Fenton
Masculine · “marsh farmstead”
A fen is a wetland that is fed by groundwater rather than rain, and England had a great deal of it before the seventeenth century, when Dutch engineers drained the largest expanse and turned it into farmland. Fenton is a farmstead by one, and most of the fens it names are gone.
How old is the name Fenton?
Fenton first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Fenton alive today was born around 1950, making them about 75 years old. About 1,000 people named Fenton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Fenton most popular?
Fenton peaked in 1895, reaching #738 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 6,065 places below that high. See the whole 1895 chart.
Where it comes from
From fenn tun to Fenton
The story of Fenton
The Fens of eastern England covered thousands of square miles of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk, and the drainage schemes led by Cornelius Vermuyden from the 1630s converted most of them to agricultural land, over sustained local resistance. Place names in fenn survive across England, marking ground that in many cases has not been marsh for four centuries. The surname Fenton followed the places, crossed to America, and became a given name in the nineteenth century in the ordinary fashion; its best year in United States records is 1895.
Meaning
marsh farmstead
From Old English fenn, a marsh or fen, and tun, an enclosure or farmstead. The same fenn appears in Fenwick, Fenny Stratford and the Fens themselves. The distinction between a fen and a bog is technical: a fen is fed by mineral-rich groundwater and a bog by rainwater alone, and the vegetation differs accordingly.
How the name formed
- fenn tun
- Fenton
- Fenton
Related forms: Fenn · Veen · Fenn
Pronouncing Fenton
FEN-tun
Two syllables with the stress on the first and the second reduced. Identical in structure to Hilton, Keeton and every other -ton place name.
Nicknames for Fenton
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
- 1883
- Most boys named
- 192240 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #738reached in 1895
- Change vs 2022
- +33.3%12 in 2025, from 9
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.
Fenton in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Fenn in English — related form
- Veen in Dutch — related form
- Fenn in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Washington.
Fentons among us
people named Fenton are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Fenton
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Fenton 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
Fenton beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Fenton in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Old English meaning describing a real and specific landscape.
- Fen is a short, current and independently used name.
- Six letters and no pronunciation ambiguity.
- It reads as a surname, which is what it is.
- Fenton, Fenwick and Fenn are all nearby and get confused.
- The -ton family is heavily used in current American naming.
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Fenton
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Fentons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Fenton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Fenton in 2025?
- Fenton ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Fenton?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Fenton — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Fenton with classmates?
- Fenton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Fenton
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 Fenton? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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