Metro
Masculine · Greek roots
Metro has two roads behind it. In Ukrainian and Rusyn immigrant families in North America it served as an English form of Dmytro, the Slavic Demetrius; in English it is also a word, short for metropolitan, that goes back to the Greek for 'mother city'.
How old is the name Metro?
Metro first appears in US birth records in 1908 — 117 years ago. The typical Metro alive today was born around 1920, making them about 105 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Metro are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Metro most popular?
Metro peaked in 1919, reaching #973 nationally. See the whole 1919 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Demetrios (Greek) to Metro
The story of Metro
Metro reached the American record with immigrant families from the Slavic east of Europe, where Dmytro and its short forms were everyday names, and it took an English spelling on arrival. Its best-known bearer is Metro Prystai, a center from Saskatchewan who won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings. The same five letters are an English word: metro is short for metropolitan, from the Greek metropolis, 'mother city', the term Greek colonists used for the city that had founded theirs. Paris gave the word its modern sense when it named its underground railway the Métro.
Meaningscholars disagree
an English form of Dmytro (Demetrius)
Two readings meet at this spelling. In Ukrainian and Rusyn immigrant families in Canada and the United States, Metro served as an English form of Dmytro, the Slavic Demetrius, 'of Demeter'. The English word metro, short for metropolitan, comes from the Greek metropolis, 'mother city'. The two are unrelated, though both lead back to Greek.
How the name formed
- DemetriosGreek
- DmytroUkrainian
- MetroNorth American spelling
Related forms: Dmytro · Dmitri · Dimitrios · Demetrius
Pronouncing Metro
MET-roh
Said like the word, with the stress on the first syllable.
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
- 1908
- Most boys named
- 191948 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #973reached in 1919
- Change vs 1957
- −25.0%6 in 1958, from 8
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.
Metro in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dmytro in Ukrainian — related form
- Dmitri in Russian — related form
- Dimitrios in Greek — related form
- Demetrius in English — related form
Metros among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Metro are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Metro 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
- A real bearer in professional hockey and a real place in Ukrainian and Rusyn immigrant history.
- Short, easy to spell, and impossible to mispronounce.
- Everyone will hear the word first: a subway, a city section, a transit card. The name will be read as a nickname or a brand before it is read as a given name.
- The immigrant history behind it is real but little known, so the family will be the ones who tell it.
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Metro
Masculine · Greek roots
Frequently asked
- How many Metros are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Metro are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Metro in 2025?
- Metro is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Metro with classmates?
- Metro 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 Metro? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Metro and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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