Tanner

It began as an English occupational surname for someone who cured animal hides with tree bark. The word traces back to Old English tannere. American parents used it sparsely before World War I, then embraced it alongside other trade names in the nineteen-nineties.

The name suggests cargo shorts, a youth soccer trophy, and a birth certificate stamped during the Clinton administration. It sits comfortably in the cluster of late-nineties occupational names that felt rugged without requiring anyone to actually work leather. Today a Tanner is almost certainly in his mid-twenties, likely owns at least one backward baseball cap, and does not remember dial-up internet.