Smith
Masculine · Old English roots · “smith”
Smith is given to both — 5,475 boys and 189 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Smith is the name of the person at the forge — the one trade every medieval village needed, and so the most widespread occupational surname in the English language. Brought to the front of the name by the long American habit of turning family surnames into given names, it keeps its single hard syllable and its blunt, unmistakable spelling.
How old is the name Smith?
Smith was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Smith alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 3,400 people named Smith are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Smith most popular?
Smith peaked in 1885, reaching #318 nationally. Today it ranks #1477, 1,159 places below that high. See the whole 1885 chart.
Smith appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From smið (Old English) to Smith
The story of Smith
The word smið is Old English, and it named a job rather than a family: the man who beat iron into shape. Because every settlement had one, the byname became a surname independently in countless places, which is why it ended up the commonest surname across the English-speaking world, with exact cognates in German Schmidt, Dutch Smit and the Scandinavian Smed. Its life as a first name comes from a separate tradition — the practice, strongest in the American South, of passing a mother's maiden name or a grandfather's surname to a son as his given name. Boys named Smith are almost always carrying somebody's family line rather than the trade.
Meaning
smith; one who works metal
From Old English smið, a worker in metal — the blacksmith, the whitesmith, the goldsmith. It belongs to the same family of words as smite, 'to strike'.
How the name formed
- smiðOld English
- Smyth
- Smith
Related forms: Schmidt · Smit · Smyth · Schmid · Smed
Pronouncing Smith
SMITH
One syllable, with the soft unvoiced th of myth rather than the buzzing th of this. There is no second pronunciation to correct, in any English-speaking country.
Nicknames for Smith
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
- 2016162 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #318reached in 1885
- Change vs 2022
- +7.1%120 in 2025, from 112
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.
Smith in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Schmidt in German — related form
- Smit in Dutch — related form
- Smyth in English (older spelling) — spelling variant
- Schmid in German/Swiss — related form
- Smed in Swedish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, North Carolina.
Smiths among us
people named Smith are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 14,234 born in 2025 was named Smith
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
Smith 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 Smith is headed
Smith 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.
Smith beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Smith in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can already spell it — no name in English is more familiar on paper, so it survives phone calls, forms and roll calls intact.
- One syllable, one stress: it sits cleanly in front of long or short surnames and needs no shortening.
- A documented word going back to Old English, with exact cognates in German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages.
- Has an established informal form, Smitty, already in use for generations.
- It is the surname most people in the country expect to hear, so it will regularly be read as a last name — reversed on forms, filed under S, questioned at check-in. Most families with a surname first name know this trade-off well.
- 'John Smith' is the standard English placeholder for an anonymous or invented person. It rarely touches a real child day to day, but the joke exists and will be made.
- If your own surname is short and blunt, or is itself a common occupational name, read the full pairing out loud a few times — two hard surnames in a row can land heavily.
- As a given name it stays rare enough that a Smith will usually be the only one he meets, which means brief explanations for life and no confusion in a classroom.
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What they receive
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Smith
Masculine · Old English roots · #1477 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Smiths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,400 people named Smith are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Smith in 2025?
- Smith ranks #1477 among US boy names in 2025, with 120 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Smith?
- About 1 in every 14,234 US boys born in 2025 was named Smith — 120 in all.
- Will my child share the name Smith with classmates?
- Smith will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Smith
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Xzavier#1477 · Ewan#1477 · Kamarion#1477 · Vedant#1477 · Isiah#1477 · Arnold#1477 · Derick#1477 · Laken#1477
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Smith? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Smith and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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