Legend
Feminine · “things to be read”
Legend is given to both — 968 girls and 25,805 boys since 1880. See Legend as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Legend has a better etymology than most word names, and almost nobody knows it. Before it meant a famous person, a legend was the reading — the life of a saint set down to be read aloud on their feast day, from the Latin legenda, 'things which are to be read'. The modern name belongs to the 2010s American taste for nouns of stature, and its girls' peak is 2018.
How old is the name Legend?
Legend first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Legend is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Legend are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Legend most popular?
Legend peaked in 2018, reaching #2275 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 3,447 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From legere to Legend
The story of Legend
Legere, 'to read', is the same root as lecture, lesson, legible and elect. The medieval legenda were the saints' lives read aloud in the daily office, and the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, compiled around 1260, was one of the most copied books in Europe. When the Reformation cast doubt on those lives, legend acquired its sense of a story more told than proven, and by the twentieth century the word had turned again to mean a person of great renown. American parents began using it as a given name in the 2000s, alongside Legacy, Royal, Reign and Saint, and it reached the girls' list in the 2010s.
Meaning
things to be read; a story handed down
From Latin legenda, the neuter plural gerundive of legere, 'to read' — literally 'the things which must be read'. In medieval usage a legenda was the appointed reading for a saint's day, and the great thirteenth-century collection of saints' lives is the Legenda Aurea, the Golden Legend. The word's drift from 'the appointed reading' to 'a traditional story' to 'a person of great fame' took six hundred years and is fully documented. The name uses the last sense; the first is the one worth knowing.
How the name formed
- legere
- legenda
- legend
- Legend
Pronouncing Legend
LEJ-und
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly as the ordinary word. No spelling or pronunciation instruction is ever required.
Nicknames for Legend
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
- 1994
- Most girls named
- 201880 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2275reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- −36.4%21 in 2025, from 33
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.
Legend in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, California.
Legends among us
people named Legend are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Legend
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 Aissa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Legend's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Aissa climbed just as high around 1992, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Aissa's path sketches the road Legend is walking now.
Legend 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
Legend beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Legend in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It never needs to be spelled, because every English speaker already writes it.
- The Latin history behind it is genuinely interesting and easy to tell.
- It reads the same on either sex, with no built-in gender signal.
- It is a large claim to carry, and adults react to it more strongly than to most names.
- Because it is an everyday noun, the name will appear in unrelated sentences constantly.
- It is used far more on boys, so records and forms will often assume male.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Legend 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 Legend? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Legend
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Legends are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Legend are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Legend in 2025?
- Legend ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Legend?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Legend — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Legend with classmates?
- Legend will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Legend
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Legend? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Legend 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.
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