Hudson
Masculine · “son of Hudd”
Hudson is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 114,287 boys against 1,882 girls since 1880. See Hudson as a girl name
Hudson began as an English surname meaning "son of Hudd," a name carried by farmers and merchants long before it was ever given to a baby. It reached the wider world on maps: the river, the bay and the valley all take their name from the English navigator Henry Hudson, who sailed for both English and Dutch backers in the early seventeenth century. Two clean syllables, the stress up front, and nothing in the spelling to argue about.
How old is the name Hudson?
Hudson was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Hudson is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 112,000 people named Hudson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hudson most popular?
Hudson peaked in 2025, reaching #17 nationally. Today it ranks #17, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Hugh to Hudson
The story of Hudson
The name grew out of medieval England, where a man known as Hudd's son eventually became simply Hudson, and the label stuck to the family line. English speakers then carried it across the Atlantic, where it attached itself to a river, a bay and a stretch of New York countryside — and, in the twentieth century, to an American car marque. The move from surname to first name is a much later chapter, part of a broad English-speaking habit of promoting family names to given names, and it is still gathering pace on both sides of the Atlantic.
Meaningscholars disagree
"son of Hudd" — Hudd being a medieval English pet name
The surname itself is straightforward: Hudd plus -son. What Hudd stood for is where scholars part ways. The usual reading takes it as a medieval short form of Hugh, from a Germanic root meaning "heart, mind, spirit." A second reading links Hudd to Richard, which produced its own crop of medieval pet forms. Both are seriously held, and the surname was likely formed more than once in different parts of England.
How the name formed
- Hugh
- Hudd
- Hudson
Related forms: Hudson · Hugh · Hugo · Hugues
Pronouncing Hudson
HUD-sun
Two syllables, stress on the first. The vowel is the one in "mud." It sounds the same in American, British, Canadian and Australian English, and the spelling gives no one trouble.
Nicknames for Hudson
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
- 20258,583 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #17reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +8.3%8,583 in 2025, from 7,922
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.
Hudson in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hudson in Portuguese (Brazil) — same name
- Hugh in English — related form
- Hugo in German, Dutch, Spanish — related form
- Hugues in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio. International figures from Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland. Sources
Hudsons among us
people named Hudson are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 199 born in 2025 was named Hudson
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 Dennis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hudson's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dennis climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dennis's path sketches the road Hudson is walking now.
Hudson 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 Hudson is headed
Hudson should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Hudson beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hudson in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is already familiar to nearly everyone in the English-speaking world through the river, the bay and the valley, so it rarely needs repeating or correcting.
- Pronunciation is fixed and obvious from the page — no regional variants, no first-day-of-school negotiation.
- It also charts in Canada, England & Wales and Scotland, so it travels without translation.
- Established short forms exist for casual use — Hud, Huds — while the full name sits easily on a résumé.
- Its long life as a surname means it works alongside surname-style middle and family names without sounding invented.
- This name's rise is recent and steep. Nearly everyone carrying it is a child, so for now it reads distinctly young — and it will always mark the era your child was born in.
- It sits in a crowded family of surname names ending in -son and -on. Expect it to be grouped, and occasionally confused, with several similar-sounding classmates.
- The geographic pull is strong: for many Americans the first association is the river or the valley rather than a person. That fades once they meet a Hudson, but it is the first thought.
- The -son ending reads as male to most English speakers, and US records list it as a boy's name.
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What they receive
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Hudson
Masculine · #17 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hudsons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 112,000 people named Hudson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hudson in 2025?
- Hudson ranks #17 among US boy names in 2025, with 8,583 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Hudson?
- About 1 in every 199 US boys born in 2025 was named Hudson — 8,583 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hudson with classmates?
- Roughly 1 in 8 classrooms will have a child named Hudson.
Ranked beside Hudson
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Samuel#18 · Sebastian#16 · Jack#15 · Leo#19 · Ezra#20 · Luca#14 · Elias#13 · Michael#21
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hudson? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hudson and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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