2000s Baby Names

16,582 names were given to children in the United States between 2000 and 2009, ranked below by how many.

A name's place is its total across those ten years. Names that appear in only some of the decade say so, because a name recorded once is a different fact from one recorded every year.

All Girls Boys Unisex

Rankings for

#394
Andy Andy means manly, and the Greek root is the ordinary word for a man — so Andrew is one of the few apostles carrying a Greek name rather than a Hebrew or Aramaic one.
17,999 in the 2000s
#396
Dillon Dillon has two unrelated sources that English cannot separate — an Irish surname of uncertain meaning and the Welsh Dylan, a sea god from the Mabinogi.
17,898 in the 2000s
#397
Corey Corey is a boy's name from an Irish surname, generally given as dweller near a hollow.
17,882 in the 2000s
#398
Andre Andre is a boy's name, the French form of Andrew, from the Greek for manly.
17,864 in the 2000s
#399
Miles Miles is a boy's name of disputed origin, usually connected to the Latin miles, meaning soldier.
17,842 in the 2000s
#404
Ty Ty has no source of its own — it shortens Tyler, Tyrone and Tyson, three names with nothing in common, so which one a given Ty belongs to cannot be read off the name.
17,321 in the 2000s
#408
Harrison Harrison is a boy's name of English origin meaning "son of Harry."
17,268 in the 2000s
#410
Kayden Kayden is a boy's name of modern American coinage with no settled origin.
17,254 in the 2000s
#413
Dawson Dawson is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "son of David."
17,129 in the 2000s
#416
Mitchell Mitchell is a boy's name from a medieval English form of Michael, meaning who is like God — though a second and quite separate source exists from an old word simply meaning big.
17,040 in the 2000s
#423
Dustin Dustin is a boy's name from the Old Norse Thorstein, meaning Thor's stone — the dust in the spelling is pure coincidence.
16,587 in the 2000s
#424
Jace Jace is a boy's name that began as a short form of Jason, and so carries the meaning "healer," from the Greek iasthai, to heal.
16,578 in the 2000s
#425
Israel Israel means he wrestles with God, and it is a name given after a fight — Jacob receives it in Genesis having wrestled a stranger until dawn and refused to let go without a blessing.
16,535 in the 2000s
#428
Scott Scott is a boy's name meaning a Scot, from the surname given to people from Scotland.
16,244 in the 2000s
#430
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
16,128 in the 2000s
#433
Jaxon Jaxon is a boy's name and a modern respelling of Jackson, meaning "son of Jack."
15,839 in the 2000s
#434
Grayson Grayson is a boy's name of English origin usually explained as "son of the grieve," a grieve being a steward or bailiff who managed an estate.
15,730 in the 2000s
#438
Pedro Pedro means stone, and the name records a nickname Jesus gave — Simon was renamed Cephas in Aramaic, which Greek translated as Petros, so the pun on rock survives through three languages.
15,633 in the 2000s
#442
Camden Camden is a boy's name of English origin meaning "enclosed valley."
15,493 in the 2000s
#443
Ruben Ruben is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "behold, a son."
15,401 in the 2000s
#445
Cayden Cayden charts in all seven markets we track and has no etymology at all — it belongs to the -aiden rhyming family invented in America in the 1990s, alongside Kaiden which is written up separately here.
15,371 in the 2000s
#447
Dominick Dominick means of the Lord, and it was given to children born on a Sunday — dies dominica is the Lord's day, and the name records the day of birth rather than a hope for the child.
15,344 in the 2000s
#448
Keegan Keegan descends from a pagan god, not a small flame — Aodh was the Irish deity of fire and the sun, and the diminutive gloss softens a name that originally invoked him.
15,335 in the 2000s
#451
Rafael Rafael is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God heals."
15,093 in the 2000s
#452
Zane Zane peaked in 2018, later than almost any name in this group, and it entered American use as a surname — Zane Grey's westerns carried a family name that traces back to the founder of Zanesville, Ohio.
14,950 in the 2000s
#453
Brett Brett means a Breton — someone from Brittany, which is named for the Britons who fled there when the Anglo-Saxons arrived.
14,937 in the 2000s
#454
Troy Troy is a boy's name with two independent sources — an Irish surname meaning foot soldier, and the ancient city.
14,831 in the 2000s
#455
Malik Malik means king, and the Arabic distinguishes two words a single letter apart — malik is a king, mālik an owner, and one of God's names in the Qur'an is the second rather than the first.
14,815 in the 2000s
#456
Roman Roman is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "citizen of Rome," from Romanus.
14,774 in the 2000s
#457
Jakob
14,765 in the 2000s
#458
Griffin Griffin peaked in 2023, more recently than any other name in this group, and it is not named for the beast — the Welsh Gruffudd came first, and the resemblance to the griffin is coincidence.
14,723 in the 2000s
#461
Chance Chance means a falling, and the falling was dice — the Old French cheance describes how they land, from the Latin cadere, to fall, which also gives cadence, decay and accident.
14,686 in the 2000s
#462
Santiago Santiago is a boy's name of Spanish origin meaning "Saint James."
14,637 in the 2000s
#466
Frank Frank is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man" or "Frank."
14,480 in the 2000s
#468
Kai Kai is a name that exists independently in many unrelated languages.
14,393 in the 2000s
#470
Johnny Johnny is a boy's name, the pet form of John, meaning God is gracious.
14,390 in the 2000s
#476
Braxton Braxton is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "Bracc's settlement."
14,212 in the 2000s
#483
Kameron Kameron means crooked nose, and it is one of very few clan names built on a face — the Scottish cam sròn described a feature, and an entire Highland kindred took it.
13,951 in the 2000s
#485
Trey Trey means three, and it is a card and dice word — the trey is the three-spot, which is why the name attached itself to sons who were the third to carry a family name.
13,902 in the 2000s
#486
Alec Alec means defender of men, and France ranks it 536th — above the United States at 979th, which is not where a Scottish short form of a Greek name would be expected to lead.
13,781 in the 2000s
#487
Cade Cade is a boy's name of English origin taken from a medieval surname.
13,722 in the 2000s
#488
Ronald Ronald is a boy's name from the Old Norse Rögnvaldr, meaning ruler's counsel, brought to Scotland by Norse settlement.
13,645 in the 2000s
#490
Marcos Marcos means dedicated to Mars, and the god behind it was not only a war god — Mars presided over agriculture too, which is coherent once you notice that farming and fighting were the same men's seasonal work.
13,604 in the 2000s
#491
Gerardo Gerardo means brave with a spear, and both halves are weapons talk — the Germanic joins the word for a spear to one meaning hardy, which is the same ger that hides inside garlic.
13,599 in the 2000s
#492
Drake
13,562 in the 2000s
#493
Derrick Derrick means ruler of the people, and the crane is named after a man — Thomas Derrick, an Elizabethan hangman whose gallows design was distinctive enough that his name became the word for it.
13,556 in the 2000s
#497
Phillip Phillip is a boy's name meaning lover of horses, the doubled-l spelling of Philip.
13,483 in the 2000s
#498
Simon Simon is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he has heard," borne by the apostle Peter before his renaming.
13,444 in the 2000s

What made a 2000s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 2000 and 2009, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "2000s names" you will find elsewhere is somebody's sense of the period; this one is the register.

Why Some Names Only Cover Part of the Decade

A name that appears in three of the ten years either arrived partway through or faded out — and either is more interesting than the total on its own. The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.

Where to Go Next

Open any name to see its full curve — most of these have a hundred and forty years of it. Or compare the ends of the same measurement: the most popular names now and the rarest.