Benjamin

In Argentina, one boy's name has quietly out-charmed the entire field, and it's Benjamin. The Spanish form of an old, old name, it translates as son of the right hand: the trusted one, the favourite, the person you'd want beside you when things get tricky. As sentiments to hang on a newborn go, that's a rather lovely one to grow into.

It isn't only Argentina, though, where it holds the number one spot. The name barely pauses for breath after that, seventh in the United States, ninth in Canada, and dotted comfortably through the fortieth places in New Zealand, Brazil and Australia. It reaches England & Wales at sixty-one and Mexico City at a hundred and thirty-six. Few names manage to feel both this global and this personal at once.

A lot of that is down to how generously it shortens. Ben is the friendly, no-nonsense classic; Benja carries a bit of Latin-American swagger; and Min is the soft, sweet one you'll only ever use at home. One name, three moods, and a child who can pick whichever suits the decade. It settles easily among modern favourites, too, line it up beside Sebastian, Mateo, Valentina and Camila and it looks entirely at ease. It has that easy Spanish music to it, three unhurried syllables that sound just as natural called across a courtyard in Argentina as shouted across a park in Birmingham.

The name has never wanted for accomplished company, either. There's Benjamin Franklin, the American polymath and statesman who seemed to have a finger in every pie going. There's Benjamin Disraeli, the British statesman with a gift for a memorable line. And there's Benjamin Harrison, who served as President of the United States. Statesmen and inventors: it's a name that has quietly kept turning up wherever decisions were being made.

What makes Benjamin such an easy one to fall for is that it never has to try too hard. It's dignified without being stuffy, playful without being flimsy, and it sounds just as natural shouted across a playground as it will read on a nameplate years later. Either way you're left with a name that's been cherished for generations and shows no sign of tiring of the spotlight.

So there it is, meaningful, well-travelled and endlessly adaptable. Which, of course, does absolutely nothing to make the choosing any simpler. That's the great joke of naming a baby: you can admire a name from every angle and still lie awake wondering. Right-hand man though it is, Benjamin can't make that final call for you, that part, sadly, is on the parents.