Hunter
Masculine · Old English roots · “one who hunts”
Hunter is given to both — 262,238 boys and 14,384 girls since 1880. See Hunter as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Hunter is one of the plain-spoken English occupational surnames — the same family as Fletcher, Baker and Taylor — that crossed over into first-name use in America and stayed. It is two beats, stress on the front, ending in that soft -er that Parker and Sawyer share. Everyone who reads it says it correctly the first time.
How old is the name Hunter?
Hunter was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Hunter alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 256,000 people named Hunter are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hunter most popular?
Hunter peaked in 2000, reaching #35 nationally. Today it ranks #130, 95 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Where it comes from
From hunta (Old English) to Hunter
The story of Hunter
The word behind it is Old English hunta, a hunter, which became the Middle English occupational byname hunte and then the hereditary surname Hunter across England and Scotland; the Hunters of Hunterston in Ayrshire are among the long-recorded Scottish families to carry it. Like many trade surnames, it moved into given-name use in the United States, where the habit of turning family names into first names has run strong for generations. It has been given to American children continuously for well over a century, quietly at first and then with real force toward the end of the twentieth. The journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who invented gonzo journalism, carried it through the second half of that century.
Meaning
one who hunts
Cultural footprint
Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1937) — Invented gonzo journalism
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- huntaOld English
- hunteMiddle English
- HunterEnglish and Scottish surname
- Huntergiven name
Pronouncing Hunter
HUN-ter
Stress on the first syllable. American English sounds the final r; in Scotland and much of England it lands closer to HUN-tuh, which is the same name, not a different one.
Nicknames for Hunter
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
- 199911,485 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #35reached in 2000
- Change vs 2022
- −23.4%2,761 in 2025, from 3,605
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.
Hunter in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from National Records of Scotland, Office for National Statistics. Sources
Hunters among us
people named Hunter are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 619 born in 2025 was named Hunter
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 Travis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hunter's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Travis climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Travis's path sketches the road Hunter is walking now.
Hunter is coming down from a big peak (#35 in 2000). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Hunter is headed
Hunter is easing off slowly — about 23% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Hunter beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hunter in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelling and pronunciation are one and the same — it is an ordinary English word, so nobody has to ask twice or spell it out on the phone.
- One clear short form, Hunt, plus the option of using the full name unaltered from nursery through a working life.
- Charts in Scotland and in England and Wales as well as the United States, so it travels across the English-speaking world without translation.
- More than a century of unbroken use as a given name, with a large living generation of bearers now in their twenties.
- Works equally as a first or middle name, and sits comfortably beside both one-syllable and long surnames.
- It is a common noun before it is a name. The hunting reference is right there in plain sight, which some families like and others would rather not hand to a child by default.
- This spelling is recorded for girls, but only a small fraction of Hunters are girls. A girl named Hunter will regularly be assumed male on forms and rosters, and will spend some energy correcting it.
- The big wave has passed, so most people named Hunter are adults rather than classmates. A child today is unlikely to share it with anyone in the room — appealing to some parents, less so to others.
- It joins a crowded -er surname family: Parker, Carter, Tucker, Sawyer. Read aloud with a surname that also ends in -er, the two can blur together.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Hunter
Masculine · Old English roots · #130 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hunters are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 256,000 people named Hunter are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hunter in 2025?
- Hunter ranks #130 among US boy names in 2025, with 2,761 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hunter?
- About 1 in every 619 US boys born in 2025 was named Hunter — 2,761 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hunter with classmates?
- Hunter will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hunter
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jasper#129 · Jordan#131 · Ryder#132 · Calvin#132 · Jonah#128 · Landon#127 · George#126 · Malachi#134
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hunter? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hunter 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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