Forest
Masculine · “woodland”
Forest is given to both — 17,784 boys and 593 girls since 1880. See Forest as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Forest is the English word, unchanged, and behind it sits a legal term from medieval Latin for wooded land set outside the ordinary fields — the king's ground, not the village's. It has been on American birth records since the earliest years of the count, one syllable of open vowel followed by a soft landing, and it has never once needed explaining.
How old is the name Forest?
Forest was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Forest alive today was born around 1951, making them about 74 years old. About 9,300 people named Forest are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Forest most popular?
Forest peaked in 1893, reaching #222 nationally. Today it ranks #750, 528 places below that high. See the whole 1893 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Latin foris to Forest
The story of Forest
The word traveled from medieval Latin forestis into Old French as forest, and crossed into English after the Norman conquest, where it kept its legal edge for centuries: a forest was land under forest law, whether densely wooded or not. From it came the surnames Forest and Forrest, borne by families who lived beside such land or worked it. Like many English surnames, it moved to the front of the name in the nineteenth century, and it has stayed in use in the United States without interruption ever since — never fashionable enough to date a person, never scarce enough to look invented.
Meaning
woodland; wooded country
The root is Latin foris, "outside" — medieval forestis meant land lying outside the cultivated fields, typically reserved for royal hunting, before the word narrowed to mean the trees themselves.
How the name formed
- Latin foris
- Medieval Latin forestis
- Old French forest
- English surname Forrest / Forest
- Forest
Related forms: Forrest · Forest
Pronouncing Forest
FOR-ist
Two syllables, stress on the first, pronounced exactly like the common noun. No regional variation to speak of.
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 2022375 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #222reached in 1893
- Change vs 2022
- −8.3%344 in 2025, from 375
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.
Forest in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Forrest in English — spelling variant
- Forest in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Washington.
Forests among us
people named Forest are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,965 born in 2025 was named Forest
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Forest
- #750
- Forest on the 2025 chart
- #280
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Forest went to 344 boys in 2025, but Forrest is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 1,194, which makes it the 280th most-given boys’ name of the year — 470 places above the chart.
- Forrest850
- Forest344
About 1 boy in 1,431 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,965 for Forest itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Forest 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 Forest is headed
Forest should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Forest beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Forest in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can already read it and say it — it is a word in daily English, so there is no pronunciation to teach.
- Short enough at two syllables to be used in full, which is why it has never needed a standard nickname.
- An unbroken record in American use going back to the beginning of national name statistics, so it belongs to no single decade.
- Works as both a surname and a word, which makes it easy to pair with family names or to carry a family name forward.
- The double-R spelling, Forrest, is at least as familiar to Americans, so expect to spell it out fairly often — and expect a stray second R in mail and school forms.
- It is strongly represented among older generations, which means a young Forest will mostly be meeting the name on adults for a while.
- Being an ordinary noun, it invites the obvious jokes — trees, woods, and the phrase about not seeing the forest for them. Most children hear these early and get bored of them faster than adults do.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Forest 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 Forest? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Forest
Masculine · #750 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Forests are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,300 people named Forest are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Forest?
- Forest is one of 2 recorded spellings. Forrest is the more common one — 850 births in 2025 against 344 for Forest.
- How popular is the name Forest in 2025?
- Forest ranks #750 among US boy names in 2025, with 344 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Forest?
- About 1 in every 4,965 US boys born in 2025 was named Forest — 344 in all.
- Will my child share the name Forest with classmates?
- Forest will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Forest
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Matheo#750 · Azaiah#749 · Junior#752 · Bode#748 · Chandler#753 · Murphy#754 · Salvador#754 · Franco#746
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Forest? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Forest 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.
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. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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