Scot
Masculine · “a Scot”
Scot is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 13,721 boys against 11 girls since 1880.
Scot with one t is the older spelling, and it originally meant an Irishman — the Scoti were raiders from Ireland who settled western Scotland and eventually gave the country their name.
How old is the name Scot?
Scot first appears in US birth records in 1940 — 85 years ago. The typical Scot alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 11,500 people named Scot are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Scot most popular?
Scot peaked in 1970, reaching #310 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 10,385 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Scotus to Scot
The story of Scot
Scot and Scott began as ethnic bynames in medieval England and Scotland — a Scot living among the English. Both became surnames, and Sir Walter Scott's enormous nineteenth-century fame carried the double-t spelling into given-name use. Both spellings were used in twentieth-century America, and the single-t Scot peaked around 1971.
Meaningscholars disagree
a Scot, an Irishman
From the Latin Scotus, the name Roman writers used for the Gaelic raiders of Ireland. Its own origin is unrecovered; it may be a Latin borrowing of an Irish word or a name given from outside. The Scoti of Dál Riata crossed to Argyll, and the name eventually covered the whole northern kingdom.
How the name formed
- Scotus
- Scot
- Scott
Related forms: Scott · Scotus
Pronouncing Scot
SKOT
One syllable. Scot and Scott are homophones; only the spelling differs.
Nicknames for Scot
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
- 1940
- Most boys named
- 1969588 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #310reached in 1970
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%6 in 2025, from 8
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.
Scot in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Scott in English — spelling variant
- Scotus in Latin — related form
Scots among us
people named Scot are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Scot
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Scot
- #10695
- Scot on the 2025 chart
- #479
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Scot went to 6 boys in 2025, but Scott is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 567, which makes it the 479th most-given boys’ name of the year — 10,216 places above the chart.
- Scott561
- Scot6
About 1 boy in 3,012 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 284,679 for Scot itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Noble test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Scot's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Noble climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Noble's path sketches the road Scot is walking now.
Scot 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
Scot beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Scot in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Irish-to-Scottish migration behind the word is a real and interesting piece of history.
- One syllable, firm, and never mispronounced.
- Scotty is available as a warmer form.
- Scott is much the commoner spelling and will be assumed.
- It is an ordinary English word for a nationality.
- It is closely dated to the 1960s and 1970s.
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What they receive
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Scot
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Scots are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,500 people named Scot are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Scot?
- Scot is one of 2 recorded spellings. Scott is the more common one — 561 births in 2025 against 6 for Scot.
- How popular is the name Scot in 2025?
- Scot ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Scot?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Scot — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Scot with classmates?
- Scot will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Scot
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Scot? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Scot and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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