Kermit
Masculine · “son of Diarmaid”
Kermit is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 16,445 boys against 27 girls since 1880.
Kermit is a Manx surname that became an American first name through one family, and then a frog took it. Very few names have a stranger route into a language.
How old is the name Kermit?
Kermit first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Kermit alive today was born around 1936, making them about 89 years old. About 5,800 people named Kermit are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kermit most popular?
Kermit peaked in 1909, reaching #175 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 10,520 places below that high. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mac Diarmada to Kermit
The story of Kermit
The name entered American use through the Roosevelts: Theodore Roosevelt's mother's family carried Kermit as a family surname and it was given to his second son. Presidential families move names, and this one moved. Decades later a puppeteer gave the name to a green felt frog, and the frog became one of the most recognized characters in the world, which has settled the question of what the name means to most people for the foreseeable future.
Meaning
son of Diarmaid
From the Manx and Irish surname Mac Diarmada, worn down through Kermode to Kermit. Diarmaid itself is an old Irish name whose meaning is not settled, so the patronymic is clear and the root behind it is not.
How the name formed
- Mac Diarmada
- Kermode
- Kermit
Related forms: Diarmaid
Pronouncing Kermit
KUR-mit
Two syllables, stress on the first. There is no variation.
Nicknames for Kermit
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
- 1900
- Most boys named
- 1919431 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #175reached in 1909
- Change vs 2018
- −40.0%6 in 2025, from 10
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.
Kermit in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Diarmaid in Irish — related form
Kermits among us
people named Kermit are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Kermit
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Kermit 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
Kermit beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kermit in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A genuine Manx and Irish patronymic, which is a very thin seam in American naming and so stands out.
- Two syllables, phonetic spelling, no ambiguity at all.
- It connects to Diarmaid, one of the great names of Irish legend, at one remove.
- The frog is the association, worldwide, and it is not going away. A child called this will hear about it constantly.
- It reads unambiguously as American rather than Irish, despite the origin.
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What they receive
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Kermit
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kermits are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,800 people named Kermit are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kermit in 2025?
- Kermit ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kermit?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Kermit — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kermit with classmates?
- Kermit will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kermit
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kermit? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kermit and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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