Jamie

The name began in Lowland Scots as a diminutive of James, tracing through Latin Jacobus to Hebrew Ya'aqov. Centuries of Scottish parish registers kept it as a pet form before American parents adopted it in the late nineteenth century. It crossed gender lines by mid-century, and nineteen-seventies television firmly established it as a unisex standard.

The name reads as casual and approachable, parked right where Generation X handed keys to the Millennials. A Jamie tends to be pictured managing a soccer sideline, wearing an unzipped fleece vest, or organizing plastic containers. It carries the relaxed rhythm of the mid-nineteen-seventies, completely untroubled by pretense. The average bearer is now around forty-three, an age when opinions on porch sealant begin to harden.