Durward
Masculine · “door keeper”
A durward kept the king's door. It was a real office in medieval Scotland, held by a family who took their name from it, and the man who held it controlled who reached the king — which was worth rather more than the job title suggests.
How old is the name Durward?
Durward first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Durward alive today was born around 1926, making them about 99 years old. About 600 people named Durward are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Durward most popular?
Durward peaked in 1912, reaching #510 nationally. See the whole 1912 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Durward
Alan Durward was one of the most powerful men in thirteenth-century Scotland, regent for a boy king and a fixture in every faction fight of the period, and his family's name came from the hereditary office of ostiarius, the king's doorkeeper. Household offices produced a great many European surnames this way — Stewart from the steward, Marshall from the horse-marshal, Chamberlain and Butler from the roles they name — and each of them was a position of real power dressed as a piece of domestic staff. The surname reached America and moved to the front of the name in the nineteenth century.
Meaning
door keeper
The two halves are transparent English: a door and a ward, in the older sense of a guard or keeper. The office and the surname are the same word.
Pronouncing Durward
DUR-wurd
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Both halves are ordinary English words and neither hides anything.
Nicknames for Durward
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
- 1884
- Most boys named
- 1917103 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #510reached in 1912
- Change vs 1982
- −16.7%5 in 1991, from 6
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.
Durwards among us
people named Durward are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Durward sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Both halves are readable, so the name is said correctly at sight.
- Ward is a ready short form and a standing name of its own.
- The office behind it is real, documented and unexpectedly interesting.
- It will be heard as Edward and Durwood by turns and written both ways.
- It reads clearly as a name of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- It is rare enough that most people will need it spelled.
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Durward
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Durwards 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 Durward are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Durward in 2025?
- Durward is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Durward with classmates?
- Durward will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Durward? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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