Mortimer
Masculine · “the dead water”
The name means dead water. It comes from a place in Normandy called Mortemer — a stagnant pond, or a stretch of standing water that had gone bad — and the family who held it carried the name to England and became one of the great powers on the Welsh border.
How old is the name Mortimer?
Mortimer was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Mortimer alive today was born around 1920, making them about 105 years old. About 200 people named Mortimer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mortimer most popular?
Mortimer peaked in 1882, reaching #469 nationally. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mortemer to Mortimer
The story of Mortimer
One of them took a king off the throne of England and paid for it four years later. He escaped from the Tower, went to France, came back with the queen and an army, forced the king's abdication in favor of a boy, and governed the country in that boy's name — until the boy turned eighteen, had him seized in the queen's own chamber at Nottingham, and hanged him at Tyburn without a trial. It is one of the clearest cases in English history of a family reaching the very top by an entirely illegitimate route and being removed by the same means.
Meaning
the dead water
Two Old French elements, both transparent. The place is real and still on the map, and the derivation is not disputed; whether the water in question was stagnant, still or simply lifeless is not recorded.
How the name formed
- Mortemer
- Mortimer
Pronouncing Mortimer
MOR-ti-mur
Three syllables with the stress at the front. The spelling causes no trouble and the name is never mispronounced.
Nicknames for Mortimer
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
- 191691 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #469reached in 1882
- Change vs 2020
- −37.5%5 in 2023, 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.
Mortimers among us
people named Mortimer 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
Mortimer 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
- It is unmistakable and nobody who hears it forgets it.
- Morty works as a short form and is considerably warmer.
- It carries a specific and dramatic history rather than a vague one.
- The meaning is bleak once explained and the front syllable is French for death.
- The generation that used it is now gone entirely.
- It reads as a comic name to many people, which is hard to shift.
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Mortimer
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Mortimers 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 Mortimer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mortimer in 2025?
- Mortimer is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Mortimer with classmates?
- Mortimer 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 Mortimer? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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