Crimson
Masculine · “a deep red”
Crimson is given to both — 558 boys and 1,278 girls since 1880. See Crimson as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Crimson is the deepest and most expensive red English had a word for, and the word records the trade: it comes through Spanish from Arabic qirmizi, the dye made from a scale insect gathered off Mediterranean oaks. As a boys' name it is recent, and in much of the American South it arrives with a football team attached.
How old is the name Crimson?
Crimson first appears in US birth records in 1998 — 27 years ago. The typical Crimson is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Crimson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Crimson most popular?
Crimson peaked in 2016, reaching #2726 nationally. Today it ranks #5045, 2,319 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From qirmizi to Crimson
The story of Crimson
A true deep red had to be gathered insect by insect for most of European history, which is why the words for it name where the trade came from. Crimson entered English in the fourteenth century. Color names for children are recent and mostly American: Scarlett came first and made the category ordinary, and Indigo, Sienna and Crimson followed. For boys the name is rarer than for girls, and in Alabama it carries an unmistakable second meaning.
Meaning
a deep red; the color of kermes dye
Arabic qirmizi, of the kermes, through Old Spanish cremesin into English. The kermes insect supplied the dye before cochineal arrived from the Americas, and the word traveled the trade routes with the goods.
How the name formed
- qirmizi
- cremesin
- crimson
Related forms: Carmesí · قرمزي
Pronouncing Crimson
KRIM-sun
Two syllables, stress in front, exactly as the color word. There is no other reading.
Nicknames for Crimson
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
- 1998
- Most boys named
- 201644 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2726reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- −36.7%19 in 2025, from 30
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.
Crimson in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carmesí in Spanish — related form
- قرمزي in Arabic — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Alabama, Tennessee, Texas.
Crimsons among us
people named Crimson are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was named Crimson
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 Cruise test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Crimson's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cruise climbed just as high around 1987, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cruise's path sketches the road Crimson is walking now.
Crimson 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
Crimson beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Crimson in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a color anyone can picture and the etymology behind it is genuinely interesting.
- Everyone can spell it and say it after hearing it once.
- It sits within an established group of color names rather than standing alone.
- In much of the American South it is heard first as a college football team.
- Deep red carries associations of blood that some readers reach for immediately.
- It is a word in ordinary use, so the child hears his own name in unrelated sentences.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Crimson
Masculine · #5045 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Crimsons 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 Crimson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Crimson in 2025?
- Crimson ranks #5045 among US boy names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Crimson?
- About 1 in every 89,899 US boys born in 2025 was named Crimson — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Crimson with classmates?
- Crimson will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Crimson
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Silver#5045 · Daymon#5045 · Thierry#5045 · Mehmet#5045 · Tyrel#5045 · Teague#5045 · Zeyad#5045 · Gardner#5045
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Crimson? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Crimson and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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