Orion
Masculine · Greek roots
Orion is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 23,120 boys against 630 girls since 1880. See Orion as a girl name
Orion has been read aloud for nearly three thousand years — Homer set the hunter in the sky in the Odyssey, and the constellation still carries the name over American backyards every winter. It is one of the few names a stranger can spell after hearing it once, because they have seen it on a star chart. Three syllables that open wide and land soft.
How old is the name Orion?
Orion was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Orion is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 22,000 people named Orion are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Orion most popular?
Orion peaked in 2018, reaching #300 nationally. Today it ranks #334, 34 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ōríōn (Greek) to Orion
The story of Orion
The name reaches English from Greek by the shortest possible road: Ōríōn in Homer and Hesiod, Orion in Latin, Orion in English, unchanged in spelling for centuries. In Greek myth he is a giant hunter, killed and then placed among the stars, which is why the same word names a man and a constellation — and why it survived antiquity in the mouths of astronomers rather than parents. Early English use is almost entirely astronomical and literary; the shift to a name given to babies is a much more recent turn, and in the United States that turn belongs to the last generation or so.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Greek Ōríōn has no settled etymology; it is generally treated as pre-Greek, older than the language that preserved it. What is documented is the figure and the constellation: Orion the hunter appears in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, Hesiod uses his rising and setting to mark the farming year in Works and Days, and the Greek and English translations of the Book of Job list Orion among the constellations God set in place. Scholars have proposed links to an Akkadian phrase for heavenly light, but none has been established.
How the name formed
- ŌríōnGreek
- OrionLatin
- OrionEnglish
Related forms: Ωρίων · Orión · Órion · Orione · Orion · Орион
Pronouncing Orion
oh-RYE-un
The middle syllable takes the stress in English. A lighter uh-RYE-un is common in casual speech. In Spanish, Italian and Greek the stress moves to the end — o-ree-ON — so relatives abroad may say it differently, which the name has tolerated for a long time.
Nicknames for Orion
High
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
- 20171,023 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #300reached in 2018
- Change vs 2022
- −0.9%1,012 in 2025, from 1,021
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.
Orion in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ωρίων in Greek — transliteration
- Orión in Spanish — spelling variant
- Órion in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Orione in Italian — same name
- Orion in French — same name
- Орион in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Orions among us
people named Orion are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,688 born in 2025 was named Orion
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 Pasquale test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Orion's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Pasquale climbed just as high around 1914, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Pasquale's path sketches the road Orion is walking now.
Orion 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 Orion is headed
Orion should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Orion beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Orion in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way most Americans have already seen it, on star charts and in astronomy books, so it rarely needs repeating twice.
- An unbroken written record from Homer and Hesiod to modern English, with the spelling essentially intact.
- Ready-made short forms in real use: Ori and Rio, both of which also stand alone as names.
- Recognizable across Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Greek and Russian with only small changes.
- Two English pronunciations circulate, oh-RYE-un and the lighter uh-RYE-un, and Spanish or Greek speakers will stress the final syllable. Nothing breaks, but expect to state your preference now and then.
- The celestial association is unavoidable — belt jokes, telescope gifts, and the assumption that you are a stargazing household. Some families enjoy that; it is worth knowing it comes with the name.
- This one is very unlikely to be duplicated in a classroom, which cuts both ways: no shared-name confusion, and no other child who already knows how to say it.
- Orion also names companies, ships and spacecraft, so a search for the name turns up hardware before people.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Orion to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Orion? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Orion
Masculine · Greek roots · #334 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Orions are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 22,000 people named Orion are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Orion in 2025?
- Orion ranks #334 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,012 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Orion?
- About 1 in every 1,688 US boys born in 2025 was named Orion — 1,012 in all.
- Will my child share the name Orion with classmates?
- Orion will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Orion
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Finley#333 · Martin#335 · Sutton#332 · Bryan#336 · Cruz#331 · Gideon#337 · Paxton#338 · Josue#330
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Orion? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Orion and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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