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Names That Mean Noble

Names meaning noble, royal, ruler or high-born. Read carefully: in most of these the word marked a legal rank rather than a compliment, and the flattering sense came centuries later.

Every name here has a researched page whose stated meaning carries this sense.

Rankings for

158 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Sally Sally is a girl's name meaning princess, a pet form of Sarah reached by medieval rhyming.
Girl Hebrew #1,152 in US
Bria Bria is a girl's name usually explained as a short form of Brianna, though an Italian source is also proposed.
Girl Irish #1,168 in US
Syed Syed is a boy's name of Arabic origin meaning "lord" or "master."
Boy Arabic #1,217 in US
Elmer Elmer means noble and famous, and its American popularity is traceable to two brothers — the Ebenezer and Jonathan Elmer who signed early revolutionary documents, after whom patriotic families went on to name sons.
Boy English #1,223 in US
Alisha Alisha means noble, and it is British and Irish rather than American — England and Wales 376th, Ireland 381st and Northern Ireland 407th all rank it far above the United States at 1229th.
Girl English #1,229 in US
Rian Rian is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "little king," from the Old Irish rí, king, with a diminutive ending.
Unisex Irish #1,247 in US
Addie Addie shortens Adelaide and Adeline alike, and both descend from the Germanic word for noble — the same adal that sits inside Alice, Allison and Albert.
Girl English #1,275 in US
Bryant Bryant means noble or high, and the t is a French accident — Norman scribes added it to the Irish Brian, so the surname carries a letter the original name never had.
Boy Irish #1,327 in US
Patricia Patricia is a girl's name from the Latin for noble or patrician, the feminine of Patrick.
Girl Latin #1,338 in US
Torin Torin is a boy's name widely listed as Irish meaning chief, but it has no attested Old Irish source and a Norse derivation is at least as likely.
Boy Norse #1,350 in US
Erica Erica is a girl's name with two independent sources: the feminine of Eric, meaning eternal ruler, and the botanical Latin name of heather.
Girl Norse #1,397 in US
Freddy Freddy is far stronger in England than in America — 328th in England and Wales on 135 births against 1422nd in the United States on 127, despite the two countries being nowhere near comparable in size.
Boy English #1,422 in US
Arnold Arnold means eagle power, and England and Wales ranks it 631st on 59 births — well above the United States at 1478th, which is not what the name's twentieth-century American associations would predict.
Boy Germanic #1,478 in US
Freddie Freddie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
Boy Germanic #1,509 in US
Henri Henri is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler," borne by four kings of France and by the one who converted to end a religious war.
Boy French #1,725 in US
Fredrick Fredrick is an American respelling that ranks higher in England and Wales than in the United States — 934th against 1730th, which reverses the usual direction for a respelling.
Boy English #1,730 in US
Roderick Roderick means famous ruler, and its most consequential bearer lost a country — Roderic was the last Visigothic king of Spain, defeated in 711 by the Arab and Berber force that then held most of the peninsula for centuries.
Boy German #1,745 in US
Don Don is a boy's name shortened from Donald, meaning world ruler.
Boy Scottish #1,794 in US
Donnie Donnie ranks 563rd in Ireland and 1804th in the United States, so the country with a fraction of the births ranks it three times higher — a pattern we see when a name goes home.
Unisex Scottish #1,804 in US
Lonnie Lonnie shortens Alonzo and Alphonso, meaning noble and ready — and the Germanic original reached Spain with the Visigoths, so a name that reads as American South is Gothic by descent.
Boy Spanish #1,846 in US
Reggie Reggie is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "ruler's counsel."
Boy Germanic #1,860 in US
Fred Fred is a boy's name, the short form of Frederick meaning peaceful ruler.
Boy Germanic #1,939 in US
Alissa Alissa means noble, and the flower it resembles was named for rabies — alyssum joins the Greek negative to lyssa, madness, because the plant was believed to cure the bite of a mad dog.
Girl English #1,946 in US
Gina Gina is not one name — it is the ending of several different ones, and which name it shortens changes the meaning entirely.
Girl Italian #2,086 in US
Gene Gene means well-born, shortened from Eugene — and it has nothing at all to do with genes in biology, which is a separate word coined in 1909 from a different Greek root entirely, by a Danish botanist.
Boy English #2,232 in US
Earl Earl is a boy's name taken from the English noble title, and it is the only rank in the British peerage with a native English name rather than a French one.
Boy English #2,255 in US
Alphonse Alphonse means ready for battle, and it is Visigothic rather than French — the name came into Spain with the Germanic kingdom that ruled it before the Arabs, and reached French from there.
Boy French #2,534 in US
Orla Orla is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "golden princess."
Girl Irish #2,537 in US
Breanna Breanna is a feminine of Brian invented in twentieth-century America, and Brian's own meaning is not settled — high or noble is the usual reading and it has never been established.
Girl American #2,542 in US
Maëlys Maëlys is a girl's name of Breton origin meaning "chief" or "prince," a feminine formed from Maël.
Girl Breton #2,634 in US
Henrietta Henrietta named a American state — Maryland was chartered for Henrietta Maria, queen to Charles I, so a French princess's middle name sits on the map of the United States.
Girl French #2,682 in US
Mona Mona in Mona Lisa is not a name — it contracts ma donna, my lady, so the painting's title is closer to Madam Lisa than to anyone actually called Mona.
Girl Irish #2,806 in US
Maëlle Maëlle is a girl's name of Breton origin meaning "chief" or "prince," the feminine of Maël.
Girl Breton #2,817 in US
Rickey Rickey means strong ruler, and its peak is the largest in this group — 3,818 American births in 1958, against 45 in the most recent year we have.
Boy English #2,829 in US
Frédéric Frédéric is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning peaceful ruler, the French form of Frederick.
Boy French #2,973 in US
Rick Rick means brave ruler, shortened from Richard — and the medieval habit of rhyming pet names is why Rick also produced Dick, which is the same name with a different first letter.
Boy English #3,075 in US
Aline Aline means noble, worn down from Adelaide through Adeline — three names that are the same word at three stages of erosion, and France ranks it 292nd on 185 births.
Girl French #3,460 in US
Albie Albie is a boy's name of Germanic origin, most often a pet form of Albert, meaning "noble and bright."
Boy Germanic #4,056 in US
Ethel Ethel is a girl's name from an Old English word meaning noble, and it is not a name in its own right in that language — it is the first half of longer names like Ethelred, cut off and used alone.
Girl English #4,259 in US
Sallie Sallie means princess, and it reached English through a sound swap — Sarah became Sally the way Mary became Molly, with the r softening to an l in ordinary speech.
Girl English #4,280 in US
Amaury Amaury is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "work-ruler," and two crusader kings of Jerusalem carried it.
Boy French #4,432 in US
Thierry Thierry is a boy's name meaning ruler of the people, the French form of the Germanic Theodoric — and it is the same name as Terry, which reached English by a different route.
Boy French #5,106 in US
Candice Candice is not a name but a title — Kandake was the word for the queen mother of Kush, and Acts records one without naming her, so a royal office became a personal name by misreading.
Girl English #5,134 in US
Alix Alix is a unisex name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," a medieval French form of Adelaide that later merged with Alice.
Unisex French #5,358 in US
Ruairi Ruairi is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "red king," borne by Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, the last High King of Ireland.
Boy Irish #5,422 in US
Delbert Delbert is recorded in one country and nowhere else — every one of its 47,056 births is American, with no births in any other market in any year we hold, which is rare even among American coinages.
Boy American #6,892 in US
Regis Regis is grammatically odd — it is not a name but a case ending, the Latin genitive meaning of the king, so the name is half a phrase left standing on its own.
Boy French #8,950 in US
Alberta Alberta means noble and bright, and a Canadian province carries it — Alberta was named for Queen Victoria's fourth daughter, whose full name was Louise Caroline Alberta.
Girl Germanic #10,069 in US

Other Meanings