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What does your name mean?
Researched origins and meanings for the most widely used American first names, alongside how common each one is today.
Covering names properly rather than all names
There are over forty thousand first names in US birth records, and no honest source has a researched etymology for all of them. Plenty of sites fill the gap by generating something plausible. We would rather show nothing, so this tool covers widely used American names where the derivation is well attested and tells you plainly when a name is not yet in the collection.
What a meaning actually is
Most name meanings are the sense of a word in a language the name passed through, often thousands of years ago, and frequently reconstructed rather than recorded. When a name is described as meaning “strength” or “grace”, that is the root word’s sense, not a statement about anybody carrying it. Many names also have competing derivations that scholars genuinely disagree about, and where that is the case we say so rather than picking the prettiest one.
Meaning and popularity are separate stories
A name’s origin tells you almost nothing about why it is popular now. Names generally travel on sound, association and fashion rather than etymology, which is why you can pair the meaning here with the popularity chart and see two completely unrelated histories for the same name.
Questions about this tool
Why is my name missing?
The collection covers widely used American names with well-attested origins. Rather than inventing an etymology, we leave a gap and add names as we can source them properly.
Are these meanings definitive?
No. Name etymology is often contested and many derivations are reconstructions. Treat these as the mainstream scholarly reading rather than settled fact.
Do you cover surnames?
Not yet. This tool is first names only; the surname checker covers frequency and distribution for last names.
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