At the end of my column today, I have a little note on a name: “. . . I read the other day that the most popular female name is Isabella. Blow me down. It’s a lovely name. But, when I was growing up, it would have been like saying Amaryllis or something. (Has Amaryllis, too, become popular?)”

I have a number of e-mails on this subject. One reads, “We have several Isabellas at my kids’ school, but of course the girls don’t go by ‘Isabella.’ Isabella Gannazzo goes by ‘Bella.’ Great name. But the greatest name at the school is ‘Izzy Pippen.’ She’s cute as a button, too.”

Another e-mail, which covers more than one topic, reads, “As for girls’ names (I have two second cousins named Isabella, by the way), when my wife was pregnant with our daughter, I, the math major and Roman-history buff, suggested we name her Hypatia. (Okay, really I said Octavia, but Derb will appreciate the joke.) Jane, my distaff English major, very firmly said no and opted for Emily. (I suppose we could have compromised on Emilia, but ’twas not to be.)”

This reader adds, “Oh — and I’ve met three women named Cornelia over the last 25 years or so. Nice to know that the classics are making a comeback in the face of all those Ashleys and Tiffanys.”

Not that we have anything against them, heaven knows!

Finally, as I think I’ve mentioned before, my sister is a school-board member in Greenport, Long Island. Her electability is far greater than her brother’s, obviously. She says that half the girls in town are named Isabella. And when her family acquired a dog a few months ago, it had already been named: Isabella.