King
Masculine · Old English roots · “king”
King is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 37,850 boys against 40 girls since 1880.
King is the English word itself, unchanged: one syllable, spelled the way everyone already spells it, descended from Old English cyning. It began as a surname — carried by English families for centuries before it was ever handed to a baby — and crossed into American first-name use the way Earl, Duke and Marshall did. Few names arrive with less explaining to do.
How old is the name King?
King was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical King is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 33,500 people named King are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name King most popular?
King peaked in 2017, reaching #147 nationally. Today it ranks #405, 258 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
King appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From cyning (Old English) to King
The story of King
The word goes back to Old English cyning, built on cyn, "kin" — the leader of a people rather than the owner of a crown. By the Middle Ages King had settled into England as a hereditary surname, and it remains one of the more widespread English surnames today. In the United States it followed the well-worn path of rank-words and surnames into given-name use, alongside Earl, Duke, Prince and Roy, and it has been given to American boys as a first name for generations. Its recent wave is separate from that older thread: the name has been picked up again in the same era that brought Kingston and Kingsley into wide use, with King standing on its own as well as serving as the short form of both.
Meaning
king, ruler
From Old English cyning, formed from cyn, "kin" — literally the head of a kindred or people. The English surname King arose in the Middle Ages, sometimes for a man who served a royal household, sometimes as a nickname for someone with a lordly bearing or who played the King in a village pageant.
How the name formed
- cyningOld English
- kingMiddle English
- KingEnglish surname
- Kinggiven name
Related forms: König · Koning · Rex · Roy
Pronouncing King
KING
One syllable, identical to the English word. No regional variation and effectively nothing to spell out over the phone.
Nicknames for King
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
- 20162,672 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #147reached in 2017
- Change vs 2022
- −52.5%786 in 2025, from 1,656
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.
King in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- König in German — related form
- Koning in Dutch — related form
- Rex in Latin — related form
- Roy in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, California.
Kings among us
people named King are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,173 born in 2025 was named King
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of King
- #405
- King on the 2025 chart
- #350
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. King went to 786 boys in 2025, but Kyng is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 884, which makes it the 350th most-given boys’ name of the year — 55 places above the chart.
- King786
- Kyng98
About 1 boy in 1,932 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 2,173 for King itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Clayton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. King's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Clayton climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Clayton's path sketches the road King is walking now.
King 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
Where King is headed
King is easing off slowly — about 31% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
King beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to King 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 settled for any English speaker — nobody will ask how to write it or how to say it.
- One syllable, which pairs easily with longer middle and last names.
- A documented English surname reaching back to the Middle Ages, so the name has a long record behind its recent use as a first name.
- Doubles as the natural short form for Kingston and Kingsley, useful if a longer version is ever wanted.
- It is a word with a claim inside it. Some people hear it as confident and some hear it as boastful, and a child will meet both reactions — most often in the small comments of classmates and coaches rather than anywhere that matters.
- In Christian usage "King" carries strong religious weight, and in current slang it is also a casual form of address between friends. Both are worth knowing about before the name is on a birth certificate.
- King is also a very common surname, so read the full name aloud with the last name attached — a few combinations land as a title rather than a person.
- Its current wave is recent, so the name will read as belonging to this generation rather than as timeless.
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King
Masculine · Old English roots · #405 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kings are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 33,500 people named King are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell King?
- King is the most-used spelling in US records — 786 of the 884 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kyng.
- How popular is the name King in 2025?
- King ranks #405 among US boy names in 2025, with 786 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name King?
- About 1 in every 2,173 US boys born in 2025 was named King — 786 in all.
- Will my child share the name King with classmates?
- King will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside King
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leandro#406 · Kyler#404 · Bradley#403 · Augustus#407 · Remy#408 · Hector#409 · Kylo#400 · Kashton#400
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles King? See the current top 100.
Choosing between King and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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