Diane

The name is the French form of the Latin Diana, traditionally traced to an ancient root denoting daylight or the open sky. France popularized the spelling through figures like Diane de Poitiers in the sixteenth century, though English speakers long favored the Latin three-syllable original. American parents adopted the two-syllable French spelling in earnest during the nineteen-thirties, sending it into the national top twenty by the middle of the century.

The name carries the unmistakable cadence of nineteen-fifty-five, the year it peaked at fourteenth nationwide with about twenty-three thousand births. A Diane tends to be pictured holding a spiral-bound appointment book or parallel parking an Oldsmobile on the first attempt. With seventy percent of living bearers belonging to the Baby Boom, the typical Diane is roughly sixty-eight. By twenty-twenty-five, with only sixty-six newborn Dianes recorded, the name has largely vacated the nursery to manage the municipal water authority.