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 Hebrew Greek uncertain

Rankings for

US
Canada
E&W
Scotland
N. Ireland
Ireland
France

448 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Melinda Melinda is an invented name rather than an inherited one — an eighteenth-century literary coinage joining the Greek word for honey to the ending of Belinda and Lucinda.
Girl English #1,984 in US
Alfie Alfie is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "elf counsel."
Boy English #2,060 in US
Edie Edie is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "prosperous in war."
Girl English #2,070 in US
Bobbie Bobbie is 83 percent female in our records and England and Wales ranks it 523rd on 110 births — far above the United States at 2072nd, reversing what an American nickname-name would usually do.
Unisex English #2,072 in US
Blayke Peaked in 2017 · 3,067 births since 1989
Unisex English #2,079 in US
Lizzie Lizzie means my God is an oath, and the oath is the point — Elisheva names a covenant rather than a feeling, which is why the name belonged to the wife of a priest in Exodus.
Girl English #2,142 in US
Jackie Jackie is the third most evenly divided name on this site — 48.9 percent of the births in our records are female, behind only Emerson and Riley among names with more than 50,000 births.
Unisex English #2,166 in US
Deanna Deanna was popularized by a stage name — the actress born Edna Mae Durbin was renamed Deanna Durbin in 1936, and American births rose from almost nothing to a peak of 4,331 in 1970.
Girl English #2,188 in US
Dawn Dawn is a girl's name taken directly from the English word for daybreak, and it is the English counterpart of Aurora rather than a translation of it.
Girl English #2,193 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
Carol Carol is a girl's name with two independent sources: a short form of Caroline, and the word for a joyful song.
Girl English #2,239 in US
Pamela Pamela is a girl's name invented by a poet: Sir Philip Sidney coined it for his Arcadia around 1580, apparently from Greek elements meaning all sweetness.
Girl English #2,248 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
Toni Toni has no established meaning, because Antonia does not — the Roman family name Antonius is probably Etruscan, and the flower reading attached to Anthony is a Renaissance invention.
Girl English #2,265 in US
Madyson Peaked in 2007 · 16,109 births since 1985
Girl English #2,314 in US
Tommie Tommie means twin, and it is one of the most evenly split names on this site — 33 percent of the births in our records are female, because it serves as a short form of both Thomas and Thomasina.
Unisex English #2,338 in US
Pete Pete means rock, and it began as a joke about a man's character — Jesus renames Simon as Cephas, the Aramaic for a stone, and the pun works in Greek but not in English.
Boy English #2,371 in US
Mindy Mindy has no source of its own — it shortens Melinda, whose second half is transparent and whose first half nobody has explained, so the name inherits half a meaning.
Girl English #2,404 in US
Mable Mable means lovable, and the name lost its front end — it began as Amabel, and English wore the initial A away entirely, which is the same process that turned an ewt into a newt.
Girl English #2,450 in US
Leanne Leanne is a British and Irish name far more than an American one — England peaked at 616 births, Scotland 287 and Ireland 201, against an American high of 801 in a vastly larger population.
Girl English #2,513 in US
Janice Janice is a girl's name usually credited to a 1899 novel, though our records carry it from 1894 — five years before the book.
Girl English #2,520 in US
Willis Willis means son of Will, and the Will behind it is William — a name so common in medieval England that its diminutives generated a whole family of surnames, of which this is one.
Boy English #2,552 in US
Joanne Joanne is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, one of the many feminines of John.
Girl English #2,618 in US
Carrie Carrie is a girl's name, a pet form of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
Girl English #2,731 in US
Willard Willard means bold desire, and both halves are Germanic words about force of will — it is a surname from a personal name, and its American use is almost entirely nineteenth-century onward.
Boy English #2,761 in US
Dwight Dwight descends from Dionysus, the Greek god of wine — through the medieval woman's name Diot, a pet form of Dionysia, which is an unusually indirect route for a masculine surname.
Boy English #2,766 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
Hollie Hollie is a girl's name from the holly tree, whose name comes from a word meaning "prickly" rather than anything festive.
Girl English #2,832 in US
Carlton Carlton means the settlement of the free peasants, and the word for those peasants became an insult — ceorl gave English churl and churlish, so the name preserves a class that the language later turned against.
Boy English #2,898 in US
Joann Joann is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, a simplified spelling of Joanna.
Girl English #3,030 in US
Jody Jody serves Judith, Joseph and Jude at once, which is why it is 64 percent female rather than resolving to one side — three unrelated parents pulling in different directions.
Unisex English #3,061 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
Brandy Brandy is named for the drink, and the drink means burned wine — the Dutch brandewijn described wine heated to distil it, so the name records a manufacturing process rather than a quality.
Girl English #3,084 in US
Jim Jim is a boy's name meaning supplanter, shortened from James — which is the same name as Jacob, split into two by Latin.
Boy English #3,160 in US
Ted Ted is a boy's name that serves two unrelated names at once, and it exists because medieval English moved the n from "mine Edward."
Boy English #3,192 in US
Candace Candace is a job title mistaken for a name — Kandake was the word for the queen mother of Kush, and Acts uses it as though it were personal, so a Sudanese royal office became an American given name.
Girl English #3,205 in US
Tim Tim means honoring God, and France ranks it 277th — far above the United States at 3221st, which is the reverse of what an English short form would normally do.
Boy English #3,221 in US
Edric Peaked in 2018 · 1,993 births since 1914
Boy English #3,248 in US
Ginger Ginger reached English from Sanskrit by way of four languages — shringavera, horn-root, named for the rhizome's antler shape, and every step of that journey is documented.
Girl English #3,325 in US
Essie Essie shortens two names with nothing in common — Esther, whose root is probably Babylonian, and Estelle, which is the Latin for a star.
Girl English #3,334 in US
Jodie Jodie peaked in England, not America — 1,354 births in England and Wales in 1996 against a US high of 1,104, which makes it proportionally several times larger there than in the country usually credited with it.
Girl English #3,336 in US
Maude Maude belonged to the woman who nearly became England's first ruling queen — the Empress Matilda fought her cousin for the throne through nineteen years of civil war the chroniclers called the Anarchy.
Girl English #3,346 in US
Jeff Jeff means peace, shortened from Geoffrey — but the first element of that compound is disputed between three different Germanic words, so only the peace half of the name is actually agreed on by the sources.
Boy English #3,351 in US
Nichole Nichole means victory of the people, and the compound is political — the Greek joins a word for victory to one meaning the citizen body, so it describes a public triumph rather than a personal one.
Girl English #3,367 in US
Fannie Fannie means Frenchwoman, shortened from Frances, and it left English-speaking use for reasons of slang rather than fashion — the word acquired a sense the name could not survive.
Girl English #3,387 in US
Beth Beth is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a short form of Elizabeth, and the seven in the Hebrew is the same idea as the oath.
Girl English #3,441 in US
Trisha Trisha is the fourth spelling of Patricia on this site, and England now ranks it above America — 1123rd in England and Wales against 3484th in the United States, having set its English peak this year.
Girl English #3,484 in US
Nikki Nikki means victory of the people, and both halves of the Greek are collective — nike is the victory and laos is the citizen body, so it describes a public triumph rather than a personal one.
Girl English #3,510 in US

Related Origins

Irish Names
Scottish Names
Scottish Gaelic Names
Welsh Names
Breton Names