English Names

English names are rarely English all the way down. The language absorbed Norse from settlement, French from conquest and Latin from the church, so a name that arrived as a plain English word — a trade, a place, a colour — usually rests on a root borrowed from somewhere else. What makes them English is the layer they settled in, not the layer underneath. The largest single group on this site, and the one that includes almost every surname now used as a first name.

Languages behind these names Old English Latin Germanic Greek Hebrew uncertain

Rankings for

448 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Jay Jay is a name serving as an initial-letter shortening for any J name, as a bird name, and as an Indian name meaning victory.
Boy English #392 in US
Edwin Edwin is a boy's name from Old English meaning rich friend, borne by a Northumbrian king whose fortress may have given Edinburgh its name.
Boy English #399 in US
Briar Briar is a unisex name taken from the English word for a thorny shrub, especially wild rose or bramble.
Unisex English #400 in US
Lauren Lauren is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "laurel," which became a women's name because a film studio invented one.
Girl English #401 in US
Taylor Taylor is an occupational surname meaning one who cuts cloth, now used mostly for girls at 72 percent female.
Unisex English #403 in US
Bradley Bradley is a boy's name from an English place name meaning broad meadow.
Boy English #403 in US
Raven Raven means the bird, and the bird was a war omen before it was a goth accessory — Norse and Anglo-Saxon poetry lists the raven with the wolf and the eagle as the beasts that follow an army.
Girl English #404 in US
King King is a boy's name taken from the English title, from the Old English cyning.
Boy English #405 in US
Journey Journey is a girl's name taken from the English word, from the Old French journee — which meant a day's work or a day's travel.
Girl English #411 in US
Holly Holly is a girl's name of Old English origin taken from the tree, from holegn.
Girl English #416 in US
Rylan Rylan has no documented source, and the little king gloss repeated for it is unsupported — the likeliest reading is rye land, an English place name, but even that is not established.
Unisex English #416 in US
Charlee Charlee is a girl's name of Germanic origin, a respelling of Charlie.
Girl English #417 in US
Harley Harley is a name of Old English origin meaning "hare's meadow."
Unisex English #418 in US
Reed Reed is a boy's name of English origin meaning "red" — a nickname for someone with red hair or a ruddy complexion.
Boy English #418 in US
Joy Joy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning exactly what it says, taken from the English word.
Girl English #419 in US
Opal Opal means the gem, and it is the only major stone whose name may come from Sanskrit — upala, a precious stone, reaching Greek and Latin through the trade routes rather than from a European root.
Girl English #423 in US
Boone Boone is a boy's name of Norman French origin.
Boy English #423 in US
Winter Winter is a girl's name taken from the season, from the Old English winter.
Girl English #426 in US
Trinity Trinity means threefold, and our data pins its rise to The Matrix with unusual precision — the film opened on 31 March 1999, and American births went 557 in 1998, 1,571 in 1999 and 4,386 in 2000, a partial year followed by a full one.
Girl English #428 in US
Dream Dream is a girl's name taken from the English word, whose history is unusually strange: the Old English dream meant joy, music and revelry, and the sleeping sense appears to have arrived from Old Norse.
Girl English #432 in US
Lewis Lewis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the English form of Louis.
Boy English #433 in US
Travis Travis is a boy's name from an occupational surname meaning a toll collector, one who worked at a crossing.
Boy English #434 in US
Maddison Maddison is a girl's name of English origin meaning "son of Maud."
Girl English #438 in US
Payton Payton means Pæga's farm, from an English place name — and it is 71 percent female in our records, having crossed over from an entirely masculine surname within a generation.
Unisex English #440 in US
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.
Boy English #442 in US
Mariah Mariah shows the sharpest single-artist effect in our data.
Girl English #448 in US
Dalton Dalton means the settlement in the valley, and Northern Ireland ranks it 305th — above the United States at 448th, which is unexpected for a name whose modern use is almost entirely American.
Boy English #448 in US
Reign Reign is a unisex name taken from the English word for rule or sovereignty, from the Latin regnum.
Unisex English #452 in US
Wynter Wynter is a girl's name, a respelling of Winter, from the Old English winter.
Girl English #456 in US
Jake Jake is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter," a short form of Jacob that became a name in its own right.
Boy English #457 in US
Johnny Johnny is a boy's name, the pet form of John, meaning God is gracious.
Boy English #458 in US
Tanner Tanner names one of the most unpleasant medieval trades — tanneries used urine and dog feces to cure hides, and were forced to the downwind edge of every town by law as well as by smell.
Boy English #475 in US
Royal Royal is a unisex name taken from the English word, from the Latin regalis — of a king.
Unisex English #476 in US
Edgar Edgar is a boy's name meaning wealthy spear, and it is one of very few Old English names still in wide use.
Boy English #487 in US
Leland Leland means fallow land — ground deliberately left unplowed for a season.
Boy English #494 in US
Edith Edith is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "prosperous in war."
Girl English #499 in US
Johnathan Johnathan is a misspelling that became a name — it inserts an h into Jonathan by confusion with John, and the two are different Hebrew names that only look related.
Boy English #509 in US
Faye Faye is a girl's name of Old French origin meaning "fairy," from a word that traces back to the Fates of Roman religion.
Girl English #514 in US
Clover Peaked in 2025 · 6,636 births since 1897
Girl English #517 in US
Denver Denver is a unisex name of English origin meaning "the Danes' crossing".
Unisex English #520 in US
Kate Kate is a girl's name of Greek origin, a short form of Katherine whose meaning has never actually been established.
Girl English #522 in US
Tyson Tyson means son of the firebrand, and it began as an insult — the Old French tison named a hot-tempered man, so the surname records a reputation the family did not choose.
Boy English #531 in US
Everlee Peaked in 2022 · 7,895 births since 1917
Girl English #545 in US
Ozzy Ozzy is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "god-spear."
Boy English #549 in US
Drew Drew shortens Andrew, meaning manly, and there is a second unrelated Drew from a Germanic word for a ghost or phantom.
Unisex English #554 in US
Lilian Lilian is the most evenly split name in this whole sweep — 46 percent of the births in our records are female, because France uses it for boys and the English-speaking markets use it for girls.
Unisex English #561 in US
Della Della has no single parent — it shortens Adela, Delia and Adelaide alike, and our data marks it reviving, at 563rd in the United States and 1010th in Scotland.
Girl English #563 in US
Garrett Garrett means spear-strength or spear-rule, and it descends from two different Germanic names that medieval English speakers could no longer tell apart.
Boy English #564 in US

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