Ranger
Masculine · “forest keeper”
Ranger is one who ranges — a forest officer with authority over a stretch of woodland, and the word goes back to the Old French rangier, to arrange in a line.
How old is the name Ranger?
Ranger first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Ranger is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,500 people named Ranger are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ranger most popular?
Ranger peaked in 2022, reaching #1440 nationally. Today it ranks #1571, 131 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Ranger appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From rang to Ranger
The story of Ranger
The word named forest officers in medieval England and was carried to America, where ranging companies patrolled colonial frontiers and gave the Texas Rangers and the US Army Rangers their names. Occupational word-names rose in American naming from the 2000s alongside Hunter, Mason and Scout, and Ranger appears in the registers rising through the 2010s.
Meaning
forest keeper, one who ranges
From the English range, through the Old French ranger, 'to arrange in rows', from rang, 'a line'. A ranger was originally a sworn officer of a royal forest. The sense of a mounted frontier soldier is American and dates from the seventeenth century. The etymology is documented.
How the name formed
- rang
- ranger
- Ranger
Related forms: Rangier · Rainger
Pronouncing Ranger
RAYN-jur
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is a homophone of the ordinary English noun.
Nicknames for Ranger
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
- 1958
- Most boys named
- 2022126 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1440reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −6.9%108 in 2025, from 116
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.
Ranger in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rangier in French — related form
- Rainger in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Rangers among us
people named Ranger are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 15,816 born in 2025 was named Ranger
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 Cosme test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ranger's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cosme climbed just as high around 1909, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cosme's path sketches the road Ranger is walking now.
Ranger 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 Ranger is headed
Ranger 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.
Ranger beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ranger in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The forest-officer meaning is concrete and the word's history is well documented.
- It belongs to a coherent and current family of occupational names.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It is an ordinary English noun and never reads as purely a name.
- The military and sports-team associations are strong.
- It is very new as a given name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Ranger
Masculine · #1571 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rangers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Ranger are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ranger in 2025?
- Ranger ranks #1571 among US boy names in 2025, with 108 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ranger?
- About 1 in every 15,816 US boys born in 2025 was named Ranger — 108 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ranger with classmates?
- Ranger will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ranger
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Constantine#1571 · Jiovanni#1571 · Emeric#1571 · Link#1571 · Vivaan#1571 · Lucky#1571 · Neel#1571 · Keon#1571
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ranger? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ranger and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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