Surname 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

298 names, most popular first in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

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
Rhodes Rhodes is a boy's name from the Greek island, whose name is often linked to rhodon, "rose."
Boy Greek, English #575 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
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
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
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
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 on record — 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 recorded births are female, though the name began firmly male and remains so in Britain.
Unisex Scottish #714 in US
Bellamy Bellamy is a unisex name from an English surname, derived from Old French bel ami, "beautiful friend."
Unisex French #721 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 on record.
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 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 1,465th.
Boy Scottish #1,465 in US

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