Stella

The name derives directly from the Latin noun for star. Sir Philip Sidney introduced it into English literature in his late sixteenth-century sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella. American parents favored it in the late nineteenth century, let it cool after 1950, and returned in volume after 2000.

The name reads today as a grade-schooler carrying a canvas tote containing three river rocks and a half-eaten granola bar. Older listeners still associate the syllables with Marlon Brando shouting in a torn undershirt, but playgrounds currently claim it. Over half of all living Stellas belong to Generation Alpha, having entered the world around the 2018 peak. Statistically, the average bearer is twenty-four years old, though she is far more likely to be eight.