National Sarah Day

In Genesis 17:15, God renames her. "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name," the verse reads, and the line that follows promises she will become a mother of nations, with kings descending from her. The new name is part of the bargain, a marker of a larger role.

For centuries that story lived in scripture more than in cradles. The name reached ordinary families later, and through a specific door.

After a quieter mid-century, Sarah came roaring back. It re-entered the national top ten in 1978 at eighth place and kept climbing through the 1980s and 1990s. For a stretch of the late nineties it was a name you heard in every classroom, sitting fourth in the country four years running.

The decline since has been gentle, not a collapse. Sarah left the top ten by the mid-2000s but never fell off the chart, the way most one-decade names do. It is one of the rare names that have simply always been here.