Blade
Masculine · “a leaf”
Blade is the English word, and its history is quietly surprising: the Old English blæd meant a leaf before it meant a knife, which is why a blade of grass and a blade of steel share a name.
How old is the name Blade?
Blade first appears in US birth records in 1982 — 43 years ago. The typical Blade alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 2,100 people named Blade are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Blade most popular?
Blade peaked in 1996, reaching #1167 nationally. Today it ranks #3450, 2,283 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From blæd to Blade
The story of Blade
The leaf came first. Old English blæd named the flat green thing that grows, and the metal sense followed because a sword blade has the same shape — long, flat, tapering. Both meanings have survived side by side for a thousand years. As a given name Blade is recent and American, part of a group of hard one-syllable word-names that entered the records in the 1990s alongside Colt, Chase and Ridge.
Meaning
a leaf; a cutting edge
From Old English blæd, a leaf or a blade of grass, related to the word for blowing and blooming; the sense of a cutting edge came later, from the flat leaf-like shape of a sword.
How the name formed
- blæd
- blade
Related forms: Blatt · Blad
Pronouncing Blade
BLAYD
One syllable. There is no variation.
Nicknames for Blade
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
- 1982
- Most boys named
- 2002112 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1167reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- +32.0%33 in 2025, from 25
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.
Blade in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Blatt in German — related form
- Blad in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Arizona, Illinois.
Blades among us
people named Blade are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 51,760 born in 2025 was named Blade
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 Lavell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Blade's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lavell climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lavell's path sketches the road Blade is walking now.
Blade 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 Blade is headed
Blade should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. 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.
Blade beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Blade 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 five letters, easy to write and impossible to mispronounce.
- The leaf-before-knife history is genuine and worth telling.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- The weapon sense is the first association for nearly everyone.
- A vampire-hunting film character carries the name, which is strong for one generation.
- A one-syllable weapon word is a definite statement and will be remarked on.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Blade
Masculine · #3450 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Blades are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Blade are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Blade in 2025?
- Blade ranks #3450 among US boy names in 2025, with 33 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Blade?
- About 1 in every 51,760 US boys born in 2025 was named Blade — 33 in all.
- Will my child share the name Blade with classmates?
- Blade will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Blade
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sabastian#3450 · Luc#3450 · Deshaun#3450 · Trayvon#3450 · Oz#3450 · Josiyah#3450 · Zakariah#3450 · Fausto#3450
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Blade? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Blade and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
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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