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

Wilson Wilson rose and fell with a presidency, and our data shows 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
Dexter Dexter is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "right-handed" or "skilful."
Boy Latin #692 in US
Makenzie Makenzie means son of the handsome one, which is an odd fit for a name that is 99 percent female in our records — the Gaelic Mac is a patronymic, and it has not been reinterpreted.
Girl Scottish #700 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
Leslie Leslie is a Scottish place name turned surname turned given name, and it has crossed sexes: about 71 percent of the births in our records are female, though the name began firmly male and remains so in Britain.
Unisex Scottish #714 in US
Dustin Dustin is a boy's name from the Old Norse Thorstein, meaning Thor's stone — the dust in the spelling is pure coincidence.
Boy Norse #728 in US
Lacey Lacey means from Lassy, a place in Normandy, and Scotland ranks it 308th — its strongest market, ahead of Northern Ireland at 475th and England at 480th, with the United States back at 738th.
Girl French #738 in US
Corey Corey is a boy's name from an Irish surname, generally given as dweller near a hollow.
Boy Irish #779 in US
Douglas Douglas is a boy's name from the Scottish Gaelic for dark water, originally a river and then a powerful border family.
Boy Scottish Gaelic #807 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
Flynn Flynn is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "reddish" or "ruddy," from a surname rather than a personal name.
Boy Irish #827 in US
Kelly Kelly is a name from the Irish surname Ó Ceallaigh, borne almost entirely by men for most of its history and now 86 percent female in our data.
Unisex Irish #851 in US
Stanley Stanley is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "stony clearing."
Boy English #863 in US
Conner Conner means desiring hounds rather than loving them — the Irish joins a word for a hound or wolf to one meaning desire, and the softer lover of hounds gloss smooths over what was a warrior's name.
Boy Irish #864 in US
Mitchell Mitchell is a boy's name from a medieval English form of Michael, meaning who is like God — though a second and quite separate source exists from an old word simply meaning big.
Boy English #952 in US
Wallace Wallace means foreigner, and the irony is complete — it is the Anglo-Saxon word for the Britons who were there first, so Scotland's national hero carries a name meaning outsider in his own country.
Boy Scottish #961 in US
Gage Gage means a pledge, and it names the object rather than the person — the thing handed over as security.
Boy French #975 in US
Curtis Curtis is a boy's name from a Norman French nickname meaning courteous, and it is one of very few names that describes manners rather than birth, appearance or trade.
Boy French #984 in US
Howard Howard is a boy's name whose origin is genuinely contested — high guardian, brave heart and even a keeper of pigs have all been proposed.
Boy English #1,003 in US
Brodie Brodie is a boy's name of Scottish origin taken from a place near Forres in Moray.
Boy Scottish #1,038 in US
Lyle Lyle is a boy's name from the Norman French for "the island," and the l at the front is the definite article rather than part of the word.
Boy Scottish #1,047 in US
Gordon Gordon is a Scottish surname turned given name, from a place in Berwickshire whose meaning is not settled — spacious fort is the usual gloss but it is a guess.
Boy Scottish #1,052 in US
Gary Gary is a boy's name that reached the charts by an unusually traceable route: a surname became a steel town in Indiana, the town's name was given to an actor, and the actor made it a first name.
Boy English #1,074 in US
Rodney Rodney is a boy's name from an English place name, and its rise as a given name follows a single admiral — George Rodney, who broke the French line at the Saintes in 1782.
Boy English #1,091 in US
Braden Braden means descendant of the salmon, and the fish is not decorative — the Salmon of Knowledge is the center of one of the best-known Irish stories, in which Fionn gains all wisdom by burning his thumb on it.
Boy Irish #1,152 in US
Shea Shea is a unisex name of Irish origin from the surname Ó Séaghdha, whose root means "hawk-like" or "stately."
Unisex Irish #1,156 in US
Harris Harris is a boy's name of English origin meaning "son of Harry," a surname turned first name that has climbed to ninth in Scotland.
Boy English #1,297 in US
Sidney Sidney is a name of Old English origin meaning "wide meadow."
Unisex English #1,326 in US
Bryant Bryant means noble or high, and the t is a French accident — Norman scribes added it to the Irish Brian, so the surname carries a letter the original name never had.
Boy Irish #1,327 in US
Jenson Jenson is a boy's name of Scandinavian origin meaning "son of Jens."
Boy Scandinavian #1,348 in US
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
Boy English #1,352 in US
Lindsey Lindsey is a girl's name from a district of Lincolnshire, and it originally meant an island — Lindsey was cut off by marsh and river, so the wetland reading and the island reading describe the same place.
Girl English #1,371 in US
Brett Brett means a Breton — someone from Brittany, which is named for the Britons who fled there when the Anglo-Saxons arrived.
Boy English #1,385 in US
Luther Luther means army of the people, and its weight comes from a surname rather than a saint — Martin Luther's family name became a given name across the Protestant world, and then across Black America.
Boy German #1,463 in US
Ross Ross means a headland or a promontory, from Gaelic, and Scotland ranks it 328th — its strongest market, ahead of Ireland at 347th and far ahead of the United States at 1465th.
Boy Scottish #1,465 in US
Randall Randall is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning shield-wolf.
Boy Germanic #1,499 in US
Barry Barry is a boy's name from an Irish surname generally traced to a word for a spear, though a Welsh island gives a competing route.
Boy Irish #1,526 in US
Daryl Daryl completes a set of three — Darrell, Darryl and Daryl are one Norman place name split across three spellings, and all three appear in our gap band, carrying about 328,000 births between them.
Boy French #1,538 in US
Lloyd Lloyd is a boy's name from the Welsh word for gray, and the double L is a genuine Welsh consonant that English has no letter for.
Boy Welsh #1,553 in US
Dwayne Dwayne means the little dark one, from an Irish surname built on the word for black — the same root that gives Dublin its name, which means the black pool the city grew around.
Boy Irish #1,570 in US
Shirley Shirley is a girl's name from an English place name meaning bright clearing, and it was a boys' name until Charlotte Brontë used it for a heroine in 1849.
Girl English #1,583 in US
Chester Chester is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "fortress" or "walled camp."
Boy Latin #1,597 in US
Todd Todd is a boy's name from a northern English dialect word for a fox, given as a nickname to someone crafty or red-haired.
Boy English #1,619 in US
Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
Boy French #1,698 in US
Clinton Clinton means the settlement on the hill, from an English place name — and the two American presidents who carried it did so by adoption and by surname, not by descent from the place.
Boy English #1,740 in US
Darryl Darryl does not mean darling.
Boy French #2,117 in US
Tracy Tracy is a Norman place name that became a surname, then a boys' name, then overwhelmingly a girls' name — about 81 percent of the births in our records are female.
Unisex Norman #2,155 in US
Wendell Wendell names a people rather than a quality — the Wends were the Slavic populations of eastern Germany, so the name records who someone's neighbors thought they were rather than anything they did.
Boy German #2,158 in US

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