Fisher
Masculine · Old English roots · “fisherman”
Fisher is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 6,581 boys against 65 girls since 1880.
Fisher began as a job description in Old English and has been a family name in England for something like eight centuries before anyone thought to put it first. It is one syllable of plain work followed by a soft ending, and it says what it means the first time anyone hears it. The record now shows it moving out of the surname column and onto birth certificates, most strongly in Florida, Texas and North Carolina.
How old is the name Fisher?
Fisher first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Fisher is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 6,300 people named Fisher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Fisher most popular?
Fisher peaked in 1882, reaching #754 nationally. Today it ranks #791, 37 places below that high. See the whole 1882 chart.
Fisher appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From fisc (Old English, fish) to Fisher
The story of Fisher
The word came first: fiscere, Old English for a man who took fish for a living, from fisc. In medieval England, when bynames hardened into inherited surnames, men recorded as le Fisher passed the trade to their descendants whether or not those descendants ever touched a net. Carried to North America by English, German and Ashkenazi families — as Fisher, Fischer and back to Fisher again — it became one of the commoner surnames on the continent, which is exactly the pool American parents have been drawing first names from for generations. Its use as a given name for boys belongs to that surname-forward habit, and the charts show that wave is a recent one.
Meaning
fisherman; one who fishes
From Old English fiscere, an occupational term. The German Fischer, Dutch Visser and Danish Fisker are the same trade recorded in other languages.
How the name formed
- fiscOld English, fish
- fiscereOld English, fisherman
- le Fishermedieval English byname
- FisherEnglish surname
- Fishergiven name
Related forms: Fischer · Fisher · Visser · Fisker · Fiskare
Pronouncing Fisher
FISH-ur
Two syllables, stress on the first. Spelling and sound match completely, so it survives a phone call and a substitute teacher without correction.
Nicknames for Fisher
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 2025319 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #754reached in 1882
- Change vs 2024
- +20.4%319 in 2025, from 265
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.
Fisher in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Fischer in German — related form
- Fisher in Yiddish — same name
- Visser in Dutch — related form
- Fisker in Danish — related form
- Fiskare in Swedish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Texas, North Carolina.
Fishers among us
people named Fisher are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,354 born in 2025 was named Fisher
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
Fisher 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 Fisher is headed
Fisher 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.
Fisher beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Fisher in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and pronounce it on the first try — it is an ordinary English word before it is a name.
- The meaning is fully transparent and fully settled, with no competing readings to explain.
- A documented line running from Old English through eight centuries of English surname use.
- Recognizable across languages through Fischer, Visser and Fisker, all the same trade.
- Works as both first and middle name, and sits comfortably where a family surname is being honored.
- Fish is the nickname, and it arrives whether it is invited or not. Some families are happy with that; it is worth deciding in advance rather than at age seven.
- It reads as a surname first to most American ears, which means occasional shuffling on forms and the odd assumption that it is the last name.
- A fisher is also a North American forest animal, related to the marten — a small piece of trivia rather than a problem, but it will come up in a nature unit.
- In US records this is essentially a boys' name, so a girl carrying it would be doing something genuinely uncommon.
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Fisher
Masculine · Old English roots · #791 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Fishers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,300 people named Fisher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Fisher in 2025?
- Fisher ranks #791 among US boy names in 2025, with 319 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Fisher?
- About 1 in every 5,354 US boys born in 2025 was named Fisher — 319 in all.
- Will my child share the name Fisher with classmates?
- Fisher will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Fisher
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ray#791 · Barron#790 · Jaxxon#793 · Teo#793 · Darius#788 · Elisha#788 · Haziel#795 · Remi#787
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Fisher? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Fisher and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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