Baylor
Masculine
Baylor is given to both — 9,010 boys and 3,721 girls since 1880. See Baylor as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Baylor began as a surname — an English one, from the same root as Bailey — and it reached first names the way many American boys' names do, through family lines and Southern naming habits. It also carries a college campus in it: Baylor University, chartered in the days of the Republic of Texas, still gives the word a Waco address and a set of school colors. Said aloud it is two even beats, BAY-ler, with the open first syllable that Bailey, Riley and Taylor all share.
How old is the name Baylor?
Baylor first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Baylor is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 8,900 people named Baylor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Baylor most popular?
Baylor peaked in 2024, reaching #365 nationally. Today it ranks #386, 21 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Baylor appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From bailli (Old French/Middle English, 'bailiff, steward') to Baylor
The story of Baylor
The name comes out of English surname stock, a variant of Bailey, and it traveled to America as a family name long before anyone used it in front of one. Its best-known American bearer gave it a permanent home in the South: Baylor University, named for the judge and Baptist minister Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor and chartered while Texas was still a republic. That is very likely why the name still reads strongest in Texas and the states around it — a surname turned institution turned first name. Its use as a given name is genuinely recent; it sat on the record for generations at barely a trickle before the current wave of surname-style names picked it up.
Meaningscholars disagree
from an English surname in the Bailey family, most likely 'bailiff, steward'
The surname group behind Bailey and Baylor has two serious readings: an occupational one, from Middle English bailli, 'bailiff' — an officer or steward — and a topographic one, from bailey, the outer wall or courtyard of a castle. The -or ending of Baylor points toward the occupational side, since it looks like an agent noun, but the two lines have been tangled in English records for centuries.
How the name formed
- bailliOld French/Middle English, 'bailiff, steward'
- Bailey
- Bayler
- Baylor
Related forms: Bailey · Bayley
Pronouncing Baylor
BAY-ler
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with tailor and sailor. Almost no one hesitates over how to say it; the spelling is the part that needs repeating.
Nicknames for Baylor
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
- 1918
- Most boys named
- 2024905 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #365reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −9.2%822 in 2025, from 905
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.
Baylor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bailey in English — related form
- Bayley in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Tennessee, Alabama.
Baylors among us
people named Baylor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,078 born in 2025 was named Baylor
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 Buck test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Baylor's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Buck climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Buck's path sketches the road Baylor is walking now.
Baylor 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 Baylor is headed
Baylor looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 24% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Baylor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Baylor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sounds instantly familiar to American ears — it shares its shape with Taylor, Bailey and Tyler — so it is understood the first time it is said aloud.
- Works unchanged for a boy or a girl, with no separate feminine or masculine spelling to negotiate.
- Has a ready short form, Bay, that stands on its own.
- Sits on a documented English surname line rather than being newly coined, so there is real history behind it.
- Rare enough in classrooms that it rarely needs a last initial attached.
- It will be heard as Bailey and written that way often. Expect to spell it — B-A-Y-L-O-R — for the rest of the child's life, on forms, at coffee counters and in email addresses.
- The university association is strong and follows the name everywhere: school colors, football Saturdays, and whatever that institution happens to be in the news for. Some families like the tie; others find it decides too much.
- It is recorded for both boys and girls but leans to boys, so a girl named Baylor may meet the assumption of a boy on paper — easily corrected, but worth expecting.
- This is a very young name in actual use. There are few grown Baylors to show how it wears on an adult, which means less precedent and also fewer preconceptions.
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What they receive
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Baylor
Masculine · #386 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Baylors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,900 people named Baylor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Baylor in 2025?
- Baylor ranks #386 among US boy names in 2025, with 822 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Baylor?
- About 1 in every 2,078 US boys born in 2025 was named Baylor — 822 in all.
- Will my child share the name Baylor with classmates?
- Baylor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Baylor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Fernando#387 · Cesar#385 · Elio#388 · Khalil#384 · Kieran#389 · Stephen#383 · Iker#390 · Kamari#391
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Baylor? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Baylor and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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