Landon
Masculine · Old English roots · “long hill”
Landon is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 186,603 boys against 1,182 girls since 1880. See Landon as a girl name
Landon began as a place before it was ever a person: an English hillside name, ground down over centuries from words meaning a long hill. It traveled as a surname first, the way so many American boys' names did, and only later slipped to the front of the name. Two even syllables, nothing to explain — it says itself the first time.
How old is the name Landon?
Landon first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Landon alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 183,000 people named Landon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Landon most popular?
Landon peaked in 2010, reaching #33 nationally. Today it ranks #127, 94 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Where it comes from
From lang dūn (Old English, "long hill") to Landon
The story of Landon
Old English gave England hundreds of hills called dūn, and a long one was a langdūn — a description that hardened into place names and then into the surnames of families who came from them. Landon is the worn-down spelling of that surname, and like Hunter and Carson it crossed the Atlantic on the family side of the ledger before anyone thought to hand it to a baby as a first name. Its American life as a given name has been long and steady, then unusually steep: it climbed from occasional to widespread within a couple of generations, helped along by a taste for surname names ending in -on. A US soccer career built almost entirely under that name did the spelling no harm either.
Meaningscholars disagree
long hill
The main reading traces Landon to the English surname Langdon, from Old English lang (long) and dūn (hill or down) — the name of several places in the English southwest. A second reading connects it to Norman French lande, a heath or open moor, which produced surnames such as Landon in France. Both are respectable; the English hill is the more commonly cited.
Cultural footprint
Landon Donovan (b. 1982) — US soccer's all-time great
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- lang dūnOld English, "long hill"
- LangdonEnglish place name
- Langdonsurname
- Landon
Related forms: Langdon · Landon
Pronouncing Landon
LAN-dun
Stress on the first syllable; the second is a soft, unstressed -dun. One pronunciation everywhere in American English.
Nicknames for Landon
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 200910,169 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #33reached in 2010
- Change vs 2022
- −29.6%2,840 in 2025, from 4,032
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.
Landon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Langdon in English — related form
- Landon in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Landons among us
people named Landon are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 601 born in 2025 was named Landon
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 Sean test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Landon's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sean climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sean's path sketches the road Landon is walking now.
Landon is coming down from a big peak (#33 in 2010). 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 Landon is headed
Landon is easing off slowly — about 17% 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.
Landon beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Landon in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads and spells itself on first hearing for American English speakers — no accents, no silent letters, no correction routine.
- Two syllables with the stress up front, which sits easily beside most one- and two-syllable surnames.
- A documented English surname history stretching back to Old English place names, rather than a coinage.
- Widely recognized without being crowded — familiar to teachers and coaches, unlikely to arrive in duplicate in one classroom.
- Landen, Landyn and Landin all exist, so the spelling will occasionally be checked even though yours is the standard one.
- It sits close to Brandon and to London in sound, and gets misheard as both over the phone.
- The name's big rise is recent enough that most Landons alive are children and teenagers — it may read as belonging to a particular stretch of years rather than as an old family name.
- Its strongest footholds are in a few large states, so how common it feels can depend a good deal on where you live.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Landon to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Landon? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Landon
Masculine · Old English roots · #127 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Landons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 183,000 people named Landon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Landon in 2025?
- Landon ranks #127 among US boy names in 2025, with 2,840 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Landon?
- About 1 in every 601 US boys born in 2025 was named Landon — 2,840 in all.
- Will my child share the name Landon with classmates?
- Landon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Landon
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jonah#128 · George#126 · Jasper#129 · Dean#125 · Hunter#130 · Carson#124 · Jordan#131 · Giovanni#123
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Landon? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Landon and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle