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 color — 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

Rankings for

471 names, most popular first in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

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 recorded births 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 it is reviving, at 563rd in the United States and 1,010th 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
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.
Boy English #565 in US
Allie Allie means noble, and it serves three different names at once — Alice, Allison and Alexandra all shorten to it, so which one a given Allie belongs to cannot be read off the name itself.
Girl English #570 in US
Clay Clay means the earth a potter works, and it carries a creation story in almost every tradition — Genesis forms Adam from the ground, and Mesopotamian and Egyptian accounts do the same with clay.
Boy English #573 in US
Sevyn Sevyn is a unisex name of modern American coinage, a respelling of the number seven.
Unisex English #574 in US
Tru Tru is a unisex name, a respelling of the English word true, from the Old English treowe — which meant faithful and loyal rather than factually correct.
Unisex English #591 in US
Colby Colby is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "Koli's farm," from villages in the English Danelaw.
Boy English #615 in US
Lexi Lexi is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of men," a diminutive of Alexandra taken from the middle of the name rather than the start.
Girl English #629 in US
Destiny Destiny is a word name meaning a fixed future, and its root is a verb about standing firm — the Latin destinare means to make fast or fix in place, so the idea is settled rather than foreseen.
Girl English #635 in US
Katie Katie is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Katherine whose meaning has never been settled.
Girl English #646 in US
Shelby Shelby is a girl's name from an English place name of Norse formation meaning a willow farm.
Girl English #649 in US
Quincy Quincy is a unisex name of Norman French origin meaning "estate of Quintus".
Unisex English #652 in US
Wayne Wayne is an occupational surname meaning a wagon maker, and its life as a given name follows one man — John Wayne, who was born Marion Robert Morrison and renamed by a studio.
Boy English #653 in US
Princeton Peaked in 2017 · 10,539 births since 1950
Boy English #654 in US
Myra Myra was invented by a poet — Fulke Greville coined it around 1580, probably by rearranging Mary, and every later meaning attached to it was supplied after the fact.
Girl English #662 in US
Layne Layne is a unisex name meaning "a small road," from the English surname Lane, which described someone living by a narrow path.
Unisex English #662 in US
Birdie Birdie is a girl's name meaning "little bird," formed from the English word bird with the affectionate ending -ie.
Girl English #671 in US
Wilson Wilson rose and fell with a presidency, and birth records show it plainly — 129 American births in 1911, then 496 in 1912, climbing to 1,381 by 1918 and back to 590 by 1920.
Boy English #672 in US
Lillie Lillie is a girl's name from the flower, which has stood for purity in Christian art for so long that the association predates the name.
Girl English #676 in US
Jenna Jenna is a girl's name that began as an elaboration of Jenny and is now used independently.
Girl English #679 in US
Westin Peaked in 2023 · 7,765 births since 1981
Boy English #689 in US
Angie Angie means messenger, and the Greek root behind it named someone carrying news — the wings and choirs of later Christianity all grew from an ordinary occupational word.
Girl English #705 in US
Layton Layton is a boy's name from an English place name meaning "leek farm," and the vegetable is doing the work rather than any grander sense.
Boy English #712 in US
Kamden Peaked in 2013 · 13,521 births since 1986
Boy English #718 in US
Lee Lee is a name from the Old English word for a woodland clearing, and it is one of the most productive elements in English place names — the ending of Ashley, Bradley, Shirley and Beverly.
Unisex English #725 in US
Abby Abby means my father is joy, and France ranks it 322nd — ahead of Scotland at 359th, Ireland at 453rd and the United States at 731st, which is not where an English diminutive of a Hebrew name should lead.
Girl English #731 in US
Laurel Laurel names the plant directly, which sets it apart from Lora and Loren on this site — those reach the laurel through a Roman town, while this one is simply the tree.
Girl English #735 in US
Huxley Peaked in 2020 · 7,882 births since 2002
Boy English #737 in US
Penny Penny is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Penelope, whose own name is bound up with a duck.
Girl English #740 in US
Chandler Chandler means a candle maker, and the trade left a grander word behind — the same French root gives chandelier, so the humblest medieval occupation names the most ornate fitting in the house.
Unisex English #753 in US
Marilyn Marilyn is a girl's name usually read as a blend of Mary and Lyn.
Girl English #760 in US
Charley Charley means free man, and it is one of the few mixed names on this site — 39 percent of recorded births are female, and it is rising.
Unisex English #763 in US
Harry Harry is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
Boy English #776 in US
Pearl Pearl is a girl's name taken from the gem, and it charts in all seven markets.
Girl English #777 in US
Kayleigh Kayleigh is far larger in England than its American figures suggest — 1,206 births in England and Wales in 1996 against a US peak of 1,450, in a country with about a fifth of the population.
Girl English #802 in US
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.
Boy English #811 in US
Brock Brock means badger, and it is one of the oldest animal words in English — a Celtic borrowing that entered Old English before the Norman Conquest and survives in dialect to this day.
Boy English #813 in US
Kelsey Kelsey is a girl's name from an English place name, and its two proposed meanings — ship's victory and Cenel's island — have nothing in common.
Girl English #815 in US
Teddy Teddy is a boy's name that shortens either Edward, meaning "wealthy guardian," or Theodore, meaning "gift of God."
Boy English #823 in US
Nelson Nelson means son of Neil, and the admiral made it a given name — it was a surname until Trafalgar, after which parents across the English-speaking world started using it as a first name outright.
Boy English #826 in US
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
Boy English #839 in US
Alfred Alfred is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "elf counsel."
Boy English #841 in US
Coleson Peaked in 2025 · 2,937 births since 1993
Boy English #843 in US

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