Bishop
Masculine · Greek roots · “overseer”
Bishop is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 6,980 boys against 111 girls since 1880.
Bishop began as a Greek word for an overseer, traveled through Latin into Old English as biscop, and settled in England as a surname long before anyone used it up front. It is one of those names that needs no spelling out loud — every American reader already knows the letters. Two beats, a soft opening hiss and a firm stop at the end.
How old is the name Bishop?
Bishop was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Bishop alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 5,700 people named Bishop are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bishop most popular?
Bishop peaked in 1890, reaching #415 nationally. Today it ranks #1188, 773 places below that high. See the whole 1890 chart.
Bishop appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From epískopos (Greek) to Bishop
The story of Bishop
The word arrived in England with Christianity: Greek epískopos became Latin episcopus, then Old English biscop. In medieval England it hardened into a surname, borne by people who worked in a bishop's household or who took the bishop's part in the Christmas pageants that English parishes staged. From there it followed the ordinary English road — surname first, then family name used as a first name, a habit that took particularly firm hold in the United States. Bishop has been on American birth records across generations, never crowding a classroom but never disappearing either.
Meaning
overseer, watcher-over
From Greek epískopos, literally 'over-seer' (epí 'over' plus skopós 'watcher'), which passed into Latin as episcopus and into Old English as biscop.
How the name formed
- epískoposGreek
- episcopusLatin
- biscopOld English
- BishopEnglish surname
- Bishopgiven name
Related forms: Bischof · Bisschop · Vescovo · Obispo · Levesque
Pronouncing Bishop
BISH-up
Stress on the first syllable. Pronunciation is fixed in English and matches the everyday word exactly, so it is almost never misheard.
Nicknames for Bishop
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2022216 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #415reached in 1890
- Change vs 2022
- −20.4%172 in 2025, from 216
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.
Bishop in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bischof in German — related form
- Bisschop in Dutch — related form
- Vescovo in Italian — related form
- Obispo in Spanish — related form
- Levesque in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, North Carolina.
Bishops among us
people named Bishop are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 9,931 born in 2025 was named Bishop
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Bishop 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 Bishop is headed
Bishop 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.
Bishop beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bishop 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 everyone already knows the ordinary word, so it never needs to be dictated letter by letter.
- One fixed pronunciation in English, with no regional variants to correct.
- A documented line running from Greek through Latin and Old English into English surnames — an unbroken record of many centuries.
- Fits the long-established American habit of using English surnames as first names, alongside Parker, Carter and Spencer.
- Common enough to look familiar on a page, uncommon enough that a child is unlikely to share it in class.
- It is also a church title. Some people will assume a religious motive behind the choice, and a few will make the obvious joke — 'Bishop who?' or a remark about a promotion. Most of that fades quickly, but it does come up.
- Bishop is also a chess piece, which invites its own small run of jokes, usually harmless and usually in middle school.
- Because it reads first as a surname, forms and roll calls occasionally flip it into the last-name slot. A quick correction, but a recurring one.
- The short form Bish is British slang for a blunder, and has other slang uses online — worth knowing about, though it rarely follows the name across the Atlantic.
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Bishop
Masculine · Greek roots · #1188 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bishops are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,700 people named Bishop are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bishop in 2025?
- Bishop ranks #1188 among US boy names in 2025, with 172 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bishop?
- About 1 in every 9,931 US boys born in 2025 was named Bishop — 172 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bishop with classmates?
- Bishop will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bishop
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jabari#1188 · Kristopher#1188 · Sekani#1186 · Gadiel#1186 · Amirion#1191 · Cove#1191 · Steele#1183 · Oren#1183
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bishop? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bishop and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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