Son
Masculine
Son is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,061 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Son is an English word that was used as a name, and it is also a Vietnamese one that means a mountain. In American records it appears twice over: once in the rural South, where families called a boy Son until it stopped being a nickname and started being what the census wrote down, and once again a century later with a different language behind it.
How old is the name Son?
Son first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Son alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 600 people named Son are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Son most popular?
Son peaked in 1901, reaching #487 nationally. See the whole 1901 chart.
Where it comes from
From an ordinary English word used as an address to a child to Son
Our story of Son
Both routes to this name have the same shape, which is unusual for two things that have nothing to do with each other. In each case a perfectly ordinary word — one English, one Vietnamese — was said to a child so often that it stopped being a description and became an address, and then somebody wrote it on a form. English has done this before: Bud, Buddy, Baby and Sister all appear in old American records as legal names, and every one of them started as something a family said rather than something a family chose. The paperwork does not distinguish between what you are called and what you are named, and after a generation neither does anybody else.
Meaningnot established
Not established
In Vietnamese the word means a mountain and is one of the standard elements in men's names, drawn from the Chinese-derived layer of the vocabulary. In English it is the ordinary word, and its use as a name in the nineteenth-century South looks like what happened to a good many affectionate labels: a family called a child something, a clerk wrote it in a box, and the label became the legal name. The two are unrelated and share nothing but three letters.
How the name formed
- an ordinary English word used as an address to a child
- recorded as a legal name in the rural South
- a Vietnamese word for a mountain, unrelated
- resettlement brings the second one to America
- the record carries both under one spelling
Related forms: Son · Shan
Pronouncing Son
SUN
One syllable in English, rhyming with sun. The Vietnamese word is closer to shern, with a tone English cannot carry, and the two are not said alike by anybody who knows both.
Nicknames for Son
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
- 198241 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #487reached in 1901
- Change vs 2017
- −16.7%5 in 2019, from 6
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.
Son in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Son in Vietnamese — same name
- Shan in Chinese — related form
Sons among us
people named Son are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Son sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Three letters, one syllable, and impossible to misread in either language.
- It works for a child of either sex, and the record carries it on both sides.
- Sonny is waiting as a warmer form and has a long American history.
- It is one of the commonest words in English and will be read as that word first.
- The two origins are unrelated and a bearer will end up explaining which one applies.
- As an English name it reads as a label rather than a choice, which some people will comment on.
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Son
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Sons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Son are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Son in 2025?
- Son is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Son with classmates?
- Son will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Steven#271 · Stephen#383 · Samuel#18 · Scott#534 · Sean#489 · Shawn#681 · Stanley#863 · Steve#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Son? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Son and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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