Monroe
Masculine · “mouth of the River Roe”
Monroe is given to both — 17,094 boys and 7,266 girls since 1880. See Monroe as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Monroe began as a Scottish clan name, carried by a Highland family whose lands sat above the Cromarty Firth, and it crossed the Atlantic the way so many Scottish surnames did — as a family marker that eventually turned into a first name. In the mouth it is two beats with the weight at the end, mun-ROH, a rising finish that few names share. It has been in American use long enough to feel settled, while the wave of children given it is a genuinely recent thing.
How old is the name Monroe?
Monroe was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Monroe alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 6,300 people named Monroe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Monroe most popular?
Monroe peaked in 1882, reaching #177 nationally. Today it ranks #1260, 1,083 places below that high. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Munro to Monroe
The story of Monroe
Monroe is one of the anglicized spellings of the Scottish surname Munro, borne by a Highland clan documented from the thirteenth century in Easter Ross. Scottish and Ulster-Scots emigration carried the surname to North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where it settled into the spelling with an o. There it became familiar to Americans as a public surname — a fifth president bore it, and so, as a stage name, did one of the most photographed film actresses of the twentieth century. The move from surname to first name follows a well-worn American pattern, and in recent decades it has gone mostly, though not only, to girls.
Meaningscholars disagree
'mouth of the River Roe' — a place name
The reading repeated most often traces it to Gaelic elements meaning the mouth of the Roe, a river in the north of Ireland, and matches Clan Munro's own traditional account of its origins. Other readings attach the first element instead to Gaelic monadh, 'hill' or 'moorland'. Either way it is landscape rather than character — a place a family came from.
How the name formed
- Munro
- Munroe
- Monroe
Related forms: Munro · Munroe · Rothach
Pronouncing Monroe
mun-ROH
Stress falls on the second syllable. Some speakers reduce the first to 'mn-ROH'; the surname Munro is said the same way.
Nicknames for Monroe
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1921375 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #177reached in 1882
- Change vs 2022
- +35.3%157 in 2025, from 116
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.
Monroe in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Munro in Scottish — spelling variant
- Munroe in English — spelling variant
- Rothach in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Monroes among us
people named Monroe are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 10,879 born in 2025 was named Monroe
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Monroe 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 Monroe is headed
Monroe 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.
Monroe beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Monroe in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Americans already recognize the spelling from the presidential and Hollywood surnames, so it is usually written correctly on first hearing.
- Works unchanged for a boy or a girl, and needs no feminine or masculine variant.
- A documented clan name in Scotland since the thirteenth century — a long, traceable line behind a modern-sounding choice.
- Two syllables, no silent letters, and one settled pronunciation.
- Rare enough in any given school that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Marilyn Monroe is the association most adults reach for first. It is affectionate rather than awkward, but it will come up, and it is worth deciding now whether you mind.
- Munro and Munroe are both live spellings, so expect a certain amount of correcting — usually of the vowel rather than the whole name.
- Most children given this spelling now are girls, so a boy named Monroe will occasionally be assumed female on paper before anyone meets him.
- Like most surname-names, it can read as a last name on forms and rosters, which sometimes means being listed backwards.
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Monroe
Masculine · #1260 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Monroes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,300 people named Monroe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Monroe in 2025?
- Monroe ranks #1260 among US boy names in 2025, with 157 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Monroe?
- About 1 in every 10,879 US boys born in 2025 was named Monroe — 157 in all.
- Will my child share the name Monroe with classmates?
- Monroe will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Monroe
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jordy#1260 · Emrys#1260 · Lael#1263 · Elyas#1263 · Riot#1263 · Ripley#1263 · Yohan#1256 · Malaki#1256
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Monroe? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Monroe and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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