Crispin
Masculine · “Curly-haired”
Crispin is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,818 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Crispin means curly-haired, which is about as modest an origin as a name can have, and it acquired a great deal of weight anyway: Shakespeare gave Henry V a speech about St Crispin's day that has been quoted at soldiers ever since.
How old is the name Crispin?
Crispin first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Crispin alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 1,400 people named Crispin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Crispin most popular?
Crispin peaked in 1971, reaching #1560 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 3,839 places below that high. See the whole 1971 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Crispus to Crispin
The story of Crispin
Crispin and Crispinian were brothers, by tradition Roman nobles who went to Gaul as missionaries, worked as shoemakers and were martyred under Diocletian; they became the patron saints of cobblers, and their feast is 25 October. That date is the anniversary of Agincourt, which is why Shakespeare's Henry V speaks of the feast of Crispian and the band of brothers — the most quoted speech about soldiers in the English language. The name was used in medieval England, faded, and revived thinly in the twentieth century; its small American peak in 1971 belongs to that revival and to Filipino and Hispanic families, where Crispín has been used continuously.
Meaning
Curly-haired
From Latin Crispinus, a derivative of the cognomen Crispus, from crispus, curly or curly-haired. The reading is settled and undisputed. Roman family names of this kind describe a physical feature and were inherited without regard to whether the descendants shared it.
How the name formed
- Crispus
- Crispinus
- Crispin
Related forms: Crispinus · Crispín · Crépin · Crispino
Pronouncing Crispin
KRISS-pin
Two syllables, stress on the first. Spanish Crispín puts the weight on the second, kris-PEEN. French Crépin has lost the s entirely.
Nicknames for Crispin
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 200739 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1560reached in 1971
- Change vs 2023
- +54.5%17 in 2025, from 11
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.
Crispin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Crispinus in Latin — related form
- Crispín in Spanish — same name
- Crépin in French — related form
- Crispino in Italian — related form
Crispins among us
people named Crispin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Crispin
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 Paige test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Crispin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Paige climbed just as high around 1948, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Paige's path sketches the road Crispin is walking now.
Crispin 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
Crispin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Crispin 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 settled, modest and easy to explain.
- Cris is available as an entirely ordinary short form.
- The Shakespeare speech is a genuinely good thing for a name to carry.
- It is regularly confused with Christopher and Crispian.
- The word crisp sits inside it, which a schoolyard will find.
- It has been rare in English-speaking countries for five hundred years.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Crispin to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Crispin? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Crispin
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Crispins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Crispin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Crispin in 2025?
- Crispin ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Crispin?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Crispin — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Crispin with classmates?
- Crispin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Crispin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Crispin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Crispin and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle