London
Feminine · “From the city of London”
London is given to both — 44,455 girls and 10,324 boys since 1880. See London as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Before it was a name for a child, it was a name for a place on a river — Londinium, set down in Latin by Roman writers in the first century and carried through Old English as Lundenwic. Said aloud it is two soft syllables, LUN-dun, that no English speaker has to think about twice. Among American given names it belongs to the recent generation of city names, and it is still handed to both girls and boys.
How old is the name London?
London first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical London is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 44,000 people named London are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name London most popular?
London peaked in 2013, reaching #85 nationally. Today it ranks #431, 346 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Where it comes from
From Londinium to London
The story of London
The name begins as a settlement the Romans established on the Thames and called Londinium; the word itself is older than their arrival and its sense was already obscure by then. Through the Anglo-Saxon centuries it moved through Lundenwic and Lunden before settling into the spelling used now. As a given name it belongs to the English-speaking habit of turning cherished places into personal names, a habit that grew strong in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century and gathered real force in the 1990s and 2000s. It has been used for girls and boys from the start, with girls taking the larger share.
Meaningscholars disagree
From the city of London; the city name's own meaning is not settled
Londinium is the oldest recorded form, and it is pre-Roman rather than Latin in origin. The reading with the most scholarly support today, argued by the place-name specialist Richard Coates, traces it to a Brittonic river name meaning something like 'the flowing one' or 'river too wide to ford.' Older explanations tried to find a personal name or a word for a hill fort in it. None has won the argument outright.
How the name formed
- Londinium
- Lundenwic
- Lunden
- London
Related forms: Londres · Londres · Londra · Llundain · Londain · Londinium
Pronouncing London
LUN-dun
Stress on the first syllable. The o's both sound like the u in 'sun' — the spelling looks nothing like the sound, but the city has taught the whole English-speaking world how to say it.
Nicknames for London
High
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
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 20143,290 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #85reached in 2013
- Change vs 2024
- −17.9%719 in 2025, from 876
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.
London in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Londres in French — related form
- Londres in Spanish — related form
- Londra in Italian — related form
- Llundain in Welsh — related form
- Londain in Irish — related form
- Londinium in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Londons among us
people named London are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,235 born in 2025 was named London
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 Penny test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. London's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Penny climbed just as high around 1963, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Penny's path sketches the road London is walking now.
London is coming down from a big peak (#85 in 2013). 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 London is headed
London is easing off slowly — about 22% 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.
London beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to London in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelling and pronunciation are already known to almost everyone who reads English — no repeating, no correcting at the pharmacy counter.
- Recognizable in most languages, since the city carries its own name into French, Spanish, Italian and beyond.
- Works for a girl or a boy on the same spelling, with no change in form.
- Has a documented written history reaching back to Roman-era records, unusual for a name of such recent personal use.
- Yields easy short forms — Lo, Lon, Lonnie — that arrive on their own without being taught.
- Landon is a well-established boys' name that sits one vowel away, and the two get swapped in writing and in hearing. Expect to spell it out on forms more than the name's fame would suggest.
- Most children with this spelling are girls, so a boy named London will sometimes be assumed female on a roster or an email — usually a one-time correction, but a recurring one.
- It is unmistakably a place, and a famous one. Some people will ask about a family connection or make the 'London Bridge' joke; others will simply hear a name.
- Its use as a given name is recent and its wave has crested, so it reads as belonging to a particular stretch of years rather than to no era at all.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put London 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.
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Already decided on London? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
London
Feminine · #431 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Londons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 44,000 people named London are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name London in 2025?
- London ranks #431 among US girl names in 2025, with 719 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name London?
- About 1 in every 2,235 US girls born in 2025 was named London — 719 in all.
- Will my child share the name London with classmates?
- London will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside London
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dream#432 · Katalina#430 · Maia#433 · Leona#429 · Trinity#428 · Vienna#434 · Veronica#427 · Lyra#435
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles London? See the current top 100.
Choosing between London and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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