Thomas

If baby names were furniture, Thomas would be the big oak table in the kitchen. It has been there forever, it's never once been fashionable, and somehow every generation ends up gathered round it anyway.

It comes from Aramaic, and the meaning is delightfully specific: twin. Not strong, not brave, not beloved of the gods. Just twin. Which means, technically, that every only child called Thomas is walking about with a small linguistic joke attached, and every set of parents expecting twins has a name that is practically begging to be used. Do resist calling both of them Thomas, though. The school will never forgive you.

The nicknames are a big part of the charm. Tom is about as friendly as a single syllable gets, the sort of name that sounds like it's already holding a mug of tea. Tommy is softer and smaller, ideal for the years when he is mostly cheeks. And Thomas in full waits patiently in the background for graduation day and wedding invitations. It grows with the child without ever needing a change of plan.

Never quite top, never far off

What's remarkable is the consistency. Thomas is number 10 in Canada, 13 in Australia, 24 in New Zealand and 26 in England & Wales. It's 45 in the United States, and it charts in Brazil, Argentina and France too. Look at that spread and you see a name that has never needed a moment. It doesn't spike, it doesn't crash. It just turns up, year after year, in every English-speaking playground and a good few others besides.

A serious set of Thomases

Few names can match the range of the people who've worn it. Thomas the Apostle is one of the Twelve Apostles in the New Testament, so the name has been on the guest list for a very long time indeed. Thomas Edison, the American inventor and businessman, and Thomas Jefferson, the Founding Father and American president, both show it can carry a fairly enormous CV. Thomas Mann, the German novelist and Nobel laureate, proves it does just as well in a library. And for pure boyish mischief there's Tom Sawyer, the title character of Mark Twain's novel, who reminds you that a Thomas can also be found somewhere he shouldn't be, holding a paintbrush.

On a shortlist, Thomas sits most naturally alongside names of the same cut: James, William, Emily, Charlotte. The classic, cardigan-wearing, will-still-look-good-in-2080 crowd. If your other favourites are a bit more adventurous, Thomas makes a lovely steady anchor for the sibling set.

The only real objection is that he might share the name with two others in his class. But that's the price of a name that everyone, everywhere, has quietly agreed is rather nice.

So: twin, timeless, and available in three lengths. Is it the one? Ah, if only it were that easy. You'll have it circled in pen by teatime and be second-guessing it by bedtime, because that's how this works. Nobody said choosing a name would be restful. Only that the name itself would be.