Arlo
Masculine
Arlo is given to both — 24,245 boys and 890 girls since 1880. See Arlo as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Edmund Spenser put "Arlo Hill" into The Faerie Queene in the 1590s, borrowing the sound of the Irish Glen of Aherlow he could see from his Munster home. Centuries later the same two syllables reached a lot of American ears through the folk singer Arlo Guthrie. It is a small name — two beats, four letters, one open vowel at the end — and it has been quietly on the American record far longer than its current wave suggests.
How old is the name Arlo?
Arlo first appears in US birth records in 1899 — 126 years ago. The typical Arlo is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 22,000 people named Arlo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arlo most popular?
Arlo peaked in 2024, reaching #146 nationally. Today it ranks #148, 2 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Arlo
The earliest clear appearance is literary: Spenser's Arlo Hill in the Mutabilitie Cantos, a poetic reshaping of Aherlow in County Tipperary. From there Arlo surfaces as a surname and then, in nineteenth-century America, as a given name in modest but steady use — never fashionable, never absent. Its modern life is largely a twentieth-century American story, helped along by the folk singer Arlo Guthrie and the wide reach of "Alice's Restaurant" in the late 1960s. The recent climb is broader than that: Arlo now charts in England and Wales, in Scotland and in Canada, part of a general fondness for short vowel-ending boys' names across the English-speaking world.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No meaning has been established for Arlo. What is documented is the sound's history: Spenser's invented place-name Arlo Hill, drawn from the Irish Aherlow; its long use as an English and American surname; and the Spanish word arlo, a name for the barberry shrub, which is sometimes attached to the name without any evidence connecting the two. Parents who want a firm translation will not find one here.
Cultural footprint
Arlo Guthrie (b. 1947) — "Alice's Restaurant" folk singer, Woody Guthrie's son
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Pronouncing Arlo
AR-loh
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with Carlo. British and Irish speakers soften the r; the vowels themselves are the same everywhere.
Nicknames for Arlo
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
- 1899
- Most boys named
- 20252,443 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #146reached in 2024
- Change vs 2023
- +5.9%2,443 in 2025, from 2,307
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.
Arlo in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Statistics Canada. Sources
Arlos among us
people named Arlo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 699 born in 2025 was named Arlo
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 Neil test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Arlo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Neil climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Neil's path sketches the road Arlo is walking now.
Arlo is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Arlo is headed
Arlo looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 23% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Arlo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Arlo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two syllables, spelled exactly as it sounds — rarely needs repeating or correcting.
- Already short, so it works as a full name and a casual name at once, without depending on a nickname.
- Charts in England and Wales, Scotland and Canada as well as the US, so it travels through English-speaking countries without explanation.
- Present in American records for well over a century, which gives it a longer footing than its recent surge implies.
- The origin is genuinely unsettled, and the tidy "barberry tree" gloss you will find on many sites is not supported. If a documented meaning matters to you, this name will not supply one.
- It is rising quickly and from a broad base, so it is likely to feel considerably more common by the time a child born now finishes primary school than it does at the moment.
- It sits close to Harlow, Marlow and Arlow in sound, and Harlow is well established for girls — expect the occasional mishearing on the phone.
- The folk-music association is strong for some listeners and invisible to others, which mostly means the name arrives without much baggage either way.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Arlo 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 Arlo? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Arlo
Masculine · #148 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arlos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 22,000 people named Arlo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arlo in 2025?
- Arlo ranks #148 among US boy names in 2025, with 2,443 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Arlo?
- About 1 in every 699 US boys born in 2025 was named Arlo — 2,443 in all.
- Will my child share the name Arlo with classmates?
- Arlo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Arlo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elian#147 · Greyson#149 · Carlos#150 · Matteo#146 · Elliot#151 · Charlie#145 · Luis#144 · Bryson#152
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arlo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Arlo 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.
Or jump into a head-to-head
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; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle