Duston
Masculine · “Thor's stone”
Dustin is a Norse name worn down: Thurstan, the stone of Thor, which the Normans brought to England after picking it up in Normandy from the Danes. The god is still in the first syllable, and the spelling with an o at the end is the place-name form rather than the personal one.
How old is the name Duston?
Duston first appears in US birth records in 1951 — 74 years ago. The typical Duston alive today was born around 1986, making them about 39 years old. About 1,100 people named Duston are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Duston most popular?
Duston peaked in 1986, reaching #1227 nationally. See the whole 1986 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Thorsteinn to Duston
The story of Duston
The surname carries one of the most uncomfortable stories in early American history. Hannah Duston was taken in a raid in sixteen ninety-seven with her newborn daughter, who was killed on the march; some weeks later, held on an island in New Hampshire, she and two other captives killed ten of the family holding them, six of them children, took their scalps, and went home to collect the bounty. She was celebrated for it, given a statue in the nineteenth century that was among the first raised to a woman in America, and written up by Hawthorne and Thoreau, who both found the story difficult. It is still difficult, and the statues are still there.
Meaning
Thor's stone
Old Norse Thorsteinn, joining the god's name to the word for a stone, which may refer to an altar or to a boundary marker. It became Thurstan in England, then Dustin by ordinary wearing down. The ending in this spelling is the one English uses on place names, where it means a settlement.
How the name formed
- Thorsteinn
- Thurstan
- Dustin
- Duston
Related forms: Torstein · Torsten
Pronouncing Duston
DUS-tun
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The second is reduced to nothing, which is why Dustin, Duston and Dustan are all said the same way and all appear in the records.
Nicknames for Duston
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
- 1951
- Most boys named
- 198661 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1227reached in 1986
- Change vs 2014
- +20.0%6 in 2016, from 5
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.
Duston in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Torstein in Norwegian — related form
- Torsten in Swedish — related form
Dustons among us
people named Duston 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
Duston 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
- Short, firm and easy to say, with a documented Norse line behind it.
- Dusty is a warm, unisex everyday form available immediately.
- The meaning is concrete and can be given to a child in two words.
- Dustin is far commoner and will be written by anyone taking dictation.
- The -on ending makes it look like a place name rather than a personal one.
- The first syllable is an ordinary English word, which children will find.
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Duston
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Dustons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Duston are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Duston in 2025?
- Duston is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Duston with classmates?
- Duston will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More D names
The most-given names starting with D, all years combined.
David#35 · Daniel#22 · Donald#690 · Dennis#707 · Douglas#807 · Dylan#41 · Danny#628 · Dale#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Duston? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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