Idris
Masculine · “Welsh: 'ardent lord”
Idris is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 5,031 boys against 53 girls since 1880.
Idris arrives in English from two directions at once: a Welsh name old enough to be attached to a mountain in Snowdonia, Cadair Idris, and an Arabic name carried by a prophet named in the Qur'an. Both roads end at the same tidy two syllables, easy to say and hard to mistake for anything else. It has been on American record for over a century, but its real wave is recent — most people wearing it here are still children.
How old is the name Idris?
Idris first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Idris is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,900 people named Idris are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Idris most popular?
Idris peaked in 2025, reaching #694 nationally. Today it ranks #694, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Idris appears on these lists:
Works in Arabic families too:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Idris
In Welsh tradition Idris Gawr — Idris the Giant — is the figure behind Cadair Idris, 'Idris's chair', the mountain in southern Snowdonia; the name is recorded in Wales long before it traveled anywhere else. Quite separately, Idris appears in the Qur'an as a prophet, and from there the name spread across the Arabic-speaking world, into Turkish as İdris, into Malay and Indonesian, and across West Africa in forms like Idrissa. It named the founder of the Idrisid dynasty in eighth-century Morocco and, much later, a twentieth-century king of Libya. The two lines reached the United States by different routes and different generations, and now sit under one spelling — which is why its strongest showing is in the big immigrant-rich states rather than any one region.
Meaningscholars disagree
Welsh: 'ardent lord'; Arabic: a prophet's name of unsettled etymology
The Welsh Idris is generally read as a compound of 'iud' (lord) and a second element meaning ardent or impulsive — hence 'ardent lord'. The Arabic إدريس is a different name that happens to match in spelling; scholars have not settled its origin, with proposals connecting it to the root d-r-s ('to study, to instruct') and others to a rendering of a foreign name. Neither reading cancels the other; which one applies depends on which family carried it.
Pronouncing Idris
ID-riss
English speakers stress the first syllable: ID-riss. In Arabic the stress falls on the second, closer to id-REES, and Turkish İdris is similar. Either is correct for the name — worth deciding early which one you will answer to, since both will be offered.
Nicknames for Idris
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 2025391 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #694reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +12.4%391 in 2025, from 348
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.
Idris in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- إدريس in Arabic — transliteration
- İdris in Turkish — spelling variant
- Idriss in French (North African usage) — spelling variant
- Idris in Welsh — same name
- Idris in Malay/Indonesian — same name
- Idrissa in Hausa — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Idriss among us
people named Idris are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,368 born in 2025 was named Idris
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 Jadyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Idris's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jadyn climbed just as high around 2005, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jadyn's path sketches the road Idris is walking now.
Idris 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 Idris is headed
Idris looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 15% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Idris beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Idris in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English, with no silent letters and no obvious rival spelling to correct constantly.
- Works in Welsh, Arabic, Turkish, Malay, Indonesian and West African settings without translation or adjustment.
- A documented record stretching back many centuries in two separate traditions — not a recent coinage.
- Distinct enough that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate, while still being a name most adults have heard.
- Has real short forms already in use, notably Driss, rather than needing one invented.
- Because two unrelated names meet at this spelling, people will sometimes guess wrong about where your family is from. That is easy to answer, but expect the question.
- The stress varies by language — ID-riss or id-REES — so the name will be said both ways, including by teachers and doctors reading it cold.
- For many Americans right now the name calls one very famous British actor to mind. That gives it instant recognition, and also means the association arrives before your child does.
- Close relatives like Idriss, Idrees and Idrissa circulate too, so a spelling check is a lifelong small ritual.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Idris
Masculine · #694 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Idriss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,900 people named Idris are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Idris in 2025?
- Idris ranks #694 among US boy names in 2025, with 391 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Idris?
- About 1 in every 4,368 US boys born in 2025 was named Idris — 391 in all.
- Will my child share the name Idris with classmates?
- Idris will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Idris
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mac#695 · Sevyn#695 · Duke#695 · Dax#692 · Dexter#692 · Tomas#691 · Evander#698 · Donald#690
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Idris? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Idris and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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