Orange
Masculine · “From the Provençal town of Orange”
Orange is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 598 boys against 18 girls since 1880.
Orange was a real first name for American boys in the nineteenth century. Its history runs through a Provençal town that gave its name to the Dutch royal family and a Methodist minister who split his church over slavery.
How old is the name Orange?
Orange first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Orange alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Orange are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Orange most popular?
Orange peaked in 1884, reaching #520 nationally. See the whole 1884 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Arausio to Orange
The story of Orange
Arausio, a Roman town in Provence with a great surviving theater, became Orange, and its principality passed in 1544 to William the Silent, founder of the Dutch House of Orange; through William of Orange, king of England, the name became a Protestant emblem. In America Orange was given to boys, and Orange Scott, a Methodist preacher from Vermont, led the abolitionists who broke away in 1843 to form the Wesleyan Methodist Connection. The name is recorded almost entirely for boys.
Meaning
From the Provençal town of Orange, through the House of Orange
The town of Orange, Roman Arausio, gave its name to a principality that passed to the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau; the fruit's name is a separate word.
How the name formed
- Arausio
- Orange
Related forms: Oranje · Orange
Pronouncing Orange
OR-inj
Said like the fruit.
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 192020 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #520reached in 1884
- Change vs 1959
- −37.5%5 in 1971, 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.
Orange in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Oranje in Dutch — related form
- Orange in French — same name
Oranges among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Orange 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
Orange 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 name with a documented history.
- Almost certain to be the only one.
- Easy to spell.
- Everyone will think of the fruit and the color.
- In Northern Ireland the word carries a strong political meaning.
- It reads as a nineteenth-century name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Orange
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Oranges 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 Orange are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Orange in 2025?
- Orange is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Orange with classmates?
- Orange will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More O names
The most-given names starting with O, all years combined.
Oliver#3 · Owen#31 · Oscar#223 · Omar#260 · Otis#652 · Orlando#871 · Otto#277 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Orange? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Orange and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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