Greyson
Feminine · “son of the steward or bailiff”
Greyson is given to boys far more often — 60,231 boys against 812 girls since 1880. See Greyson as a boy name
Greyson is not about the color. The surname is generally traced to the greyve, a medieval word for a steward or bailiff, so the name means the steward's son, and the grey is a coincidence of spelling that has swallowed the original word almost completely.
How old is the name Greyson?
Greyson first appears in US birth records in 1990 — 35 years ago. The typical Greyson is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 800 people named Greyson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Greyson most popular?
Greyson peaked in 2014, reaching #3005 nationally. Today it ranks #6325, 3,320 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From greyve to Greyson
The story of Greyson
Grayson is an English surname of the north, where the greyve was a real office and Scandinavian vocabulary was thick on the ground. Its move into American given names came in the late twentieth century and accelerated sharply after 2000, and the ey spelling followed the ay one by a few years, as respellings do. The move to girls is more recent still, and it works the way most of these moves work: a surname that has been used on boys long enough to feel like a first name becomes available to everyone. The best year for the female side of Greyson in United States records is 2014, and it remains far more common on boys.
Meaningscholars disagree
son of the steward or bailiff
Two derivations compete. The stronger one takes the surname from Middle English greyve or grayve, a steward or overseer, from a Scandinavian and Low German word related to modern German Graf. The alternative simply reads it as son of a man called Gray, itself a nickname from hair or complexion. The color reading is available for the second route and not for the first, which is the one most surname scholars prefer.
How the name formed
- greyve
- Grayson
- Greyson
Related forms: Grayson · Graf
Pronouncing Greyson
GRAY-sun
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the second reduced. The ey and ay spellings are identical in sound.
Nicknames for Greyson
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
- 1990
- Most girls named
- 201456 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3005reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- +28.6%18 in 2025, from 14
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.
Greyson in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Grayson in English — spelling variant
- Graf in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, North Carolina.
Greysons among us
people named Greyson are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 89,293 born in 2025 was named Greyson
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 Faythe test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Greyson's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Faythe climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Faythe's path sketches the road Greyson is walking now.
Greyson 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
Greyson beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Greyson in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented English occupational surname rather than an invention.
- Grey works alone and is currently fashionable in its own right.
- Reads as modern and unisex without being unfamiliar to anyone.
- It is still overwhelmingly a boy's name in the United States.
- Grayson is the more common spelling and will be substituted.
- The color reading is the one everyone will assume, and it is probably not the right one.
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What they receive
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Greyson
Feminine · #6325 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Greysons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Greyson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Greyson in 2025?
- Greyson ranks #6325 among US girl names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Greyson?
- About 1 in every 89,293 US girls born in 2025 was named Greyson — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Greyson with classmates?
- Greyson will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Greyson
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kaye#6325 · Doria#6325 · Karolyn#6325 · Rosaleen#6325 · Roni#6325 · Darian#6325 · Svetlana#6325 · Fanny#6325
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Greyson? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Greyson and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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