Cricket
Feminine · “Old French criquet”
The insect and the game are probably one word. Old French criquet named a clicking sound and also a stick or a post, and English took both: the creature for the noise it makes and the sport for the wicket or the bat. A word built from an imitation of a sound named a summer game.
How old is the name Cricket?
Cricket first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Cricket alive today was born around 1986, making them about 39 years old. About 600 people named Cricket are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cricket most popular?
Cricket peaked in 1962, reaching #2539 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 6,321 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From criquet to Cricket
Our story of Cricket
Our reading is that Cricket belongs to a small American class of affectionate nicknames that became legal names, and the class is worth naming. Bitsy, Sissy, Bubba, Missy, Cricket, Kitten and Pixie all appear in the birth records, most of them concentrated in the South and most of them mid-century. They are terms a family used for a small child, written onto a certificate rather than kept for the house. What distinguishes them from ordinary short forms is that they are not shortenings of anything: there is no long form to fall back on when the child grows up, which is the practical difficulty with the whole category. Cricket has the additional feature of being onomatopoeic in origin, so the name is ultimately a written imitation of a noise, which is about as far from an etymology as a name can get.
Meaningscholars disagree
Old French criquet, a clicking sound or a stick
The insect is from Old French criquet, from criquer, to creak or click, an imitative word. The game's name is generally traced to the same source, either from a word for a stick or from a Flemish term, and the connection between the two senses is probable rather than proven. As a given name Cricket is an American nickname registered as a name, peaking in 1962.
How the name formed
- criquet
- cricket
- Cricket
Pronouncing Cricket
KRIK-it
Two syllables, stress on the first, short i in both. Identical to the insect and the game. There is no competing reading.
Nicknames for Cricket
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
- 1950
- Most girls named
- 198224 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2539reached in 1962
- Change vs 2023
- −15.4%11 in 2025, from 13
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.
Crickets among us
people named Cricket are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Cricket
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Roberto test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cricket's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roberto climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roberto's path sketches the road Cricket is walking now.
Cricket 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
Cricket beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cricket in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is cheerful, short and impossible to mispronounce.
- The word is familiar and the associations are pleasant.
- Kit works as a more formal-sounding short form.
- It is a common noun naming both an insect and a sport.
- It has no long form to fall back on.
- The name reads as a nickname in every context.
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What they receive
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Cricket
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Crickets are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Cricket are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cricket in 2025?
- Cricket ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cricket?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Cricket — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cricket with classmates?
- Cricket will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cricket
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cricket? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cricket and another name?
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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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