Amber
Masculine · “fossil resin”
Amber is given to girls far more often — 374,690 girls against 978 boys since 1880. See Amber as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Amber alive today was born around 1986, making them about 39 years old. About 900 people named Amber are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Amber most popular?
Amber peaked in 1981, reaching #1236 nationally. See the whole 1981 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1961
- Most boys named
- 198862 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1236reached in 1981
- Change vs 2006
- 0.0%6 in 2009, from 6
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
Ambers among us
people named Amber are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Amber sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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.
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What they receive
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Amber
Masculine
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 900 people named Amber are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Amber in 2025?
- Amber is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Amber with classmates?
- Amber will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anthony#46 · Andrew#73 · Alexander#30 · Aaron#80 · Adam#101 · Arthur#87 · Albert#614 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Amber? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Amber and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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