Craig
Feminine · “a rock”
Craig is given to boys far more often — 299,616 boys against 1,012 girls since 1880. See Craig as a boy name
Every curling stone in the world comes from one island. Ailsa Craig is a plug of granite standing in the Firth of Clyde, uninhabited except by gannets, and its stone is so free of the tiny cracks that let water in and split a stone in frost that the sport has never found an acceptable substitute.
How old is the name Craig?
Craig first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Craig alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 900 people named Craig are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Craig most popular?
Craig peaked in 1970, reaching #1877 nationally. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Gaelic word for a rock to Craig
The story of Craig
The island is quarried rarely and carefully, and the stones are made from two kinds of its granite: a hard one for the running band that touches the ice and a softer one for the body. A curling stone lasts decades, and the world supply comes from a rock two miles round that was for centuries chiefly known as a landmark for sailors and a nesting site. It also gave Glasgow a phrase — a thing described as Ailsa Craig is enormous — and the island has been for sale more than once, which is a strange thing to be able to say about the source of an Olympic sport's equipment.
Meaning
a rock, a crag
The word is Gaelic and it means exactly what it looks like: a rock or a steep outcrop. It became a Scottish surname for people who lived by one, and then a first name — but not until the twentieth century, which is worth knowing, because it means every Craig alive is part of a single wave that began in the 1940s and had run its course by the 1980s.
How the name formed
- a Gaelic word for a rock
- Scottish surnames for people living by one
- an island of granite supplies the world's curling stones
- the surname becomes a first name in the twentieth century
- an American peak at the end of the 1960s
Related forms: Creag · Kraig
Pronouncing Craig
KRAYG
One syllable, rhyming with vague. Scots give the vowel a slightly shorter value than most Americans do, and nobody has ever been misunderstood.
Nicknames for Craig
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 197046 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1877reached in 1970
- Change vs 1995
- 0.0%5 in 1996, 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.
Craig in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Creag in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Kraig in English — spelling variant
Craigs among us
people named Craig 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
Craig 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
- Five letters, one syllable, and impossible to misspell once heard.
- The meaning is concrete and easy to picture, which most surname-names lack.
- It works for a child of either sex, though the record leans heavily one way.
- It is one of the most precisely dated names of the last century and places its bearer immediately.
- There is nothing to shorten and nothing to lengthen.
- It is stepping back sharply from its peak, so it reads as a father's name.
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What they receive
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Craig
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Craigs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Craig are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Craig in 2025?
- Craig is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Craig with classmates?
- Craig will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Craig? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Craig and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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