Gryphon
Masculine · “griffin”
The gryphon is the oldest hybrid in Western art: an eagle's head and wings on a lion's body, guarding gold in Herodotus and standing on coats of arms ever since. As a name it is a word taken whole, in the older spelling with a y, which is the one heraldry has always preferred.
How old is the name Gryphon?
Gryphon first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Gryphon alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 600 people named Gryphon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gryphon most popular?
Gryphon peaked in 2011, reaching #2950 nationally. Today it ranks #4707, 1,757 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gryps to Gryphon
The story of Gryphon
The creature is far older than the word: eagle-headed lions appear in Persian, Assyrian and Minoan art long before any Greek wrote the name down. Greek writers placed griffins in the far north-east, guarding gold from a one-eyed people, and medieval Europe took them into heraldry, where a gryphon means vigilance and valor and is drawn to strict rules. English kept both spellings, griffin for the story and gryphon for the coat of arms, and American parents choosing the name almost always choose the y.
Meaning
griffin, the eagle-lion of legend
Through Latin gryphus from Greek gryps, connected by ancient writers to grypos, hook-nosed or curved, for the creature's beak. The y spelling follows the Greek and Latin; griffin is the same word after French smoothed it.
How the name formed
- gryps
- gryphus
- gryphon
Related forms: Griffon · Grifone · Grifo · Greif
Pronouncing Gryphon
GRIF-un
Two syllables, stress in front. The y is said as a short i and the ph as an f, so the name sounds exactly like griffin.
Nicknames for Gryphon
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
- 1996
- Most boys named
- 200839 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2950reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- +40.0%21 in 2025, from 15
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.
Gryphon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Griffon in French — same name
- Grifone in Italian — same name
- Grifo in Spanish — same name
- Greif in German — same name
Gryphons among us
people named Gryphon are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 81,337 born in 2025 was named Gryphon
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 Venus test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gryphon's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Venus climbed just as high around 1923, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Venus's path sketches the road Gryphon is walking now.
Gryphon 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
Gryphon beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gryphon in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning arrives with the name; nobody needs it explained.
- Griff and Gryph are ready short forms, and both are ordinary English names too.
- The heraldic spelling gives it a documented history of its own.
- It will be spelled Griffin by almost everybody who hears it.
- Griffin is currently very well used, so the sound is far commoner than the spelling.
- A creature-name is a strong statement, and a child may want something plainer at some point.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Gryphon 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 Gryphon? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Gryphon
Masculine · #4707 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gryphons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Gryphon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gryphon in 2025?
- Gryphon ranks #4707 among US boy names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gryphon?
- About 1 in every 81,337 US boys born in 2025 was named Gryphon — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gryphon with classmates?
- Gryphon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gryphon
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ole#4707 · Shelton#4707 · Constantino#4707 · Adel#4707 · Cord#4707 · Zalman#4707 · Montez#4707 · Homer#4707
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gryphon? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gryphon 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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle