Rita

Rita is a girl's and boy's baby name of Sanskrit origin via Italian, a short form of Margherita (Margaret) in Italian — but also an independent name connected to the Sanskrit rita meaning "order" or "right action." Saint Rita of Cascia, the 15th-century Italian mystic known as the "saint of impossible causes," popularized it across Catholic countries.

Rita peaked in the U.S. in the 1930s and 1940s. Rita Hayworth, the Hollywood screen goddess of the 1940s, gave the name a glamorous, cinematic quality. Rita Moreno, still performing at 90-plus, has kept it vital. It's a compact, vivid name — one syllable of pure personality.