Cameron
Masculine · “crooked nose”
Cameron is given to both — 312,661 boys and 32,235 girls since 1880. See Cameron as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Cameron began as a Scottish surname — the name of a Highland clan and of more than one place in Fife — and it crossed into first-name use the way many Scottish surnames did, carried by families who wanted the clan name in front. It is one of those words that can be said in three unhurried syllables or squeezed into two, and it shortens to Cam without anyone needing to be told. It still charts in Scotland, which is unusual: the name is popular in the country it came from.
How old is the name Cameron?
Cameron first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Cameron alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 304,000 people named Cameron are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cameron most popular?
Cameron peaked in 2000, reaching #31 nationally. Today it ranks #76, 45 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Where it comes from
From cam sròn (Gaelic: 'crooked nose') to Cameron
The story of Cameron
The name belongs first to Scotland: a clan name in the Highlands and a place name in Fife, both recorded for centuries before anyone thought of it as a first name. Like Douglas, Bruce and Graham, it made the jump from surname to given name in the nineteenth century, when Scottish family names became fashionable choices for sons on both sides of the Atlantic. In American records it has been present since the late nineteenth century, quietly at first, then broadly through the later twentieth. Its second life as a girl's name arrived along with the wider fashion for surname names for daughters, and produced the respelling Camryn as a distinct branch.
Meaningscholars disagree
'crooked nose', from Gaelic cam ('crooked') and sròn ('nose')
Two roads lead to the same spelling. The Highland Clan Cameron name is read as cam sròn, 'crooked nose' — a nickname that hardened into a family name. Separately, Lowland Cameron families took their name from places in Fife, generally read as 'crooked hill' or 'crooked stream'. Both derivations are taken seriously, and both start from Gaelic cam, 'crooked' or 'bent'.
Cultural footprint
Cameron Crowe (b. 1957) — Wrote and directed Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous
Cameron Boyce (b. 1999) — Beloved Disney Channel star of Descendants
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- cam srònGaelic: 'crooked nose'
- CameronScottish clan and place name
- CameronScottish surname
- Camerongiven name
Related forms: Camshron · Kameron · Camron · Camryn · Kamryn
Pronouncing Cameron
KAM-uh-run
Stress on the first syllable. Many speakers compress it to two syllables, KAM-run, and both are entirely standard — the same person will often use each depending on how fast they are speaking.
Nicknames for Cameron
High
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 200111,581 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #31reached in 2000
- Change vs 2022
- −12.5%4,348 in 2025, from 4,968
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.
Cameron in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Camshron in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Kameron in English — spelling variant
- Camron in English — spelling variant
- Camryn in English — related form
- Kamryn in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from National Records of Scotland. Sources
Camerons among us
people named Cameron are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 393 born in 2025 was named Cameron
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cameron
- #76
- Cameron on the 2025 chart
- #67
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cameron went to 4,348 boys in 2025, but Kameron is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 5,011, which makes it the 67th most-given boys’ name of the year — 9 places above the chart.
- Cameron4,348
- Kameron663
About 1 boy in 341 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 393 for Cameron itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Patrick test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cameron's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Patrick climbed just as high around 1964, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Patrick's path sketches the road Cameron is walking now.
Cameron is coming down from a big peak (#31 in 2000). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Cameron is headed
Cameron 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.
Cameron beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cameron in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is already known across the English-speaking world; you will rarely have to spell it out, though variants exist.
- Comes with a ready-made short form, Cam, that works in a classroom, on a roster and in an email signature.
- Still ranks in Scotland, where the name originated, alongside its long American record.
- Works for a boy or a girl without alteration, and its records in the US cover well over a century.
- Kameron, Camron, Camryn and Kamryn all circulate, so the name is likely to be misspelled sometimes even though the standard form is widely recognized.
- Most Camerons are boys. A girl with this spelling will meet the occasional assumption that a form was filled in for a son — manageable, but worth expecting.
- The likeliest meaning, 'crooked nose', was a personal nickname in Gaelic before it was ever a family name. Some parents enjoy the bluntness of that; others prefer to lean on the Fife place-name reading.
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Cameron
Masculine · #76 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Camerons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 304,000 people named Cameron are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cameron?
- Cameron is the most-used spelling in US records — 4,348 of the 5,011 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kameron.
- How popular is the name Cameron in 2025?
- Cameron ranks #76 among US boy names in 2025, with 4,348 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Cameron?
- About 1 in every 393 US boys born in 2025 was named Cameron — 4,348 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cameron with classmates?
- Cameron will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cameron
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Atlas#75 · Everett#77 · Adrian#74 · Walker#78 · Axel#79 · Andrew#73 · Aaron#80 · Enzo#72
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cameron? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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