Finn
Masculine · “Fair”
Finn is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 34,949 boys against 431 girls since 1880.
Finn is one syllable and it lands cleanly: short vowel, two consonants, done. In Irish tradition it belongs to Fionn mac Cumhaill, the hunter-warrior at the center of the medieval Fenian Cycle; in Old Norse, Finnr was a byname for a northerner. Two very different roads, the same four letters at the end of both.
How old is the name Finn?
Finn first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Finn is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 34,500 people named Finn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Finn most popular?
Finn peaked in 2018, reaching #166 nationally. Today it ranks #206, 40 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Finn appears on these lists:
- Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer
- One-syllable names: said in a single beat
- Names with a double letter
- Irish names beyond St. Patrick's Day
- Scandinavian names, cool by design
- Literary names for future bookworms
- all guides
Works in Irish and Scandinavian families too:
Where it comes from
From Find (Old Irish) to Finn
The story of Finn
The Irish Fionn is the older literary presence — the stories of Fionn mac Cumhaill and his warrior band were written down in Irish manuscripts through the Middle Ages, and James Macpherson's Ossian poems of the 1760s carried a version of him across Europe under the name Fingal. Quite separately, Finnr was in ordinary use in Norway, Denmark and Iceland, and traveled south into German and Dutch naming. English speakers met the spelling a third way, as a surname, most famously in Mark Twain's 1884 novel about Huckleberry Finn. The short modern form has been on American records since the early twentieth century, but its real rise is recent, matched by a parallel wave in Ireland, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.
Meaningscholars disagree
"Fair, bright, white" in Irish — or "a Finn, a northerner" in Old Norse
The Irish route is well documented: Old Irish find, later fionn, meaning fair or bright, the word behind Fionn mac Cumhaill's name. The Scandinavian route is equally real: Old Norse Finnr, used as a byname and personal name, referring to a Finn or Sámi person. Modern bearers may descend from either, and in English-speaking countries the two have simply merged into one spelling.
Cultural footprint
Finn Wolfhard (b. 2002) — Stranger Things' Mike
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- FindOld Irish
- FionnIrish
- Finn
Related forms: Fionn · Finn · Finn · Fynn · Finnur · Fionnbharr
Pronouncing Finn
FIN
One syllable, rhyming with "win". It sounds the same in English, German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages, which is unusual — most names change shape at a border. The Irish Fionn is closer to "fyun" in parts of Ireland.
Nicknames for Finn
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
- 1918
- Most boys named
- 20172,382 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #166reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- −5.4%1,702 in 2025, from 1,799
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.
Finn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Fionn in Irish — same name
- Finn in Danish / Norwegian — same name
- Finn in Dutch — same name
- Fynn in German — spelling variant
- Finnur in Icelandic — related form
- Fionnbharr in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from National Records of Scotland, Office for National Statistics. Sources
Finns among us
people named Finn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,004 born in 2025 was named Finn
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 Ron test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Finn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ron climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ron's path sketches the road Finn is walking now.
Finn 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 Finn is headed
Finn should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Finn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Finn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, one syllable, spelled the way it sounds — an American teacher, a German cousin and a Scottish grandparent will all read it correctly on sight.
- Charts in Scotland and in England and Wales as well as the US, so it stays legible on both sides of the Atlantic.
- Works as a complete name or as the short form of Finnegan, Finley, Fintan, Phineas and Griffin, which leaves the formal-name decision open.
- Carries a documented literary and mythological record, from the Fenian Cycle to Twain's novel, without being tied to any single figure.
- It is short enough that most surnames need checking aloud. Finn plus a one-syllable surname can come out clipped; longer surnames tend to give it more room.
- Because so many longer names shorten to Finn, people may assume it is a nickname and ask what it stands for. A steady answer settles it, but the question recurs.
- The German and Dutch spelling Fynn, plus Finn's own use as a surname, means the occasional double-check on forms — minor, and nothing like the trouble a longer name would bring.
- Its wave is very recent, so most people carrying it are children rather than adults. That will change as they grow, but for now the name reads young.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Finn to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Finn? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Finn
Masculine · #206 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Finns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 34,500 people named Finn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Finn in 2025?
- Finn ranks #206 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,702 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Finn?
- About 1 in every 1,004 US boys born in 2025 was named Finn — 1,702 in all.
- Will my child share the name Finn with classmates?
- Finn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Finn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Riley#207 · Camden#205 · Messiah#207 · Kingston#204 · Victor#209 · Timothy#203 · Maddox#209 · Abraham#209
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Finn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Finn and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle