Tate

Derived from an Old English byname meaning cheerful, or the Old Norse Teitr of the same sense. It spent centuries as an English surname before entering American birth registers in 1912. For most of the twentieth century it remained sparse, only accelerating once single-syllable surnames gained broad traction.

Tate reads as modern, brisk, and distinctly twenty-first-century. The name suggests a middle-school track meet, a sports water bottle covered in vinyl stickers, and a parent texting from the sidelines. It is short enough to avoid shortening and distinct enough to skip a middle initial. It rarely requires repeating across a noisy room.