Graydon
Masculine · “Grey hill”
Graydon is an English surname of the plainest kind: a grey hill, or the hill belonging to someone called Grey. It became an American first name in the surname wave of the late nineteenth century and peaked in 1905.
How old is the name Graydon?
Graydon first appears in US birth records in 1890 — 135 years ago. The typical Graydon alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 2,400 people named Graydon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Graydon most popular?
Graydon peaked in 1905, reaching #741 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 4,658 places below that high. See the whole 1905 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From grǣg dūn to Graydon
The story of Graydon
The surname is English and Anglo-Irish, recorded in Ulster and in the north of England, and it traveled to America with both. As a given name it belongs to the long American fashion for surnames — Chester, Vernon, Clarence, Graydon — that ran from about 1870 to about 1920 and then collapsed. Graydon peaks in 1905 at the height of it. It has stayed in low use since and revived modestly after 2000 with the general return of -den and -don endings, and the editor Graydon Carter, who ran Vanity Fair from 1992 to 2017, is its most visible modern bearer.
Meaningscholars disagree
Grey hill
The surname is generally derived from Old English grǣg, grey, and dūn, a hill — the same dūn behind Camden, Hampton and Downs. A derivation from a personal byname Grey with the same ending is equally proposed. The chain from place to surname to given name is documented; which of the two first elements applies is not settled.
How the name formed
- grǣg dūn
- Graydon
Related forms: Greydon
Pronouncing Graydon
GRAY-dun
Two syllables, stress on the first, the second reduced. There is no ambiguity in speech.
Nicknames for Graydon
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
- 1890
- Most boys named
- 2010100 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #741reached in 1905
- Change vs 2023
- −48.5%17 in 2025, from 33
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.
Graydon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Greydon in Old English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Virginia, California.
Graydons among us
people named Graydon are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Graydon
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
Graydon 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
Graydon beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Graydon in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled enough and easy to explain.
- Gray is a strong and currently fashionable short form.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- Graydon and Greydon are both in use and will be confused.
- It reads as a surname and will be assumed to be one on forms.
- The first element of the place name is not settled.
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What they receive
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Graydon
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Graydons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Graydon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Graydon in 2025?
- Graydon ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Graydon?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Graydon — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Graydon with classmates?
- Graydon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Graydon
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Graydon? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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