Seth
Masculine · Hebrew roots · “appointed”
Seth is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 165,793 boys against 495 girls since 1880.
Seth belongs to the small group of Hebrew names that arrived in English through the Bible and never needed altering: one syllable, four letters, the same shape in Genesis as on a class roster. Puritan families in seventeenth-century England took it up along with other Old Testament names and carried it to New England, and it has been in continuous English use ever since. It ends on a soft breath rather than a hard consonant, which is unusual for a boy's name this short.
How old is the name Seth?
Seth was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Seth alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 156,000 people named Seth are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Seth most popular?
Seth peaked in 2000, reaching #63 nationally. Today it ranks #581, 518 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Where it comes from
From Shet (Hebrew) to Seth
The story of Seth
The name is Hebrew — Shet — and belongs to the third son of Adam and Eve in Genesis, the one through whom the genealogies continue. The Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible rendered it Sēth, Latin kept that spelling, and English inherited it unchanged, which is why the modern form looks so close to the original. Its steady English life begins with the Puritans, who preferred plain scriptural names and brought Seth to America with them. One coincidence is worth knowing: the Egyptian god Set is an entirely separate name that Greek also wrote as Sēth, so the two look alike on the page and share nothing at all in origin.
Meaning
appointed, placed
The reading comes from the Hebrew verb shith, 'to set or place', and Genesis 4:25 makes the connection explicit: Eve names her son because God has appointed her another child in place of Abel.
How the name formed
- ShetHebrew
- SēthGreek
- SethLatin
- SethEnglish
Related forms: Shet · Set · Sif · Sēth · Seth · Seth
Pronouncing Seth
SETH
One syllable, rhyming with 'breath'. There is only one pronunciation in English, and the spelling gives it away completely.
Nicknames for Seth
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
- 20016,223 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #63reached in 2000
- Change vs 2022
- −22.4%505 in 2025, from 651
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.
Seth in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shet in Hebrew — transliteration
- Set in Spanish — same name
- Sif in Russian — transliteration
- Sēth in Greek — same name
- Seth in French — same name
- Seth in Dutch — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Seths among us
people named Seth are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,382 born in 2025 was named Seth
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 Victor test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Seth's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Victor climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Victor's path sketches the road Seth is walking now.
Seth is coming down from a big peak (#63 in 2000). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Seth is headed
Seth should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Seth beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Seth in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds, and short enough that nobody asks twice — a rare combination in a biblical name.
- A documented record stretching from Genesis through Greek and Latin scripture into continuous English use since the Puritans.
- Recognizable in most European languages, which read it with only small adjustments to the ending.
- Familiar to nearly everyone without being a name a child will share with classmates.
- The final -th does not exist in Spanish, French, Portuguese or most Asian languages, so the name is often heard and repeated as 'Set' or 'Seth-uh' outside English.
- It resists shortening. Beyond a childhood 'Sethy', there is no nickname waiting, which suits some families and leaves others without an affectionate register.
- The Egyptian god Set is written Seth in older scholarship and shows up that way in mythology books and video games. It is an unrelated name, but the overlap occasionally gets mentioned.
- The 'th' sound is one of the last children master, so a young Seth may say his own name as 'Sess' for a while. It sorts itself out.
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Seth
Masculine · Hebrew roots · #581 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Seths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 156,000 people named Seth are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Seth in 2025?
- Seth ranks #581 among US boy names in 2025, with 505 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Seth?
- About 1 in every 3,382 US boys born in 2025 was named Seth — 505 in all.
- Will my child share the name Seth with classmates?
- Seth will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Seth
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Cassius#582 · Maximo#580 · Atreus#582 · Kyren#582 · Kylan#578 · Allen#578 · Jamie#577 · Camilo#585
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Seth? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Seth and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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