Cuauhtemoc
Masculine · “descending eagle”
Cuauhtemoc was the last Aztec ruler. He held Tenochtitlan through the siege of 1521, was captured, tortured by having his feet burned to make him reveal gold, and executed four years later. His name means the eagle descends.
How old is the name Cuauhtemoc?
Cuauhtemoc first appears in US birth records in 1949 — 76 years ago. The typical Cuauhtemoc alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 1,200 people named Cuauhtemoc are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cuauhtemoc most popular?
Cuauhtemoc peaked in 1980, reaching #2162 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 4,641 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From cuauhtli temo to Cuauhtemoc
The story of Cuauhtemoc
Cuauhtemoc became tlatoani of Tenochtitlan in 1520 after his predecessors died of smallpox, held the city against Cortes and his Tlaxcalan allies through a siege that ended in August 1521, and was captured attempting to escape by canoe. He was tortured for gold and hanged on the march to Honduras in 1525. Mexican national memory made him a founding figure rather than a defeated one, and his name is on streets, boroughs, statues and children across the country. The deliberate use of Nahuatl names is a twentieth-century Mexican assertion of indigenous identity, and Cuauhtemoc is the most-given of them; its best year in United States records is 1980.
Meaning
descending eagle, the eagle that falls
Nahuatl cuauhtli, an eagle, and temo, to descend or come down, giving the descending eagle or one who descends like an eagle. The eagle is the sun in Nahua thought, and a descending eagle is the sun setting, so the name is often read as the sun going down, which later Mexican writers found unbearably apt.
How the name formed
- cuauhtli temo
- Cuauhtemoc
Related forms: Cuauhtemoc · Cuauhtemoc
Pronouncing Cuauhtemoc
kwow-TEH-mok
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The cuauh is a single syllable in Nahuatl, kwow, and the h marks a sound English does not have; the tl in the full word cuauhtli is a single Nahuatl consonant.
Nicknames for Cuauhtemoc
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
- 1949
- Most boys named
- 200747 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2162reached in 1980
- Change vs 2024
- −7.7%12 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.
Cuauhtemoc in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cuauhtemoc in Spanish — same name
- Cuauhtemoc in Nahuatl — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Cuauhtemocs among us
people named Cuauhtemoc are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Cuauhtemoc
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 Texas test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cuauhtemoc's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Texas climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Texas's path sketches the road Cuauhtemoc is walking now.
Cuauhtemoc 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
Cuauhtemoc beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cuauhtemoc in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented historical figure of enormous national significance.
- A settled Nahuatl meaning with a vivid image behind it.
- Temo is a warm and completely established short form.
- Almost no English speaker can read it at first sight.
- Ten letters and three syllables will be spelled out constantly in America.
- It carries a strong political and national charge in Mexico.
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Cuauhtemoc
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cuauhtemocs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Cuauhtemoc are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cuauhtemoc in 2025?
- Cuauhtemoc ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cuauhtemoc?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Cuauhtemoc — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cuauhtemoc with classmates?
- Cuauhtemoc will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cuauhtemoc
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cuauhtemoc? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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