Coy
Masculine · “Quiet”
Coy is given to both — 17,348 boys and 866 girls since 1880. See Coy as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Coy is an English adjective, an Irish surname and a name, and the adjective has traveled a long way from where it started: it began by meaning quiet and ended up meaning something close to the opposite of frank.
How old is the name Coy?
Coy was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Coy alive today was born around 1955, making them about 70 years old. About 9,700 people named Coy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Coy most popular?
Coy peaked in 1910, reaching #299 nationally. Today it ranks #1451, 1,152 places below that high. See the whole 1910 chart.
Coy appears on this list:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Coy
Quietus meant still or at rest. French took it and produced a word meaning calm, then shy, then reserved in a particular way; English borrowed that and narrowed it further, until coy stopped meaning quiet at all and came to mean pretending not to want what you want. The same Latin word, coming through French by a different route at a different date, gave English quit and acquit and quiet itself. Three words from one root, in one language, meaning peace, release and false modesty — which is a good illustration of how much damage a few centuries of ordinary use can do to a perfectly clear idea.
Meaningscholars disagree
Quiet, still — if the English word is behind it
As a surname it is Irish, anglicized from a Gaelic name, and separately English, from a nickname. As a word it descends from the Latin quietus, meaning at rest — which gives quiet, quit and coy by three different roads through French. Which is behind a given child is not recorded.
Pronouncing Coy
KOY
One syllable, rhyming with boy. Nothing in the spelling is ambiguous.
Nicknames for Coy
Limited
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1926264 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #299reached in 1910
- Change vs 2022
- +1.7%123 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.
Coy in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee.
Coys among us
people named Coy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 13,887 born in 2025 was named Coy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Coy
- #1451
- Coy on the 2025 chart
- #708
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Coy went to 123 boys in 2025, but Koi, Khoi and Koy and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 222, which makes it the 708th most-given boys’ name of the year — 743 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 7,694 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 13,887 for Coy 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
Fashion outlook
Coy 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 Coy is headed
Coy 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.
Coy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Coy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is as short as a name gets and impossible to misspell.
- It has genuine Southern and Irish-American roots rather than being a recent invention.
- It is read correctly the first time by everybody.
- It is an ordinary English adjective with a slightly unflattering sense.
- The spelling is recorded for both sexes, and the small recent handful have mostly been boys.
- Two unrelated origins mean no meaning can be claimed.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Coy
Masculine · #1451 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Coys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,700 people named Coy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Coy?
- Coy is the most-used spelling in US records — 123 of the 222 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Koi, Khoi, Koy and Coi.
- How popular is the name Coy in 2025?
- Coy ranks #1451 among US boy names in 2025, with 123 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Coy?
- About 1 in every 13,887 US boys born in 2025 was named Coy — 123 in all.
- Will my child share the name Coy with classmates?
- Coy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Coy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zamari#1451 · Demari#1451 · Dov#1451 · Zephaniah#1451 · Ozzie#1451 · Osiel#1451 · Pierson#1451 · Giuseppe#1459
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Coy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Coy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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