Amber
Feminine · “fossil resin”
Amber is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 374,690 girls against 978 boys since 1880. See Amber as a boy name
Electricity is named after amber. The Greek word for the fossil resin was elektron, rubbing a piece of it attracts dust and hair, and when a seventeenth-century English physician needed a word for that force he built one from the Greek — so the entire vocabulary of electricity descends from a stone that sticks to wool.
How old is the name Amber?
Amber was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Amber alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 364,000 people named Amber are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Amber most popular?
Amber peaked in 1986, reaching #13 nationally. Today it ranks #520, 507 places below that high. See the whole 1986 chart.
Where it comes from
From tree resin fossilized over tens of millions of years to Amber
The story of Amber
William Gilbert spent years rubbing things together and testing what attracted what. He established that the force amber produces is different from magnetism, coined the Latin term for it from the Greek word for amber, and effectively founded the study of the subject. Everything after that — electric, electrode, electron, electronics — is built on his coinage, which means an entire modern industry is named, at four removes, after the resin of a tree that died before there were people.
Meaning
fossil resin
The English word came through French from Arabic, where it meant ambergris — the waxy substance from a whale — and the two were confused for centuries before the names separated. The stone itself is tree resin that has been buried for tens of millions of years, and it is the only gemstone that is organic, that floats in salt water, and that occasionally has an insect in it.
How the name formed
- tree resin fossilized over tens of millions of years
- the Greek word elektron names the stone
- Arabic and French supply the English word amber
- a physician coins the term for electricity from the Greek
- an American peak in the middle 1980s
Related forms: Ambre · Ambar · Ambra
Pronouncing Amber
AM-bur
Two syllables, stress at the front, exactly like the stone. There is no competing reading anywhere in English.
Nicknames for Amber
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 198816,676 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #13reached in 1986
- Change vs 2022
- +1.1%576 in 2025, from 570
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.
Amber in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ambre in French — same name
- Ambar in Spanish — same name
- Ambra in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Ambers among us
people named Amber are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,790 born in 2025 was named Amber
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 Cheryl test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Amber's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cheryl climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cheryl's path sketches the road Amber is walking now.
Amber 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 Amber is headed
Amber should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Amber beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Amber in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a plain English word that everybody can read, say and spell.
- The thing behind it is concrete, beautiful and genuinely ancient.
- It works without alteration in French, Spanish and Italian.
- It is closely dated to the 1980s in America and reads as a mother's name.
- A word name carries every use of the word, including traffic lights and warnings.
- It was very common in its decade, so she will not be the only one of her generation.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Amber to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Amber
Feminine · #520 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ambers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 364,000 people named Amber are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Amber in 2025?
- Amber ranks #520 among US girl names in 2025, with 576 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Amber?
- About 1 in every 2,790 US girls born in 2025 was named Amber — 576 in all.
- Will my child share the name Amber with classmates?
- Amber will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Amber
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jovie#520 · Kate#520 · Eve#519 · Marlowe#523 · Clover#517 · Jream#517 · Madelynn#524 · Iyla#525
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Amber? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Amber and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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