Ames
Masculine · “friend”
Ames is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,855 boys against 10 girls since 1880.
Ames is friend in Old French — ami — and the surname records a man described that way, which is an unusually pleasant thing for a byname to say.
How old is the name Ames?
Ames first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Ames is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,600 people named Ames are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ames most popular?
Ames peaked in 2020, reaching #1694 nationally. Today it ranks #1753, 59 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From amicus to Ames
The story of Ames
Ames is an English surname from both routes and reached New England early; Ames in Iowa is named for a nineteenth-century congressman. Its use as a given name is recent and follows the wider surname-name movement of the 2010s. Ames appears in the American registers from that decade and is in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
friend
From the Old French ami or amis, 'friend', from the Latin amicus — a descriptive byname. A second route derives Ames from the Norman place name Amiens. Both are documented and neither is settled. The friend reading is the commoner one.
How the name formed
- amicus
- ami
- Ames
Related forms: Amis · Eames
Pronouncing Ames
AYMZ
One syllable. It is a homophone of the plural of the English 'aim'.
Nicknames for Ames
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 202393 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1694reached in 2020
- Change vs 2023
- −1.1%92 in 2025, from 93
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.
Ames in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Amis in French — related form
- Eames in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Minnesota.
Amess among us
people named Ames are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 18,566 born in 2025 was named Ames
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 Jerard test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ames's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jerard climbed just as high around 1986, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jerard's path sketches the road Ames is walking now.
Ames 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 Ames is headed
Ames 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.
Ames beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ames in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The friend meaning is transparent and unusually warm for a surname.
- One syllable, firm, and never mispronounced.
- It shares a root with Amy, which is a genuine and pleasant connection.
- The origin is genuinely split between a byname and a place name.
- It is a homophone of an ordinary English plural.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Ames
Masculine · #1753 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Amess are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Ames are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ames in 2025?
- Ames ranks #1753 among US boy names in 2025, with 92 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ames?
- About 1 in every 18,566 US boys born in 2025 was named Ames — 92 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ames with classmates?
- Ames will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ames
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yehoshua#1753 · Zealand#1753 · Salomon#1753 · Akai#1753 · Keyler#1753 · Arley#1753 · Riaan#1753 · Morris#1753
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ames? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ames and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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