Heath
Masculine · Old English roots · “heathland”
Heath is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 29,523 boys against 181 girls since 1880.
Heath is an English word before it is a name: the open, wind-scoured shrubland of moor and heather, the kind of ground that gave whole families their surname simply because they lived beside it. One syllable, one breath, ending in the soft th that English uses for its oldest words. It has been given to American boys through every decade of the last century without ever crowding a classroom.
How old is the name Heath?
Heath first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Heath alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 27,500 people named Heath are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Heath most popular?
Heath peaked in 1974, reaching #181 nationally. Today it ranks #929, 748 places below that high. See the whole 1974 chart.
Heath appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From hǣth (Old English) to Heath
The story of Heath
The word hǣth is Old English, and by the Middle Ages it had become a surname for people living on or near open heathland — one of the large family of English surnames drawn straight from the landscape, alongside Ford, Hill and Wood. Those place-surnames began moving into first-name use in the English-speaking world during the nineteenth century, and Heath traveled with them, arriving in American birth records early in the twentieth. The word itself stayed vivid in English writing: Emily Brontë built her 1847 novel around a moor and a foundling she called Heathcliff, cliff-by-the-heath. Heath the given name has been used quietly and continuously in the United States ever since.
Meaning
heathland — someone who lived by the heath
From Old English hǣth, uncultivated open land where heather and gorse grow. As a surname it was topographic: it identified a family by the ground outside their door.
How the name formed
- hǣthOld English
- HeathEnglish place-name and surname
- Heathgiven name
Pronouncing Heath
HEETH
One syllable, rhyming with teeth. The final th is the soft, breathy kind, as in path rather than in the.
Nicknames for Heath
Limited
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 19751,204 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #181reached in 1974
- Change vs 2023
- +22.8%253 in 2025, from 206
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.
Heath in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Pennsylvania.
Heaths among us
people named Heath are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 6,751 born in 2025 was named Heath
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 Ramon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Heath's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ramon climbed just as high around 1930, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ramon's path sketches the road Heath is walking now.
Heath 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 Heath is headed
Heath 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.
Heath beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Heath in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and one clear pronunciation — nothing to correct, nothing to abbreviate.
- Spelled exactly like the ordinary English word, so most people get it right the first time they hear it.
- On American birth records continuously for more than a century, so it reads as familiar rather than new.
- Belongs to the landscape-surname family — Ford, Hill, Wood — which keeps it at home next to a wide range of surnames.
- Works equally well in the middle position, where its single beat sits neatly between longer names.
- In the US, Heath is also a well-known toffee candy bar. Most people never mention it, but a child may hear the joke at some point in elementary school.
- Said quickly over a phone, Heath and Heather can be mistaken for each other. Expect to spell it occasionally, though the spelling itself is never in doubt.
- There is essentially no nickname. If you like having a longer formal name in reserve for a résumé or a wedding invitation, this one gives you only what you started with.
- Numbers have drifted down from the level the name once held, so a boy named Heath is likely to be the only one in his year — a plus for some families, less so for a child who would rather blend in.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Heath to the vote.
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What they receive
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Heath
Masculine · Old English roots · #929 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Heaths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 27,500 people named Heath are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Heath in 2025?
- Heath ranks #929 among US boy names in 2025, with 253 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Heath?
- About 1 in every 6,751 US boys born in 2025 was named Heath — 253 in all.
- Will my child share the name Heath with classmates?
- Heath will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Heath
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Halo#929 · Isa#929 · Agastya#929 · Dillon#929 · Caius#927 · Darian#927 · Judson#934 · Kiaan#924
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Heath? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Heath 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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