Head to head · Boys' names
Ares vs Lennox
#290 vs #289 in 2025 · Ancient Greek vs Gaelic roots
Lennox is a whisker ahead (#289 vs #290 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Lennox is holding its place on the charts, Ares is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Ares has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Lennox leads 5 measures of 6; Ares leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1910s: Ares —, Lennox #4174 — Lennox higher
- 1930s: Ares —, Lennox #3645 — Lennox higher
- 1940s: Ares —, Lennox #3206 — Lennox higher
- 1950s: Ares —, Lennox #3434 — Lennox higher
- 1960s: Ares —, Lennox #3305 — Lennox higher
- 1970s: Ares —, Lennox #4137 — Lennox higher
- 1980s: Ares #6238, Lennox #4746 — Lennox higher
- 1990s: Ares #4807, Lennox #4892 — Ares higher
- 2000s: Ares #2975, Lennox #2417 — Lennox higher
- 2010s: Ares #880, Lennox #583 — Lennox higher
- 2020s: Ares #432, Lennox #269 — Lennox higher
Lennox stood higher in 10 of 11 decades; Lennox has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Ares | Lennox |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | — | #4174 |
| 1930s | — | #3645 |
| 1940s | — | #3206 |
| 1950s | — | #3434 |
| 1960s | — | #3305 |
| 1970s | — | #4137 |
| 1980s | #6238 | #4746 |
| 1990s | #4807 | #4892 |
| 2000s | #2975 | #2417 |
| 2010s | #880 | #583 |
| 2020s | #432 | #269 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Ares
Linked to Greek words for battle and ruin
The usual reading connects Ἄρης to the Greek noun arē, 'bane, ruin, curse,' and to a sense of 'battle strife' — the god's name as a plain word for what war does. Other scholars treat it as pre-Greek and unexplained, a divine name inherited by the Greeks rather than built from their own vocabulary. Both positions are seriously held.
Ἄρης (Ancient Greek) → Ares (Latin form) → Άρης / Áris (Modern Greek) → Ares (English, Spanish)
How it traveled
Ares belongs to the oldest layer of Greek religion, and the name appears in Greek texts from the Homeric poems onward, where he is the war god — quarrelsome, disliked by the other Olympians, and no one's favorite. The Romans matched him to their own Mars, but the Greek form stayed Greek, and it survives in modern Greece as Áris, a living given name rather than a museum piece.
Lennox
From the Lennox district in Scotland — 'place of elms'
The root is Gaelic leamhan, 'elm'; the district name Leamhnachd was anglicized through forms like Levenax before settling as Lennox. The River Leven, running out of Loch Lomond through that same country, carries the same root.
leamhan (Gaelic, 'elm') → Leamhnachd → Levenax → Lennox
How it traveled
The Lennox is a real place: the old territory around Loch Lomond and the Leven valley, in what is now Dunbartonshire and Stirlingshire. From the twelfth century it gave its name to an earldom, and later to a dukedom held in the Stewart line, so the word traveled with noble families and then with ordinary emigrant ones.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Ares
AIR-eez
AIR-eez is the English pronunciation, from the mythology. In Spanish the same spelling is said AH-res, with both syllables short and the stress on the first — worth deciding early, since both versions are in real use in the US and each side will assume the other.
- Ari — The most natural short form in English, and a standalone given name in its own right through Hebrew and Greek lines.
- Aris — The standard Greek form of the full name; used informally in English-speaking families as a slightly longer alternative to Ari.
- Rey / Res — Heard in Spanish-speaking households as a clipped, informal form; not established in wider use.
Lennox
LEN-uks
Stress on the first syllable. Two syllables everywhere in English; the ending sounds exactly like the x in box. Rarely mispronounced, though it is sometimes misspelled as Lenox.
- Lenny — The most common informal short form; also stands alone as a given name in its own right, usually from Leonard.
- Len — Clipped and old-fashioned in tone; long established as an independent name as well.
- Nox — A recent short form taken from the ending rather than the start; used informally.
- Lex — Informal, borrowed from the x sound; also used for Alexander and Alexandra.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Ares if you want…
- a name on the way upup 305 places on the charts in five years
- a name with fewer syllablesAres is 1 syllable to Lennox's 2
Choose Lennox if you want…
- a name holding steadyLennox is holding its place on the charts
- a name with more sound in itLennox runs 2 syllables, Ares 1
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Ares
Strengths
- Five letters, spelled exactly as it sounds in both English and Spanish — no silent letters, no alternate spellings competing for attention.
- A documented record stretching back to the earliest Greek literature, unbroken as a name in Greece itself.
- Ari is a ready-made short form that already stands alone as a name, so there is a softer everyday option built in.
To consider
- It will be heard as Aries, the zodiac sign, constantly — in roll calls, on the phone, at the doctor's office. Expect a lifetime of gentle correcting, and note that the two words are genuinely close in English speech.
- The god himself gets a bad press in the Greek sources: Homer's Olympians find him brutal and tiresome. Most people only remember 'god of war,' but anyone who reads further finds an unflattering character.
- The pronunciation splits by language, so a child may answer to AIR-eez at school and AH-res at home. That works fine for many families, but it is worth choosing which one you will correct people to.
Lennox
Strengths
- The spelling is the standard one for the Scottish district and surname, so most people write it correctly on the first try.
- Familiar to English speakers as a surname long before it was a first name, which means it reads as a real name rather than an invention.
- Works for a boy or a girl without changing form or spelling.
To consider
- Most children given this name are boys, though a real minority are girls. For a girl it will read as the less expected choice, which some families welcome and others find tiring to explain.
- Its rise as a first name is very recent, so the name skews strongly young right now. It sounds contemporary in a way that its medieval Scottish roots do not immediately suggest.
- The -ox ending puts it in company with Knox, Maddox and Jax, a cluster of currently fashionable sounds. If you want a name that doesn't signal its decade, that's worth weighing.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Ares
58%chance Ares feels dated by 2040
Ares is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
Lennox
40%chance Lennox feels dated by 2040
Lennox sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Ares and Lennox in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Ares and Lennox?
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- One-syllable names: said in a single beat
- Hero and god names for boys
- Names ending in -s
- The steadiest names in America
- all guides
Where Ares and Lennox each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Ares or Lennox — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Ares or Lennox?
- Lennox, in 2025: Lennox ranked #289 with 1,160 babies; Ares ranked #290 with 1,157 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Ares or Lennox?
- Ares. Over the last five years Ares moved up 305 places; Lennox moved up 3 places.
- Which is the older name, Ares or Lennox?
- Ares entered the US charts in 1983; Lennox entered the US charts in 1918. On the American record, Lennox is the older name.
- How many people are named Ares and Lennox?
- About 8,200 people named Ares are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 14,000 people named Lennox are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Aress or Lennoxs in the classroom?
- Ares will almost certainly be the only one in school. Lennox will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
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