Honey
Feminine · Old English roots · “honey”
Honey is the English word, unchanged in shape since Old English hunig, and it has been used to address someone you love since the Middle Ages. It reads at a glance and says itself in two beats — HUN-ee — with nothing left to explain. It has also been in American birth records since the early twentieth century, quietly, and lately it has been climbing.
How old is the name Honey?
Honey first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Honey alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 4,200 people named Honey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Honey most popular?
Honey peaked in 2025, reaching #844 nationally. Today it ranks #844, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Honey appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From hunig (Old English) to Honey
The story of Honey
The root is Old English hunig, cousin to German Honig and Dutch honing, and the word has kept nearly its present shape for a thousand years. By the later Middle Ages English speakers were already using it as a term of endearment, which is how it began drifting toward personal use. In Ireland and England it also worked as a pet form of Honora, a name long common there, so some early bearers were christened Honora and called Honey all their lives. In the United States it settled in as a given name in its own right, part of the broader American habit of naming children after plain sweet words.
Meaning
honey — the sweet substance made by bees
From Old English hunig, a word shared across the Germanic languages. The same word has served as an affectionate form of address in English since the medieval period, so the name carries both senses at once.
How the name formed
- hunigOld English
- honyMiddle English
- honey
- Honey
Pronouncing Honey
HUN-ee
Said exactly like the word: first syllable rhymes with sun, not with bone. No one will need it spelled out.
Nicknames for Honey
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
- 1912
- Most girls named
- 2025322 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #844reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +56.3%322 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.
Honey in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Honeys among us
people named Honey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,992 born in 2025 was named Honey
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 Shona test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Honey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Shona climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Shona's path sketches the road Honey is walking now.
Honey is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Honey is headed
Honey is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 68% more babies given the name than today. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Honey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Honey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled and pronounced by anyone who reads English — no corrections, no alternate spellings to defend.
- Documented as a pet form of Honora, so a longer, more formal name is available on the birth certificate if that is wanted later.
- On the books in America since the early twentieth century, so it is a word name with real history behind it rather than a recent coinage.
- Two short syllables that sit easily beside most surnames and most sibling names.
- Because honey is also how strangers address strangers — waitresses, neighbors, older relatives — an adult Honey will sometimes not know whether she is being named or petted. Most bearers report this as a small recurring joke rather than a problem.
- It reads as affectionate by design, which some people find warm on a résumé and others find informal. A longer legal first name with Honey as the everyday one covers both cases.
- It stays rare enough that she will likely be the only one anywhere she goes, and rare enough to draw a friendly "is that your real name?" now and then.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Honey 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.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Honey
Feminine · Old English roots · #844 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Honeys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,200 people named Honey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Honey in 2025?
- Honey ranks #844 among US girl names in 2025, with 322 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Honey?
- About 1 in every 4,992 US girls born in 2025 was named Honey — 322 in all.
- Will my child share the name Honey with classmates?
- Honey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Honey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Tara#844 · Ensley#844 · Elani#844 · Hunter#841 · Michaela#841 · Amayah#841 · Lea#848 · Kendra#849
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Honey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Honey and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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