Surname Names Names

Family names used as first names. Most began as one of four things: a father's name, a trade, a place, or a nickname — and the trade ones are the easiest to read centuries later.

Rankings for

265 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Hendrix Hendrix is a boy's name of Dutch origin meaning "son of Hendrik", the Dutch form of Henry.
Boy Dutch #354 in US
Briggs Briggs is a boy's name of English origin meaning someone who lived by a bridge.
Boy English #356 in US
Bryce Bryce means speckled or freckled, from a Gaulish saint's name whose meaning is not certain.
Boy Scottish #357 in US
Franklin Franklin means a freeholder — a man who owned his land but held no noble rank, a specific medieval class.
Boy English #359 in US
Spencer Spencer is a name of Middle English origin meaning "steward" or "dispenser of provisions."
Boy English #360 in US
Anderson Anderson is a boy's name of Scottish and Scandinavian origin meaning "son of Andrew".
Boy Scottish #363 in US
Miller Miller is a unisex name of English origin, the occupational surname for someone who ground grain into flour.
Unisex English #369 in US
Mallory Mallory means unlucky, and it is one of very few names built on an insult — the Norman malheuré described someone ill-fated, and it became a surname before anyone used it as a first name.
Girl French #372 in US
Grady Grady means noble, and it comes from a byname rather than a rank — the Irish grádha describes someone held in esteem, which is a reputation earned rather than a title inherited.
Boy Irish #373 in US
Forrest Forrest is one of only two names in this group our data marks as rising, and it is on its second life — American births ran 490 in 2018 and 862 in 2025, having collapsed from a 1994 peak twenty years before.
Boy English #374 in US
Clark Clark means a clergyman, and the job drifted — a clericus was in holy orders, but since the clergy were the ones who could write, the word slid across to mean anyone who kept records, which is what a clerk still is.
Boy English #378 in US
Lawson Lawson is a boy's name of English origin meaning "son of Law", where Law is a medieval short form of Lawrence.
Boy English #381 in US
Winston Winston is a boy's name of English origin meaning "Wine's settlement", from an Old English personal name plus tun.
Boy English #382 in US
Blaire Blaire is a girl's name of Scottish origin meaning "plain" or "field", from the Gaelic blàr.
Girl Scottish #384 in US
Baylor Baylor is a unisex name of English origin whose meaning is unsettled.
Unisex English #386 in US
Murphy Murphy is a unisex name of Irish origin meaning "sea warrior".
Unisex Irish #397 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
Mckenna Mckenna means son of the fire god, and the name is 100 percent female in our records — the Mac is a literal patronymic and Cionaodh names a pre-Christian deity, neither of which has been softened.
Girl Irish #410 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
Boone Boone is a boy's name of Norman French origin.
Boy English #423 in US
Wilder Wilder is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "untamed" or "hunter".
Boy Germanic #430 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
Macie Macie is a girl's name of Norman French origin, a respelling of Macy.
Girl Norman French #439 in US
Kane Kane is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "battle", from Ó Catháin.
Boy Irish #451 in US
Karson Karson is a boy's name of Scottish and Irish origin, a respelling of Carson.
Boy Scottish #453 in US
Kameron Kameron means crooked nose, and it is one of very few clan names built on a face — the Scottish cam sròn described a feature, and an entire Highland kindred took it.
Boy Scottish #467 in US
Monroe Monroe is a unisex name of Scottish origin meaning "mouth of the Roe" — a river in Ireland, not Scotland.
Unisex Scottish #467 in US
Leland Leland means fallow land — ground deliberately left unplowed for a season.
Boy English #494 in US
Armani Armani is a unisex name of Italian origin, a surname meaning "son of Armanno" — a Germanic name built from elements for army and man.
Unisex Italian #495 in US
Donovan Donovan means dark brown, and the Irish surname behind it belonged to a king who backed the wrong side — the Uí Donnabháin lost their lands after opposing Brian Boru in the tenth century.
Boy Irish #496 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
Scott Scott is a boy's name meaning a Scot, from the surname given to people from Scotland.
Boy Scottish #534 in US
Bruce Bruce is a boy's name from a Norman place name, and Scotland's most famous king carried it as an import — the Bruces came from Normandy, not from Scotland.
Boy Norman #537 in US
Cassidy Cassidy means curly-haired, from an Irish surname — and Scotland ranks it 416th, above Northern Ireland at 464th and the United States at 541st, with Ireland itself back at 807th.
Girl Irish #541 in US
Devin Devin is a name from an Irish surname, and its meanings are contested — poet, and a word for a stag, are both proposed from different Irish originals.
Boy Irish #548 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
Mckenzie Mckenzie means son of Coinneach, and the z was never a z — it replaced a lost Scots letter called yogh, so the name has been mispronounced into its own spelling.
Girl Scottish #576 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
Campbell Campbell is a unisex name of Scottish origin meaning "crooked mouth".
Unisex Scottish #617 in US
Keegan Keegan descends from a pagan god, not a small flame — Aodh was the Irish deity of fire and the sun, and the diminutive gloss softens a name that originally invoked him.
Boy Irish #621 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
Otis Otis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune."
Boy Germanic #655 in US
Skyler Skyler is Dutch and means a scholar — it respells Schuyler, a surname carried by one of New York's founding families, and it has nothing to do with the sky despite the spelling.
Unisex Dutch #670 in US

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A style is our reading of a name. A decade is the register — the names children were actually given, in order, with the counts.

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