Payson
Feminine · “son of Payne”
Payson is given to both — 1,169 girls and 1,443 boys since 1880. See Payson as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Payson is an English surname meaning son of Payne — and Payne is a medieval given name from the Latin word for a country-dweller, which acquired a religious meaning it did not start with.
How old is the name Payson?
Payson first appears in US birth records in 1995 — 30 years ago. The typical Payson is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,200 people named Payson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Payson most popular?
Payson peaked in 2011, reaching #1758 nationally. Today it ranks #3296, 1,538 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From paganus to Payson
The story of Payson
Paganus was a genuine given name in medieval England and France — a fact that surprises people, since the word later came to mean something quite different. Sons of a Payn became Payson and Paynson. The surname is well documented in East Anglia and in colonial New England. Its use as a given name is recent and American, and it is given to girls and boys alike, helped by the -son ending that Mason and Addison made familiar for both.
Meaningscholars disagree
son of Payne
The surname is patronymic, built on the medieval name Payn, from Latin paganus. That word meant a villager before Christians used it for those outside the faith, and medieval England used the name without any sense of insult. Some readings instead take the first element as a form of Peter.
How the name formed
- paganus
- Payn
- Payson
Related forms: Paine · Payen
Pronouncing Payson
PAY-suhn
Two syllables, first stressed. It rhymes exactly with Mason and Jason.
Nicknames for Payson
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
- 1995
- Most girls named
- 2011116 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1758reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- +23.7%47 in 2025, from 38
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.
Payson in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Paine in English — related form
- Payen in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania.
Paysons among us
people named Payson are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 34,197 born in 2025 was named Payson
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 Trenace test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Payson's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Trenace climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Trenace's path sketches the road Payson is walking now.
Payson 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 Payson is headed
Payson 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.
Payson beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Payson in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented English surname with an unusually interesting word behind it.
- It rhymes with several very familiar names, so it never sounds out of place.
- It works for a girl or a boy, which is useful before a birth.
- The -son ending means son of, which reads oddly for a girl once she knows it.
- Peyton and Payson are close enough to be confused in speech and on paper.
- The word behind it eventually came to mean pagan, which she will discover.
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What they receive
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Payson
Feminine · #3296 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Paysons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Payson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Payson in 2025?
- Payson ranks #3296 among US girl names in 2025, with 47 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Payson?
- About 1 in every 34,197 US girls born in 2025 was named Payson — 47 in all.
- Will my child share the name Payson with classmates?
- Payson will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Payson
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Neva#3296 · Aleyda#3296 · Kaylor#3296 · Nalia#3296 · Anyeli#3296 · Izabel#3296 · Esmee#3296 · Rhoda#3296
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Payson? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Payson and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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