Fox
Masculine · “the animal”
Fox is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,891 boys against 97 girls since 1880.
Fox is one of those English surnames that started as a nickname — a name people gave each other, out loud, before anyone wrote it down. It has been an ordinary word in English since Old English, unchanged in spelling for a thousand years, and one syllable closes it: FOKS, done in a single beat. Almost nobody has to ask how to write it.
How old is the name Fox?
Fox first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Fox is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,800 people named Fox are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Fox most popular?
Fox peaked in 2016, reaching #744 nationally. Today it ranks #1409, 665 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Where it comes from
From Old English fox to Fox
The story of Fox
Fox belongs to the oldest layer of English surnames: the ones taken from animals and given as bynames to a particular person in a particular village. The word itself is Old English, and the surname is on record in England from the Middle Ages onward, spreading through Britain, Ireland and later North America. The animal was already a literary character by then — sly, talkative and hard to catch in Aesop's fables and in the medieval beast epic of Reynard the Fox, told across France, the Low Countries and Germany. The move from surname to first name is much more recent and largely American, part of the long habit of turning family names and plain nouns into given names.
Meaning
the animal — fox
From Old English fox. As a surname it began as a byname, given either for red hair or for a reputation for cleverness; both senses are recorded in medieval English records.
How the name formed
- Old English fox
- FoxEnglish byname
- Foxsurname
- Foxgiven name
Related forms: Fuchs · Vos
Pronouncing Fox
FOKS
One syllable, exactly like the animal. There is no second pronunciation to correct, in the US or anywhere else English is spoken.
Nicknames for Fox
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
- 1888
- Most boys named
- 2016327 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #744reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- −32.8%129 in 2025, from 192
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.
Fox in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Fuchs in German — related form
- Vos in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Washington.
Foxs among us
people named Fox are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 13,241 born in 2025 was named Fox
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 Francesco test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Fox's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Francesco climbed just as high around 1908, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Francesco's path sketches the road Fox is walking now.
Fox 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 Fox is headed
Fox 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.
Fox beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Fox in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling every English speaker already knows, because it is also an everyday word — very little chance of it being misspelled or mispronounced.
- One syllable, so it sits easily in front of longer surnames and needs no shortening.
- A documented English surname with a record running back to the Middle Ages, and cognate surnames in German and Dutch.
- Rare enough as a given name that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- It is still much more familiar as a surname and as a word than as a first name, so expect a beat of surprise on introductions — and the occasional question about whether it is a nickname.
- "Foxy" is the obvious playground and family shortening, and in American slang it means something else entirely. Worth knowing in advance rather than being caught out by it.
- In the US the word is strongly attached to a major news network, an association that will register with adults more than with other children.
- The surname sense — clever, sly — is part of the name's history. Some parents like the wink; others would rather the meaning stayed just the animal.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Fox to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Fox
Masculine · #1409 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Foxs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,800 people named Fox are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Fox in 2025?
- Fox ranks #1409 among US boy names in 2025, with 129 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Fox?
- About 1 in every 13,241 US boys born in 2025 was named Fox — 129 in all.
- Will my child share the name Fox with classmates?
- Fox will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Fox
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dale#1409 · Iverson#1409 · Virgil#1409 · Kolt#1409 · Linden#1409 · Huxton#1409 · Malikai#1409 · Cayde#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Fox? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Fox and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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