Misty
Feminine · “covered in mist”
Misty is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 84,654 girls against 237 boys since 1880.
Misty is an English weather word turned into a name, and it kept the softness of the thing it describes. It belongs to a small mid-century group — Misty, Sunny, Windy, Stormy — where the weather was the whole idea.
How old is the name Misty?
Misty first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Misty alive today was born around 1979, making them about 46 years old. About 81,000 people named Misty are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Misty most popular?
Misty peaked in 1977, reaching #40 nationally. Today it ranks #4067, 4,027 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Misty appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From mistig to Misty
The story of Misty
Word names of this kind became common in mid-century American use, and two things put this particular word in front of people. A 1947 children's novel about a pony on a Virginia barrier island made Misty a name readers knew; the book won a Newbery Honor and stayed in print for decades. A 1954 jazz standard called Misty did the same for adults, and a 1971 film built around that song did it again. The chart shows a steady climb through the 1960s and a peak in the second half of the 1970s.
Meaning
covered in mist
The ordinary English adjective, from Old English mistig. As a given name it carries no other history: it means exactly what the word means, and there is no older name standing behind it.
How the name formed
- mistig
- misty
- Misty
Related forms: Mistie · Misti
Pronouncing Misty
MIS-tee
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is an ordinary English word and is never mispronounced by English speakers.
Nicknames for Misty
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
- 1944
- Most girls named
- 19765,906 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #40reached in 1977
- Change vs 2023
- +40.0%35 in 2025, from 25
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.
Misty in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mistie in English — spelling variant
- Misti in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Iowa.
Mistys among us
people named Misty are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 45,922 born in 2025 was named Misty
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 Lorraine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Misty's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lorraine climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lorraine's path sketches the road Misty is walking now.
Misty 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
Where Misty is headed
Misty should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Misty beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Misty in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Completely transparent to any English speaker — no spelling, no explanation, no correction.
- The sound is soft throughout, with no hard consonants to sharpen it.
- It has a documented literary and musical history, unusual for a word name.
- It reads unmistakably as a 1970s American name and dates its bearer closely.
- Because it is an ordinary adjective, it does not carry a formal register into adult life.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Misty
Feminine · #4067 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mistys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 81,000 people named Misty are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Misty in 2025?
- Misty ranks #4067 among US girl names in 2025, with 35 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Misty?
- About 1 in every 45,922 US girls born in 2025 was named Misty — 35 in all.
- Will my child share the name Misty with classmates?
- Misty will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Misty
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eli#4067 · Peace#4067 · Medina#4067 · Darlin#4067 · Anja#4067 · Sparrow#4067 · Liani#4067 · Salina#4067
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Misty? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Misty and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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