Preston
Masculine · Old English roots · “priests' settlement”
Preston is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 122,958 boys against 799 girls since 1880. See Preston as a girl name
Preston began as a place: an Old English name for a settlement held by priests, attached to dozens of English villages and towns, the largest of them in Lancashire. From those places it became a surname, and from the surname a first name that has been on American records for well over a century. Two firm syllables, the stress on the first, and nothing in the spelling to argue about.
How old is the name Preston?
Preston was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Preston alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 104,000 people named Preston are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Preston most popular?
Preston peaked in 2006, reaching #114 nationally. Today it ranks #299, 185 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Where it comes from
From prēosta tūn (Old English) to Preston
The story of Preston
Preston is one of the most common English place names, formed from the Old English elements prēost and tūn — land belonging to or supporting priests. It turns up across England, from Lancashire to Kent to Sussex, and appears in medieval records in spellings like Prestune. Families who came from such a place took the name with them, so Preston became a surname, and in the United States it followed the familiar path of English surnames into use as a given name, taking particular hold in the South. It has been continuously on American birth records ever since, without a break.
Meaning
priests' settlement, from Old English prēost 'priest' and tūn 'farmstead, enclosure, town'
How the name formed
- prēosta tūnOld English
- Prestune
- Prestonplace name
- Prestonsurname
- Prestongiven name
Pronouncing Preston
PRESS-tun
Stress on the first syllable. The spelling gives the sound away, so it survives phone calls and roll calls intact.
Nicknames for Preston
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
- 20073,797 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #114reached in 2006
- Change vs 2022
- −16.5%1,131 in 2025, from 1,354
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.
Preston in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Prestons among us
people named Preston are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,510 born in 2025 was named Preston
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 Francisco test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Preston's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Francisco climbed just as high around 1991, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Francisco's path sketches the road Preston is walking now.
Preston 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 Preston is headed
Preston is easing off slowly — about 19% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Preston beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Preston in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelling and pronunciation match: almost no one hears Preston and writes something else, or reads it and says it wrong.
- A documented history reaching back to Old English place names, still visible on English maps today.
- On US birth records continuously for well over a century, so it reads as neither new nor old-fashioned.
- Has a real short form, Pres, without depending on one — the full name works at every age.
- Strongly represented in Texas, California and Florida, but familiar across the country.
- It sits in a large family of -ton and -den surname names, so it may blend into a class list of similar-sounding boys even when no other Preston is there.
- Still very much a surname as well as a first name, which some families like and others find formal.
- The literal meaning is religious — priests' land — and while nobody hears that in daily use, it is worth knowing if that matters either way to you.
- It is stepping back from its high point rather than rising, so it will likely read as a name of its moment to people who track such things.
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Preston
Masculine · Old English roots · #299 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Prestons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 104,000 people named Preston are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Preston in 2025?
- Preston ranks #299 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,131 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Preston?
- About 1 in every 1,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Preston — 1,131 in all.
- Will my child share the name Preston with classmates?
- Preston will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Preston
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Clayton#300 · Sonny#298 · Archie#301 · Romeo#301 · Holden#297 · Kohen#295 · Kaleb#295 · Gavin#303
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Preston? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Preston and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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