Harmony

Borrowed from the Greek harmonia, meaning agreement or concord, which entered Middle English by way of Old French. Long reserved for musical notation and civic mottoes, the word began appearing as an American given name in the early twentieth century. It shifted from an eccentric virtue choice to standard nursery inventory by the late 1990s.

Hearing Harmony today brings to mind someone born during the mid-2010s rather than the counterculture era. With an average bearer age around fifteen, the name belongs largely to middle school rosters and student council ballots. It reads buoyant, modern, and gently theatrical. It remains difficult to yell across a parking lot with genuine anger.