Darcy

Derived from the Norman French surname d'Arcy, referring to someone from the village of Arcy in Manche or Arcy-sur-Cure in Burgundy. It drifted into English aristocratic use before crossing the Atlantic as an occasional given name for boys in the nineteenth century. By the mid-twentieth century, American parents had adopted it primarily for girls.

The name Darcy suggests someone who once owned a horse or at least read several long paperbacks about girls who did. It carries an indelible link to nineteenth-century romantic fiction, yet the median living American Darcy was born in the Nixon administration. The name reads as brisk and self-contained, with no spare syllables to apologize for. It rarely requires repeating across a crowded room.