Neva

Borrowed partly from the Russian river that empties into the Gulf of Finland and partly from Spanish, where it derives from nieve, meaning snow. In late nineteenth-century America, it also functioned as a streamlined alternative to Geneva. The name entered the official records in 1880 with the first federal tallies.

A listener hearing the name today usually pauses to check if they missed a syllable. It registers as early twentieth-century domesticity with none of the revival buzz given to names like Hazel or Cora. The average living bearer is around fifty-five years old, though a third belongs firmly to the Baby Boomer generation. It feels like an heirloom handed down without the original box.