Achilles
Masculine
A name written down in Greek before Homer sang it: clay tablets in Mycenaean script carry a-ki-re-u, meaning that Achilles was already an ordinary man's name centuries before it became the great name of the Iliad. It has been read aloud in classrooms in every century since, and its four beats — uh-KILL-eez — land the stress squarely in the middle. Rare in American life, yet almost nobody has to ask how it is spelled.
How old is the name Achilles?
Achilles first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Achilles is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,700 people named Achilles are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Achilles most popular?
Achilles peaked in 2018, reaching #857 nationally. Today it ranks #1290, 433 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Achilles appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From a-ki-re-u (Mycenaean Greek) to Achilles
The story of Achilles
The name belongs to Greek first: Ἀχιλλεύς, Achilleus, borne by the central figure of Homer's Iliad, composed around the eighth century BC. Linear B tablets from the Mycenaean palaces show it in use as an everyday personal name well before that, so Homer took a name that already existed rather than coining one. Latin turned it into Achilles, the form English uses, and through Rome it spread into French Achille, Spanish and Portuguese Aquiles, and Italian Achille. In the United States it has appeared in birth records since the early twentieth century, quietly and in small numbers, with its real growth arriving only in the last couple of decades.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most often read as 'grief of the people', from Greek akhos (grief) and laos (people)
The akhos + laos reading is the leading one among classicists and fits the plot of the Iliad, where the hero's rage brings sorrow to his own army. A serious rival view holds the name to be pre-Greek — a word inherited from the older population of the Aegean, whose language is lost, in which case it has no Greek meaning at all. The Mycenaean spelling a-ki-re-u is the oldest form on record.
How the name formed
- a-ki-re-uMycenaean Greek
- AchilleusAncient Greek
- AchillesLatin
- AchilleFrench, Italian
- AquilesSpanish, Portuguese
Related forms: Achilleas · Achille · Achille · Aquiles · Aquiles · Akhill
Pronouncing Achilles
uh-KILL-eez
Three syllables in English, stress in the middle, final s pronounced as a z. Other languages diverge sharply: French Achille is ah-SHEEL, Greek Achilleas is ah-hee-LEH-ahs, Spanish Aquiles is ah-KEE-less.
Nicknames for Achilles
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 2017234 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #857reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- −8.5%151 in 2025, from 165
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Achilles in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Achilleas in Greek — same name
- Achille in French — same name
- Achille in Italian — same name
- Aquiles in Spanish — same name
- Aquiles in Portuguese — same name
- Akhill in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Achilless among us
people named Achilles are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 11,312 born in 2025 was named Achilles
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kalen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Achilles's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kalen climbed just as high around 1998, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kalen's path sketches the road Achilles is walking now.
Achilles 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 scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Achilles is headed
Achilles should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Achilles beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Achilles in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Continuously documented for roughly three thousand years, from Mycenaean clay tablets through Homer and Latin into modern European languages.
- The English spelling is standard and widely recognized, so it is generally read correctly on first sight without explanation.
- Has a ready-made equivalent in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek, which helps in bilingual or multinational families.
- Common enough to be understood, rare enough in classrooms that a child is unlikely to share it.
- 'Achilles heel' and 'Achilles tendon' are everyday English, so the name doubles as a word for a weak point and a body part. Most people never think about it twice, but a few will make the joke.
- The Iliad's Achilles is defined by rage, a famous quarrel and an early death. Children meet the story in school, and a boy with the name will be asked about it more than once.
- The stressed middle syllable sounds like 'kill', which some kids will notice. Having a short form the family already uses takes most of the sting out of it.
- The name's rise here is recent, so American bearers skew young. An adult Achilles is still an unusual thing in the United States, though the name itself is anything but new.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Achilles to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Achilles? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Achilles
Masculine · #1290 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Achilless are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,700 people named Achilles are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Achilles in 2025?
- Achilles ranks #1290 among US boy names in 2025, with 151 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Achilles?
- About 1 in every 11,312 US boys born in 2025 was named Achilles — 151 in all.
- Will my child share the name Achilles with classmates?
- Achilles will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Achilles
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yunus#1290 · Amarion#1290 · Anas#1290 · Maison#1290 · Asiah#1290 · Titan#1290 · Rudra#1287 · Conway#1287
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Achilles? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Achilles and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle