Ryan

Some names have to work hard to seem relaxed. Ryan just is relaxed, in that maddeningly effortless way, and it turns out it has been holding a secret the whole time.

The secret is the meaning. This easy, everyday, thoroughly unshowy Irish name translates as little king. Isn't that lovely? All that regal weight, tucked inside a name you could shout across a five-a-side pitch without a second thought. There's no crown, no fanfare, no fuss, just a quiet, pocket-sized majesty that a small person can grow into at their own pace.

And Ryan does relaxed brilliantly. It shortens, if you like, to the breezy Ry, though it's short and friendly enough that plenty of people never bother. It's one clean, confident syllable of a name that somehow suits a toddler, a teenager and a managing director equally well, a genuinely hard trick to pull off.

The map bears out its charm. Ryan sits at 45 in Canada and 57 in the United States, holds 67 in New Zealand and 69 in Brazil, and lands at 89 in Australia and 132 in England and Wales. It even turns up at 299 in France and 393 in Catalonia, proof this little Irish king has slipped his passport under plenty of doors where you might not expect to find him.

It also keeps famously charismatic company. Between the actors Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds and the footballer Ryan Giggs, the name has cornered a certain kind of easy, likeable star quality. Fiction adores it too: there was brooding Ryan Atwood on The O.C. and steely Ryan Chappelle on 24. Leading man, sportsman, screen fixture, Ryan slots into just about any life you can sketch for it.

On the shortlist it belongs to that unfussy, slightly nostalgic Celtic-flavoured crowd. Set it beside Connor, Dylan and Kyle, or let it balance a Megan, and you get a sibling set that sounds warm, grounded and completely unpretentious. Nobody will ever have to spell it twice, and nobody will ever mistake it for a passing trend. Ryan has quietly outlasted a dozen fashions that once looked far cooler, and it will very likely outlast a dozen more. That kind of staying power is worth a great deal when you are choosing a word someone must carry for a lifetime.

So do you write it down? That's the sweet torment of the whole business, isn't it. A name can mean king, wear its charm without the slightest effort and travel the globe on a wink, and you will still sit there weighing it against a hundred others at midnight. Ryan makes it look easy, as it always has, but the coronation, in the end, waits on a very small monarch who hasn't yet arrived.