Gene

The name originated as an informal shortening of Eugene, derived from the Greek Eugenios, meaning well-born. American birth ledgers began recording it as an independent entry in the late nineteenth century. By 1928, parents were bypassing the longer form often enough to place it among the country's top one hundred names.

A Gene is generally pictured behind a service counter, holding a grease pencil or adjusting a carburetor. The name reads with the direct tone of hardware catalogs and carbon-copy receipts. With an estimated average age of sixty-six, the name largely belongs to men who recall when long-distance telephone calls were treated as family emergencies. It does not suggest drama, only someone who kept the original instruction manual for a snowblower purchased in 1978.