Green
Masculine · “of the village green”
Green is one of the oldest English surnames there is, and it points at a place rather than a person: the village green, the open common ground everyone lived around.
How old is the name Green?
Green was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Green alive today was born around 1919, making them about 106 years old. About 300 people named Green are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Green most popular?
Green peaked in 1886, reaching #254 nationally. See the whole 1886 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From grene to Green
The story of Green
Green is among the twenty commonest surnames in England and the United States, and like most very common surnames it crossed into given-name use in nineteenth-century America — where families used surnames as first names freely, often to carry a mother's family line. Green appears in the registers through the century, particularly in the South, and peaked around 1885.
Meaning
of the village green
From the Old English grene, 'green', used as a topographic surname for someone who lived by the village green — the common open ground at the center of a settlement. It could also be a nickname for someone who habitually wore green or who played the Green Man in seasonal pageants.
How the name formed
- grene
- Green
Related forms: Greene · Grün · Groen
Pronouncing Green
GREEN
One syllable. It is an ordinary English word and is never mispronounced.
Nicknames for Green
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 188645 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #254reached in 1886
- Change vs 1972
- 0.0%6 in 1984, from 6
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.
Green in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Greene in English — spelling variant
- Grün in German — related form
- Groen in Dutch — related form
Greens among us
people named Green are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Green has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is completely transparent and points at a real feature of English settlement.
- One syllable, plain and unmistakable in any accent.
- It records a genuine nineteenth-century American naming practice.
- It is an ordinary English adjective and noun, so it never reads purely as a name.
- It reads as a surname to most people, which is what it was for eight hundred years.
- It is strongly period-coded to the nineteenth century.
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Green
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Greens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Green are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Green in 2025?
- Green is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Green with classmates?
- Green will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More G names
The most-given names starting with G, all years combined.
George#126 · Gary#1073 · Gregory#593 · Gerald#1204 · Gabriel#37 · Glenn#1443 · Gavin#303 · Gordon#1051
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Green? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Green and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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