Lea

Derived from the Hebrew Leah, traditionally translated as weary or meadow, though the unadorned three-letter spelling entered American registries primarily through French, German, and Scandinavian immigration. It has existed in the national record since 1880 as a leaner alternative to its biblical counterpart. It never became an epidemic, lingering on birth certificates as a quiet European import.

The name reads as streamlined and slightly nomadic, belonging equally to a 1970 suburban kitchen or a European train carriage. It carries less biblical gravity than Leah and less midcentury gloss than Leigh. Most people pause for a fraction of a second to decide whether to pronounce it with two syllables or one. That ambiguity is half its personality.