Artist
Masculine · “one who practices an art”
Artist is given to both — 840 boys and 88 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Artist descends from the Latin ars — a skill or a craft — and for most of the word's life it meant a skilled worker, not a creator.
How old is the name Artist?
Artist first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Artist is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 800 people named Artist are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Artist most popular?
Artist peaked in 2022, reaching #1678 nationally. Today it ranks #2108, 430 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ars to Artist
The story of Artist
Ars meant any practical skill in Latin — medicine, rhetoric, carpentry — and the split between the fine artist and the craftsman came only with the eighteenth century's ideas about genius. Artist entered American given-name use recently among the word-names and appears in the registers in current use.
Meaning
one who practices an art
From the Latin ars, artis, 'skill', 'craft' or 'method', through the French artiste. The same root gives artisan, article and inert — 'without skill'. Until the eighteenth century an artist and an artisan were much the same thing. The etymology is documented.
How the name formed
- ars
- artiste
- artist
- Artist
Related forms: Artiste · Ars
Pronouncing Artist
AR-tist
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is a homophone of the ordinary English noun.
Nicknames for Artist
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
- 1916
- Most boys named
- 2022102 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1678reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −21.6%69 in 2025, from 88
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.
Artist in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Artiste in French — related form
- Ars in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Florida, Texas.
Artists among us
people named Artist are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 24,755 born in 2025 was named Artist
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 Terran test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Artist's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Terran climbed just as high around 1992, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Terran's path sketches the road Artist is walking now.
Artist 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 Artist is headed
Artist looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 35% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Artist beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Artist in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That artist and artisan were the same job for centuries is a first-rate word history.
- Art and Artie are two short forms, both real names in their own right.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It is an ordinary English noun and carries a claim about the bearer.
- It is very new as a given name.
- It will be asked about constantly.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Artist
Masculine · #2108 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Artists are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Artist are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Artist in 2025?
- Artist ranks #2108 among US boy names in 2025, with 69 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Artist?
- About 1 in every 24,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Artist — 69 in all.
- Will my child share the name Artist with classmates?
- Artist will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Artist
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ayven#2108 · Ansh#2108 · Khyrie#2108 · Darryl#2108 · Armoni#2108 · Aero#2108 · Cai#2108 · Sameer#2108
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Artist? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Artist and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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