan. It suggests a person holding a clipboard, keeping a spare tire gauge in the glove compartment, or signing a waiver without reading the fine print. With an estimated average age of fifty-five, a Chris belongs squarely to the generation that learned to drive on bench seats. About forty-three percent are Boomers who have never once had to spell their first name over the telephone.