Chad
Feminine · “battle”
Chad is given to boys far more often — 240,728 boys against 1,039 girls since 1880. See Chad as a boy name
Chad is an Anglo-Saxon bishop, a central African country and a scrap of paper. The three have nothing to do with one another, and the last of them turned the name into a household word for a few weeks in the winter of 2000, when the outcome of an American presidential election depended on whether small pieces of card were fully detached.
How old is the name Chad?
Chad first appears in US birth records in 1966 — 59 years ago. The typical Chad alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 1,000 people named Chad are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Chad most popular?
Chad peaked in 1973, reaching #1444 nationally. See the whole 1973 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a seventh-century Mercian bishop called Ceadda to Chad
The story of Chad
The word for the scrap punched out of a card has no agreed origin. Printers and telegraph operators were using it by the middle of the last century; suggestions include a Scots dialect word for gravel, an acronym, a company name and simple onomatopoeia, and none has ever been demonstrated. It sat in a technical vocabulary for fifty years, entirely unknown to the public, until a recount in Florida turned on whether a chad that was hanging by one corner counted as a vote. For about a month it was the most-used new word in America, and then it went back to the printers.
Meaningscholars disagree
battle, most likely
The Old English name Ceadda is probably built on a British word rather than a Germanic one — the element behind it may be the Welsh word for battle — which would make it a rare case of an Anglo-Saxon bishop carrying a name from the people the Anglo-Saxons had displaced. The African country is unrelated and takes its name from the lake, which comes from a local word meaning a large expanse of water. The paper is unrelated to both and nobody knows where it came from.
How the name formed
- a seventh-century Mercian bishop called Ceadda
- the name survives in English place names and dedications
- a central African lake gives its name to a country
- a punched-card term enters printing vocabulary
- the name peaks in American use in the early 1970s
Related forms: Ceadda · Cad
Pronouncing Chad
CHAD
One syllable, rhyming with had. There is no other way to read it in English, and the African country is said the same way.
Nicknames for Chad
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
- 1966
- Most girls named
- 197669 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1444reached in 1973
- Change vs 1996
- +20.0%6 in 2004, from 5
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.
Chad in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ceadda in Old English — same name
- Cad in Welsh — related form
Chads among us
people named Chad are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Chad sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Four letters, one syllable, and impossible to misspell or mispronounce.
- It has a genuine Anglo-Saxon saint behind it with a documented life.
- It suits a man as well as a boy, which short names do not always manage.
- The name has picked up an unflattering internet stereotype in the last decade.
- It is closely dated to the 1970s in America and reads as a father's name.
- There is nothing to shorten and nothing to lengthen.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Chad to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Chad
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Chads are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Chad are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Chad in 2025?
- Chad is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Chad with classmates?
- Chad will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Chad? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Chad and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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