Courtney
Feminine · “of Courtenay”
Courtney is given to both — 258,399 girls and 23,033 boys since 1880. See Courtney as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Courtney is a French noble house that became an English earldom, a surname, a boy's name and finally a girl's name — four changes of category in eight hundred years.
How old is the name Courtney?
Courtney first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Courtney alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 252,000 people named Courtney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Courtney most popular?
Courtney peaked in 1990, reaching #17 nationally. Today it ranks #2326, 2,309 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Courtney appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Curtenus to Courtney
The story of Courtney
The Courtenays arrived in England in the twelfth century and became earls of Devon, holding land there for four hundred years. The surname crossed into given-name use in the nineteenth century, first for sons. The move to girls happened in America in the 1970s and was decisive: Courtney reached the top twenty for girls by 1990, and masculine use effectively ended.
Meaningscholars disagree
of Courtenay
From the French place name Courtenay, generally read as a Gallo-Roman personal name Curtenus plus a suffix marking a landholding. An older account derives the surname from the Old French court nez, 'short nose', which medieval chroniclers repeated about the family. The place-name reading is the better supported.
How the name formed
- Curtenus
- Courtenay
- Courtney
Related forms: Courtenay · Cortney · Kourtney
Pronouncing Courtney
KORT-nee
Two syllables, stress on the first. All the spellings are said identically.
Nicknames for Courtney
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
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 199015,380 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #17reached in 1990
- Change vs 2022
- −35.5%78 in 2025, from 121
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.
Courtney in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Courtenay in French — related form
- Cortney in English — spelling variant
- Kourtney in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Courtneys among us
people named Courtney are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 20,606 born in 2025 was named Courtney
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Courtney
- #2326
- Courtney on the 2025 chart
- #851
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Courtney went to 78 girls in 2025, but Kourtney is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 109, which makes it the 851st most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,475 places above the chart.
- Courtney78
- Kourtney31
About 1 girl in 14,746 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 20,606 for Courtney 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 Louise test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Courtney's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Louise climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Louise's path sketches the road Courtney is walking now.
Courtney 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 Courtney is headed
Courtney is easing off slowly — about 21% 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.
Courtney beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Courtney in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Norman family with a traceable place of origin and four centuries in England.
- The standard spelling, so it is the one most likely to be assumed correctly.
- Two firm syllables that pair well with almost any surname.
- Several respellings are in use and the name is misspelled often.
- It is tightly dated to the late 1980s and 1990s in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Courtney to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Courtney
Feminine · #2326 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Courtneys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 252,000 people named Courtney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Courtney?
- Courtney is the most-used spelling in US records — 78 of the 109 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kourtney.
- How popular is the name Courtney in 2025?
- Courtney ranks #2326 among US girl names in 2025, with 78 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Courtney?
- About 1 in every 20,606 US girls born in 2025 was named Courtney — 78 in all.
- Will my child share the name Courtney with classmates?
- Courtney will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Courtney
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ria#2326 · Malaika#2326 · Delta#2326 · Caitlin#2326 · Tommie#2326 · Azalia#2326 · Audrina#2326 · Sitara#2326
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Courtney? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Courtney and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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