Baker
Masculine · “baker”
Baker is given to both — 8,234 boys and 748 girls since 1880. See Baker as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Baker began as a job: the person in a medieval English village who kept the oven going. It passed into a surname, then — like Hunter, Parker and Tucker before it — stepped forward into first-name position, where its single stressed syllable and soft ending make it easy to call across a yard. Its life as a given name in the US is a recent chapter, and a fast-moving one.
How old is the name Baker?
Baker first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Baker is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 7,900 people named Baker are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Baker most popular?
Baker peaked in 2025, reaching #217 nationally. Today it ranks #217, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Baker appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From bacan to Baker
The story of Baker
In Old English, bæcere named the person who baked; by the Middle Ages it had hardened into one of the standard English trade surnames, alongside Smith, Miller and Cooper. Because the trade existed in every settlement, the surname arose independently in many places rather than descending from one family, which is why it is so widespread across the English-speaking world. Its cousins survive on the continent in German Becker and Dutch Bakker. The move from surname to given name is the newest turn: American parents have long borrowed family surnames as first names, and Baker joined that current relatively late.
Meaning
baker, one who bakes
From Old English bæcere, an agent noun built on bacan, 'to bake' — the same root that gives us the English verb today.
How the name formed
- bacan
- bæcere
- Bakersurname
- Bakergiven name
Related forms: Becker · Bakker · Baxter
Pronouncing Baker
BAY-kur
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly like the English word. Nobody who reads English will hesitate over it.
Nicknames for Baker
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
- 1895
- Most boys named
- 20251,640 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #217reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +105.5%1,640 in 2025, from 798
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.
Baker in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Becker in German — related form
- Bakker in Dutch — related form
- Baxter in English (Scots) — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio.
Bakers among us
people named Baker are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,042 born in 2025 was named Baker
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 Carlton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Baker's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carlton climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carlton's path sketches the road Baker is walking now.
Baker 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 Baker is headed
Baker looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 39% 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.
Baker beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Baker 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 is said, and already familiar to every reader as an ordinary English word — almost nothing to correct at a doctor's office or on a form.
- A documented history stretching back to Old English, first as a trade word, then as one of the standard English surnames.
- Fits the well-worn American pattern of surnames used as first names, so it sounds settled rather than invented.
- Has cousins across other languages — Becker in German, Bakker in Dutch — for families with those roots.
- It is still an everyday occupation word, so expect friendly jokes about bread and birthday cakes. Most children shrug this off; some tire of it.
- Baker is also one of the most common English surnames, so paired with certain last names it can read as two surnames stacked together. Say the full name aloud a few times.
- The given-name wave is very new. A child named Baker will meet plenty of Baker families and few Baker people, and will likely be the only one in the class for years.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Baker
Masculine · #217 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bakers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,900 people named Baker are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Baker in 2025?
- Baker ranks #217 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,640 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Baker?
- About 1 in every 1,042 US boys born in 2025 was named Baker — 1,640 in all.
- Will my child share the name Baker with classmates?
- Baker will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Baker
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rafael#218 · Zachary#216 · Tyler#219 · Bentley#215 · Joel#219 · Zayden#213 · Malakai#213 · Kevin#221
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Baker? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Baker and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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