Medford
Masculine
Medford is a place name put to use as a first name, which nineteenth-century American families did constantly, and nothing records which place a given household meant. The best-known of them made a product that connected New England directly to the slave trade.
How old is the name Medford?
Medford first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Medford alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 200 people named Medford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Medford most popular?
Medford peaked in 1924, reaching #1223 nationally. See the whole 1924 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Medford
Medford rum was a recognized product for a century and a half. The town north of Boston had distilleries running on molasses imported from the Caribbean, and the rum they produced was traded on the African coast for enslaved people, who were carried to the sugar islands, whose molasses came back to New England — the triangular trade, with Medford at one corner of it. The town's most famous distillery ran into the twentieth century. New England's involvement in slavery is often described as indirect, and the rum trade is the clearest demonstration that indirect is doing a lot of work in that sentence: the distilleries existed because of the plantations and the plantations were supplied partly because of the distilleries. The name is on a town, a rum and a set of birth certificates.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The English place name it derives from is a ford compound, and there are several candidates on both sides of the Atlantic. Nothing in the record says which one a family had in mind, and American naming took place names freely without any local connection.
Pronouncing Medford
MED-furd
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The second syllable is a place-name ending and reduces almost to nothing.
Nicknames for Medford
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
- 1911
- Most boys named
- 192325 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1223reached in 1924
- Change vs 1967
- 0.0%5 in 1980, from 5
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.
Medfords among us
people named Medford are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Medford sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Both halves detach as short forms and neither sounds like the other.
- Two syllables with front stress is the plainest shape English has.
- Everybody can spell it after hearing it once.
- Medfort and Bedford will both be written for it.
- It reads unmistakably as a place name, which suits some settings and not others.
- Nothing records which place a given household meant.
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Medford
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Medfords are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Medford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Medford in 2025?
- Medford is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Medford with classmates?
- Medford will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Medford? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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