Atticus
Masculine · “of Attica”
Atticus is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 18,322 boys against 121 girls since 1880.
Atticus began as a Roman cognomen meaning "of Attica" — the corner of Greece that holds Athens — worn by Romans with Greek learning or Greek connections. Cicero's closest correspondent, Titus Pomponius Atticus, carried it in the first century BC, and Harper Lee handed it to the lawyer at the center of To Kill a Mockingbird. Three syllables, all of them landing where an English speaker expects: AT-ih-kus.
How old is the name Atticus?
Atticus first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Atticus is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 18,000 people named Atticus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Atticus most popular?
Atticus peaked in 2021, reaching #264 nationally. Today it ranks #281, 17 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Where it comes from
From Attikos to Atticus
The story of Atticus
The name is Greek in root and Roman in use: Attikos, "of Attica," became the Latin cognomen Atticus. Titus Pomponius Atticus, the banker and letter-writing friend of Cicero, earned the name through his long years in Athens, and Herodes Atticus, the second-century orator and builder, carried it in the Greek world itself. It survived through Latin texts rather than through everyday naming, which is why it reached English as a scholar's word before it was ever a boy's name. Harper Lee's 1960 novel put it on the tongue of ordinary readers, and its use as a first name in America grew from there.
Meaning
of Attica; Athenian
Attica is the region of Greece surrounding Athens; the Greek adjective Attikos was taken into Latin as a cognomen, often marking someone educated in Greece or long resident there.
How the name formed
- Attikos
- Atticus
- Atticus
Related forms: Ἀττικός (Attikos) · Atticus · Attico · Ático · Ático
Pronouncing Atticus
AT-ih-kus
Stress on the first syllable. The spelling gives the sound away, so it is usually read correctly on first sight — an advantage many classical names do not have.
Nicknames for Atticus
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 20211,310 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #264reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- −1.5%1,208 in 2025, from 1,227
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.
Atticus in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ἀττικός (Attikos) in Ancient Greek — transliteration
- Atticus in Latin — same name
- Attico in Italian — related form
- Ático in Spanish — related form
- Ático in Portuguese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Atticuss among us
people named Atticus are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,414 born in 2025 was named Atticus
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 Desmond test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Atticus's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Desmond climbed just as high around 1992, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Desmond's path sketches the road Atticus is walking now.
Atticus 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 Atticus is headed
Atticus 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.
Atticus beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Atticus in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelling and sound match: most English speakers read AT-ih-kus correctly the first time, without a spelling-out or a correction.
- A documented record stretching from Roman antiquity to the present, with real bearers in both Latin and Greek history.
- Recognizable across the English-speaking world through one widely taught novel, which means familiarity without commonness.
- Latin form travels intact into Spanish, Portuguese and Italian as Ático or Attico.
- The link to Atticus Finch is permanent, and it is no longer simple: Go Set a Watchman, published in 2015, shows the same character holding segregationist views. Many readers now hold both books in mind at once.
- There is no single agreed short form. Atti, Attie and Tico all circulate, so the family usually decides rather than inherits one.
- This is still overwhelmingly a name of young children rather than of adults, so a boy given it will meet few older namesakes — and will likely be the only one in his class either way.
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Atticus
Masculine · #281 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Atticuss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 18,000 people named Atticus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Atticus in 2025?
- Atticus ranks #281 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,208 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Atticus?
- About 1 in every 1,414 US boys born in 2025 was named Atticus — 1,208 in all.
- Will my child share the name Atticus with classmates?
- Atticus will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Atticus
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jensen#282 · Maximiliano#280 · Tobias#283 · Benson#279 · Derek#284 · Shiloh#278 · Otto#277 · Colt#285
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Atticus? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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