Devon
Masculine · “From Devon”
Devon is given to both — 72,673 boys and 20,303 girls since 1880. See Devon as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Devon is a county in the southwest of England — red cliffs, moor and sea on two sides — and it reached the baptismal register the way many English places did, first as a surname, then as a name given outright. It is two level syllables that no one has to hear twice, and it has been on American birth records without a break for generations.
How old is the name Devon?
Devon first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Devon alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 69,500 people named Devon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Devon most popular?
Devon peaked in 1994, reaching #117 nationally. Today it ranks #1028, 911 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Devon appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Dumnonii to Devon
The story of Devon
The Dumnonii were still a recognizable people after Rome withdrew, and their territory carried on as the kingdom of Dumnonia. Old English speakers called them the Defnas and their shire Defenascir, which wore down over the centuries into Devonshire and then simply Devon. Place became surname, surname became first name, and by the early twentieth century American parents were giving it directly. It arrived alongside the similar-sounding Devin, a separate name from the Irish surname Ó Damháin, and in the United States the two have borrowed spellings from each other ever since.
Meaningscholars disagree
From Devon, the English county — the land of the Dumnonii
The county name is firmly traced to the Dumnonii, a Celtic people who held the southwestern peninsula in Roman times. What their own name meant is where scholars part ways: one reading connects it to a Celtic root dumno- meaning 'deep', taken as 'the deep valley people' or 'the deep ones'; another reads the same root as 'world' and links the tribal name to a deity. Both are serious; neither has won.
How the name formed
- Dumnonii
- Dumnonia
- Defnas
- Devonshire
- Devon
Related forms: Dewnans · Dyfnaint · Devin · Devyn · Devan
Pronouncing Devon
DEV-un
First syllable rhymes with 'rev'. A DEE-von reading turns up occasionally from people reading it cold, but the county and the name both take the short E.
Nicknames for Devon
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 19983,147 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #117reached in 1994
- Change vs 2023
- −16.3%216 in 2025, from 258
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.
Devon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dewnans in Cornish — related form
- Dyfnaint in Welsh — related form
- Devin in English — related form
- Devyn in English — spelling variant
- Devan in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Devons among us
people named Devon are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 7,908 born in 2025 was named Devon
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 Reginald test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Devon's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Reginald climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Reginald's path sketches the road Devon is walking now.
Devon 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
Where Devon is headed
Devon is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Devon beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Devon in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, phonetic in English, and pronounced correctly by almost anyone reading it for the first time.
- A real place with a thousand-year paper trail behind it, rather than a coinage — the county, the shire, the tribe.
- Dev is an established short form, so there is a everyday version ready without inventing one.
- Recorded continuously in American use across many decades, familiar to every generation without being tied to one.
- Recognized in Britain and Ireland as well as the US, where the county name needs no explanation.
- Devin, Devyn, Devan and Deven all circulate, so this spelling will be confirmed out loud fairly often. Not a burden, but a lifelong small correction.
- In the United States the name has gone to girls as well as boys, so paperwork and roll calls occasionally guess the other way. It is a genuine two-way name here, and neither side is a mistake.
- It is a name most strongly represented among adults now rather than small children, which means fellow classmates will be rare and grown-up namesakes plenty.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Devon to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Devon
Masculine · #1028 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Devons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 69,500 people named Devon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Devon in 2025?
- Devon ranks #1028 among US boy names in 2025, with 216 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Devon?
- About 1 in every 7,908 US boys born in 2025 was named Devon — 216 in all.
- Will my child share the name Devon with classmates?
- Devon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Devon
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kaius#1028 · Semaj#1026 · Ivaan#1030 · Gatlin#1026 · Yaseen#1030 · Shai#1030 · Kellan#1030 · Kooper#1024
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Devon? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Devon and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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