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

24 names, rare — 25 to 99 a year, in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
Boy French 97 in 2025
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 94 in 2025
Darryl Darryl does not mean darling.
Boy French 69 in 2025
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 67 in 2025
Lindsay Lindsay and Lindsey are the same place — a district of Lincolnshire that was effectively an island in fen.
Girl Scottish 84 in 2025
Floyd Floyd is the same name as Lloyd, and the F is a mistake that stuck — English had no way to say the Welsh double L, so it substituted the closest sound it had, and the substitution became a separate name.
Boy Welsh 63 in 2025
Eliott Eliott is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "the Lord is my God," a French spelling of Elliot that descends from Elijah.
Boy French 60 in 2025
Leyton Leyton is a boy's name of English origin meaning "settlement on the River Lea."
Boy English 87 in 2025
Reeves Reeves is a boy's name from an English surname meaning "bailiff" or "steward."
Boy English 66 in 2025
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 52 in 2025
Duane Duane means the little dark one, from an Irish surname built on the word for black — and that same root also gives us Dublin, which means the black pool that the city originally grew up around.
Boy Irish 51 in 2025
Murray Murray is a boy's name of Scottish origin from Moray, the northern province, whose name means "sea settlement."
Boy Scottish 58 in 2025
Rowe Rowe is an English surname used as a unisex first name.
Unisex English, Norman 95 in 2025
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 47 in 2025
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 46 in 2025
Caelan Caelan is a boy's name of Irish origin, usually derived from caol, slender, or read as a form of Caolán.
Unisex Irish 49 in 2025
Prescott Prescott is a boy's name of English origin meaning "priest's cottage," from the Old English preost and cot.
Boy English 90 in 2025
Callaghan Callaghan is an Irish surname used as a first name, mainly for boys.
Unisex Irish 48 in 2025
Lowell Lowell means little wolf, and it is Norman French rather than English — louvel is a diminutive of loup, so the name is affectionate about an animal most cultures feared.
Boy French 36 in 2025
Darcie Darcie is a girl's name of Norman French origin meaning "from Arcy."
Girl French 43 in 2025
Myers Myers is a surname used as a first name, mainly for American boys.
Unisex English, German 41 in 2025
Wilbur Wilbur ranks 579th in England and Wales against 3,956th in the United States, so a name most people think of as thoroughly American is now used more than six times more readily in England.
Boy English 27 in 2025
Staten Staten is a rare American boy's name best known from Staten Island, New York.
Boy Dutch 27 in 2025
Malone Malone is an Irish surname meaning descendant of a follower of Saint John, now used as a given name.
Boy Irish 35 in 2025

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