Quince
Masculine · “Greek kydonion”
The quince is a fruit whose English name is a mistake. Old French cooin gave Middle English coyn, whose plural was quins; speakers reanalysed the plural as a singular and produced quince. The same accident gave English pea from pease and cherry from cherise.
How old is the name Quince?
Quince first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Quince alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 400 people named Quince are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Quince most popular?
Quince peaked in 1886, reaching #959 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,951 places below that high. See the whole 1886 chart.
Where it comes from
From kydonion to Quince
The story of Quince
English has a small class of words whose singular was manufactured out of a plural that was misheard, and they are worth listing because each one records a moment when speakers stopped parsing a word correctly. Pease was a singular noun; peas sounded plural; pea was invented to fill the gap. Cherise was a singular from French; cherries sounded plural; cherry followed. Quins was the plural of coyn; quince was reanalysed as singular and then took a new plural, quinces. The technical term is back-formation, and it demonstrates that grammar is applied to what speakers hear rather than to what a word historically is. Shakespeare gave the name to the carpenter in A Midsummer Night's Dream, where it is generally taken as a pun on quoins, the wedges a carpenter uses, rather than on the fruit.
Meaningscholars disagree
Greek kydonion, the Cydonian apple
Quince as a given name has two plausible sources. One is the fruit, from Greek kydonion melon, the apple of Cydonia in Crete, by way of Old French. The other is a short form of Quincy, an English and American surname from a Norman place name, which sits beside Quintus, Quinton and the whole Quin- family from Latin quintus, fifth. The American peak is 1886, when short word-names and surname-clips were both in ordinary use.
How the name formed
- kydonion
- coyn
- quince
- Quince
Related forms: Quincy · Membrillo
Pronouncing Quince
KWINS
One syllable. The qu is said kw, as it always is in English; qu never appears without a u because it entered English as a Norman spelling convention.
Nicknames for Quince
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
- 1884
- Most boys named
- 196414 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #959reached in 1886
- Change vs 2022
- +60.0%8 in 2025, from 5
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.
Quince in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Quincy in English — related form
- Membrillo in Spanish — related form
Quinces among us
people named Quince are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Quince
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Quince 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
Quince beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Quince in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Quin works as a short form and is a name in its own right.
- One syllable with a distinctive opening letter.
- It carries a genuine word history that is easy to tell.
- Quincy is far commoner and will be assumed.
- It is the name of a fruit most Americans have never eaten.
- The 1886 peak is deep in the nineteenth century.
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Quince
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Quinces are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Quince are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Quince in 2025?
- Quince ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Quince?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Quince — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Quince with classmates?
- Quince will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Quince
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Quince? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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