Apollo
Masculine · “Not established”
Apollo is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 9,000 boys against 12 girls since 1880.
Apollo has been said aloud for close to three thousand years — a Greek god of light, music, archery and healing, kept alive in Latin, then in the paintings and poems of every century that looked back to Greece. In the mid-twentieth century the American moon program borrowed it, and the name went from marble to rocket casing. Three open vowels, one bounce in the middle: it is easy to say and hard to mishear.
How old is the name Apollo?
Apollo first appears in US birth records in 1965 — 60 years ago. The typical Apollo is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 8,900 people named Apollo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Apollo most popular?
Apollo peaked in 2022, reaching #389 nationally. Today it ranks #445, 56 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Apollo appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Apollōn to Apollo
The story of Apollo
The name belongs first to Ἀπόλλων (Apollōn), one of the twelve Olympian gods, worshipped at Delphi and Delos long before the classical era. Rome took him over almost unchanged as Apollo, and from there the name spread through European art and learning rather than through baptismal registers — for many centuries Christians used the derived forms, Apollonia and Apollinaris, rather than the god's own name. Apollos, a different Greek name of the same family, appears as an early teacher in the New Testament letters. Direct use of Apollo as a given name in English is recent, and in the United States it belongs to a wave still in its childhood.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established — the god's name resists translation
Ancient Greek writers linked Apollōn to apollymi, 'to destroy', and others to apella, an 'assembly' or fold, giving a reading like 'he of the assembly'. Modern scholars generally treat both as later guesses and suspect a pre-Greek or Anatolian source. What is certain is what the name meant to the people who used it: the god of light, music, prophecy, archery and healing.
How the name formed
- Apollōn
- Apollo
- Apollonius
- Apollonia
- Apollinaris
Related forms: Απόλλων (Apollon) · Apollo · Apolo · Apollon · Аполлон (Apollon) · Apollo
Pronouncing Apollo
uh-POL-oh
Stress on the middle syllable. The Greek and French form Apollon puts the stress at the end, and Spanish Apolo drops one 'l' — all easily recognized as the same name.
Nicknames for Apollo
High
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
- 1965
- Most boys named
- 2022820 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #389reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −9.3%708 in 2025, from 781
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.
Apollo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Απόλλων (Apollon) in Greek — same name
- Apollo in Latin — same name
- Apolo in Spanish — spelling variant
- Apollon in French — same name
- Аполлон (Apollon) in Russian — transliteration
- Apollo in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Apollos among us
people named Apollo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,413 born in 2025 was named Apollo
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 Pierre test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Apollo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Pierre climbed just as high around 1986, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Pierre's path sketches the road Apollo is walking now.
Apollo 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 Apollo is headed
Apollo 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.
Apollo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Apollo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds, and already known worldwide from mythology and the moon missions — rarely needs repeating or correcting.
- Nearly unchanged across Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French and Russian, so it travels without becoming a different name.
- A written record stretching back to archaic Greece, which makes it very old and very new at the same time.
- Distinctive in a classroom while being instantly familiar to adults — a combination few names manage.
- It is the name of a god, and a famous one. Expect comments, mythology jokes and the occasional raised eyebrow; some people find a name that large a pleasure, others find it a lot to introduce yourself with.
- In Spanish, pollo means chicken, and Polo or 'pollo' is an obvious playground shortening — worth knowing, especially in the states where the name is most used.
- Its wave is very recent, so almost everyone who carries it is a child. There is no adult version of this name in most people's experience yet; that arrives as this generation grows up.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Apollo
Masculine · #445 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Apollos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,900 people named Apollo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Apollo in 2025?
- Apollo ranks #445 among US boy names in 2025, with 708 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Apollo?
- About 1 in every 2,413 US boys born in 2025 was named Apollo — 708 in all.
- Will my child share the name Apollo with classmates?
- Apollo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Apollo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Uriel#445 · Valentino#444 · Prince#447 · Dalton#448 · Chance#442 · Jalen#442 · Yusuf#449 · Sergio#441
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Apollo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Apollo and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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