Bane
Masculine · “destroyer”
Bane is the English word for something that destroys, and it is very old — Old English bana meant a killer, which is a stronger sense than the modern one.
How old is the name Bane?
Bane first appears in US birth records in 1997 — 28 years ago. The typical Bane is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Bane are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bane most popular?
Bane peaked in 2013, reaching #1387 nationally. Today it ranks #3658, 2,271 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From bana to Bane
The story of Bane
Bana was a hard word in Old English — a killer, plainly — and it softened over a thousand years into the modern bane of one's existence. The plant names preserve the older poisonous sense. As a given name Bane is recent and American; a comic-book villain of the name is the reason most people recognize it. The Serbian Bane, a short form of Branislav, is a completely separate and much older name.
Meaningscholars disagree
destroyer, that which causes ruin
Old English bana meant a slayer or murderer, and the modern sense of a cause of ruin is a weakening of it; the same root gives the poison sense in wolfsbane and henbane. Separately, Bane is a Serbian short form of Branislav and is unrelated.
How the name formed
- bana
- bane
Related forms: Bane · Bain
Pronouncing Bane
BAYN
One syllable, rhyming with rain. Serbian Bane is BAH-neh, with two.
Nicknames for Bane
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
- 1997
- Most boys named
- 2013121 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1387reached in 2013
- Change vs 2024
- −21.1%30 in 2025, from 38
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.
Bane in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bane in Serbian — related form
- Bain in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Banes among us
people named Bane are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 56,936 born in 2025 was named Bane
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 Morrison test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bane's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Morrison climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Morrison's path sketches the road Bane is walking now.
Bane 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 Bane is headed
Bane should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Bane beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bane in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and four letters — as short as a name gets.
- A documented Old English word with a genuinely interesting shift of sense.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- The word means a cause of ruin, which is a hard thing to hand a child.
- The comic-book villain is the first association for most people who recognize it.
- The Serbian name is said quite differently and is entirely unrelated.
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What they receive
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Bane
Masculine · #3658 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Banes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Bane are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bane in 2025?
- Bane ranks #3658 among US boy names in 2025, with 30 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bane?
- About 1 in every 56,936 US boys born in 2025 was named Bane — 30 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bane with classmates?
- Bane will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bane
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jimmie#3658 · Mckinley#3658 · Menno#3658 · Claudio#3658 · Ezekial#3658 · Brandt#3658 · Benuel#3658 · Gustav#3658
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bane? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bane and another name?
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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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