boy's name
Cash
KASH
- Origin English
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 1
- Letters 4
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 29,788
the United States
#287
2025 births
Cash is a boy's name of English origin meaning a maker of boxes or cases. It comes from the Norman French casse and has nothing to do with money — that word reached English separately, from Italian, several centuries later.
- Cash is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 2013, when 1,491 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 2,791 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1885.
- 1 syllable, with the stress on syllable 1.
Cash over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 18 |
| 1890s | 20 |
| 1910s | 62 |
| 1920s | 57 |
| 1930s | 30 |
| 1940s | 25 |
| 1950s | 53 |
| 1960s | 139 |
| 1970s | 178 |
| 1980s | 271 |
| 1990s | 506 |
| 2000s | 5,536 |
| 2010s | 13,460 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 7,485 |
What Cash means
Cash names the trade of making cases and chests, from the Norman French casse, a box. The money sense that everyone hears in it is a coincidence of spelling, not a shared origin.
Where Cash comes from
Cash is an occupational surname from the Norman French casse, a box or case, from the Latin capsa — the same root behind the English case and capsule. A casse-maker built chests and containers, a necessary trade before furniture was cheap. The financial word cash arrived much later, in the sixteenth century, from the Italian cassa, a money-box, and although both trace to the same distant Latin ancestor they entered English by different routes and at different times. The surname's American resonance is Johnny Cash, and first-name use follows him rather than the medieval trade.
Cash in use
Cash peaked in 2013 and charts in four of the seven countries we track.
How popular is Cash?
In 2025, Cash was given to 1,188 babies in the United States, ranking #287 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Cash is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Cash
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Cash also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Cash over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Cash in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Other forms
- Forms we hold no single language for — some are used across several, some are simply spelled differently.
- Kash
Sibling names for Cash
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Cash — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Cash
What does the name Cash mean?
A maker of boxes or cases, from the Norman French casse.
Does the name Cash mean money?
No. The money word came into English separately from Italian, centuries after the surname.
Is Cash a boy's or a girl's name?
It is given almost entirely to boys.
How popular is the name Cash?
In 2025, Cash was given to 1,188 babies in the United States, ranking #287 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
How many syllables are in Cash?
Cash has 1 syllable.
When was Cash most popular?
Cash peaked in 2013, when 1,491 babies were given the name. Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
Is Cash a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Cash currently ranks #287 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.