Cannon
Masculine
Cannon is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 10,978 boys against 229 girls since 1880.
Cannon began as a family name on both sides of the Irish Sea — carried by households in the service of cathedral clergy in medieval England, and by Irish families whose Gaelic name was flattened into English spelling. Two hard consonants, two even syllables, and no one in America has to be told how to say it.
How old is the name Cannon?
Cannon first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Cannon is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 11,000 people named Cannon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cannon most popular?
Cannon peaked in 2021, reaching #506 nationally. Today it ranks #721, 215 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Latin canonicus to Cannon
The story of Cannon
For most of its life this was a surname, not a first name. In medieval England it attached to men connected with cathedral canons — the clergy who lived under canon law and staffed the great churches — and in Ireland it emerged separately when clerks wrote Gaelic names such as Ó Canáin in English letters. Irish and English emigration carried both versions to the United States, where surnames have a long habit of stepping forward into the first-name slot: Carson, Mason, Hudson, Cannon. It has sat quietly on American records far longer than its recent wave of babies would suggest, and only lately turned into a name parents choose on purpose.
Meaningscholars disagree
From the medieval English word for a cathedral canon, a clergyman; or an anglicized Irish family name
The English surname comes from Anglo-Norman and Middle English 'canoun', a member of a cathedral chapter — used for the clergyman himself or for someone in his household's service. The Irish surname Cannon is an anglicization of Ó Canáin and related Gaelic names, and its own root is separately debated. Both roads end at the same English spelling, so a bearer today cannot be sorted into one or the other. The artillery word is unrelated in origin: it descends from Latin 'canna', a reed or tube.
How the name formed
- Latin canonicus
- Anglo-Norman canoun
- English surname Cannon
- Cannongiven name
Related forms: Canon · Ó Canáin · Cannan
Pronouncing Cannon
KAN-un
Stress on the first syllable, exactly like the artillery word. Identical in speech to 'canon' with one n, which is where most written mistakes come from.
Nicknames for Cannon
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 2021581 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #506reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- +12.7%374 in 2025, from 332
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.
Cannon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Canon in English — spelling variant
- Ó Canáin in Irish — related form
- Cannan in Irish/Scottish English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Georgia.
Cannons among us
people named Cannon are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,567 born in 2025 was named Cannon
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cannon
- #721
- Cannon on the 2025 chart
- #404
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cannon went to 374 boys in 2025, but Kannon, Canon and Kanon are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 730, which makes it the 404th most-given boys’ name of the year — 317 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 2,340 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,567 for Cannon 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 Jair test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cannon's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jair climbed just as high around 2003, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jair's path sketches the road Cannon is walking now.
Cannon 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 Cannon is headed
Cannon is easing off slowly — about 19% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Cannon beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cannon in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Every English speaker can read it aloud on sight — one settled pronunciation, no variants to correct.
- Sits inside a pattern Americans already know well: a surname used as a boy's first name, alongside Carson, Mason and Hudson.
- Has been documented on US records far longer than its recent surge of babies suggests, so it is not a new coinage.
- Two clean syllables that pair easily with both short and long middle names.
- The homograph is unavoidable: in American English, 'cannon' is first of all a piece of artillery. Most people take that in stride, but the association arrives before any medieval clergyman does.
- Expect the one-n spelling. 'Canon' turns up in canon law, literary canon and a camera brand, so a lifetime of gentle corrections is likely.
- Its wave is very recent, so nearly everyone who carries it is still a child. Among adults it reads as a distinctly modern American choice.
- There is no ready-made nickname tradition here. If you want a short form, you will more or less be inventing one — which some families enjoy and others find inconvenient.
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What they receive
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Cannon
Masculine · #721 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cannons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,000 people named Cannon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cannon?
- Cannon is the most-used spelling in US records — 374 of the 730 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kannon, Canon and Kanon.
- How popular is the name Cannon in 2025?
- Cannon ranks #721 among US boy names in 2025, with 374 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cannon?
- About 1 in every 4,567 US boys born in 2025 was named Cannon — 374 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cannon with classmates?
- Cannon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cannon
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bellamy#721 · Neithan#723 · Westyn#723 · Ocean#717 · Nikolas#717 · Jahmir#725 · Jase#717 · Lee#725
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cannon? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cannon and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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