Conor
Masculine · “first element "hound”
Conor is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 27,380 boys against 69 girls since 1880.
Conor is the Irish spelling of a name carried by kings in the annals of Ireland and by Conchobar mac Nessa, the king of Ulster in the medieval Ulster Cycle tales. It reaches English with two syllables that need no explanation and no apology — one of those names that arrived from Irish and required almost nothing of English speakers in return.
How old is the name Conor?
Conor first appears in US birth records in 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Conor alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 27,000 people named Conor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Conor most popular?
Conor peaked in 1993, reaching #232 nationally. Today it ranks #843, 611 places below that high. See the whole 1993 chart.
Conor appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Conchobar to Conor
The story of Conor
The name begins as Old Irish Conchobar and belongs to the oldest layer of Irish naming, the kind built from hounds, wolves and battle. It was borne by high kings and by the Ulster king Conchobar mac Nessa in the Táin Bó Cúailnge cycle, and it produced one of Ireland's great surnames: Ó Conchobhair, the O'Connors of Connacht. As Irish spelling gave way to English on paper, Conchobhar was clipped to Conchúr and then written Conor and Connor; for a while Cornelius was used in Irish records as a formal stand-in. Emigration carried it across the Atlantic, where it took hold as a first name in its own right well after the surname had.
Meaningscholars disagree
first element "hound, wolf"; second element disputed
The Old Irish name is Conchobar. The first part, cú/con, means "hound" or "wolf" and is not in doubt. The second is read two ways: as an element meaning "desiring", giving roughly "lover of hounds", or as a word for "help, aid". Both readings are taken seriously; neither has won.
How the name formed
- Conchobar
- Conchobhar
- Conchúr
- Conor
- Connor
Related forms: Conchobhar · Conchúr · Connor · Conner · Conchobhar · Conchobar
Pronouncing Conor
KON-er
Identical to Connor in speech — the single n changes the spelling, not the sound. Irish speakers may give the first syllable a slightly darker vowel, closer to KUN-er.
Nicknames for Conor
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
- 1961
- Most boys named
- 20171,130 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #232reached in 1993
- Change vs 2024
- −22.3%292 in 2025, from 376
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.
Conor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Conchobhar in Irish — same name
- Conchúr in Irish — related form
- Connor in English — spelling variant
- Conner in English — spelling variant
- Conchobhar in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Conchobar in Old Irish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Pennsylvania.
Conors among us
people named Conor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,850 born in 2025 was named Conor
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Conor
- #843
- Conor on the 2025 chart
- #146
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Conor went to 292 boys in 2025, but Connor and Konnor are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 2,555, which makes it the 146th most-given boys’ name of the year — 697 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 669 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,850 for Conor 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 Frankie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Conor's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Frankie climbed just as high around 1945, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Frankie's path sketches the road Conor is walking now.
Conor 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 Conor is headed
Conor is easing off slowly — about 28% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues. 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.
Conor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Conor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Needs no spelling lesson to be read correctly; anyone who has seen Connor can say Conor on sight.
- A documented record stretching from Old Irish annals to present-day American classrooms, without a gap.
- The single-n spelling is the standard Irish one, which gives it a clear provenance rather than looking like an invented respelling.
- Works in Ireland, Britain, Australia and the US with no adjustment, and has an established short form in Con.
- Connor is the more familiar spelling in the US, so the single n will need correcting fairly often — on forms, in emails, on jerseys. It is a small, lifelong administrative tax rather than a problem.
- In the last decade the most visible bearer in American media has been the Irish fighter Conor McGregor, whose public reputation is mixed. Associations like this fade, but for now some people will make the connection out loud.
- The short form Con doubles as an ordinary English word, which older children occasionally notice.
- It sits well past its busiest stretch and is thinning out among newborns, so a child named Conor is more likely to share the name with adults than with classmates.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Conor
Masculine · #843 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Conors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 27,000 people named Conor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Conor?
- Conor is one of 3 recorded spellings. Connor is the more common one — 2,211 births in 2025 against 292 for Conor.
- How popular is the name Conor in 2025?
- Conor ranks #843 among US boy names in 2025, with 292 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Conor?
- About 1 in every 5,850 US boys born in 2025 was named Conor — 292 in all.
- Will my child share the name Conor with classmates?
- Conor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Conor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Coleson#843 · Ben#843 · Benny#840 · Casen#840 · Cason#846 · Alfred#840 · Jimmy#846 · Braylon#848
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Conor? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Conor 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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