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

49 names, uncommon — 100 to 499 a year, in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

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 497 in 2025
Shelby Shelby is a girl's name from an English place name of Norse formation meaning a willow farm.
Girl English 485 in 2025
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 422 in 2025
Otis Otis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune."
Boy Germanic 422 in 2025
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 405 in 2025
Dexter Dexter is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "right-handed" or "skilful."
Boy Latin 393 in 2025
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 406 in 2025
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 467 in 2025
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 425 in 2025
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 365 in 2025
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 370 in 2025
Corey Corey is a boy's name from an Irish surname, generally given as dweller near a hollow.
Boy Irish 351 in 2025
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 308 in 2025
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 300 in 2025
Flynn Flynn is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "reddish" or "ruddy," from a surname rather than a personal name.
Boy Irish 314 in 2025
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 403 in 2025
Stanley Stanley is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "stony clearing."
Boy English 278 in 2025
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 286 in 2025
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 245 in 2025
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 247 in 2025
Gage Gage means a pledge, and it names the object rather than the person — the thing handed over as security.
Boy French 235 in 2025
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 232 in 2025
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 226 in 2025
Brodie Brodie is a boy's name of Scottish origin taken from a place near Forres in Moray.
Boy Scottish 219 in 2025
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 216 in 2025
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 209 in 2025
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 201 in 2025
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 197 in 2025
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 183 in 2025
Shea Shea is a unisex name of Irish origin from the surname Ó Séaghdha, whose root means "hawk-like" or "stately."
Unisex Irish 312 in 2025
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 156 in 2025
Sidney Sidney is a name of Old English origin meaning "wide meadow."
Unisex English 251 in 2025
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 146 in 2025
Jenson Jenson is a boy's name of Scandinavian origin meaning "son of Jens."
Boy Scandinavian 140 in 2025
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 139 in 2025
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 161 in 2025
Brett Brett means a Breton — someone from Brittany, which is named for the Britons who fled there when the Anglo-Saxons arrived.
Boy English 144 in 2025
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 122 in 2025
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 122 in 2025
Randall Randall is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning shield-wolf.
Boy Germanic 117 in 2025
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 114 in 2025
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 113 in 2025
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 111 in 2025
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 109 in 2025
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 133 in 2025
Chester Chester is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "fortress" or "walled camp."
Boy Latin 107 in 2025
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 105 in 2025
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 114 in 2025

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