Spring
Feminine · “the season of growth”
Spring is the youngest of the four seasons in English. Summer and winter are ancient words, harvest was the old name for autumn, and the season we now call spring was called lencten, the word behind Lent, until the sixteenth century, when the phrase the spring of the year shortened and took over.
How old is the name Spring?
Spring first appears in US birth records in 1951 — 74 years ago. The typical Spring alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 3,300 people named Spring are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Spring most popular?
Spring peaked in 1976, reaching #622 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 5,924 places below that high. See the whole 1976 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lencten to Spring
The story of Spring
English had a four-season vocabulary that shifted twice: harvest gave way to autumn, borrowed from French, and lencten gave way to spring, cut down from an English phrase. Season names as personal names are a modern habit, and they are strikingly uneven; Summer and Autumn are both established American girls' names, Winter arrived later, and Spring has never taken hold in the same way. Its use belongs almost entirely to the American counterculture naming of the late 1960s and 1970s, alongside Sunshine, River, Rainbow and Meadow, and its best year on record is 1976.
Meaning
the season of growth
From the English verb to spring, in the phrase spring of the year or springing time, meaning the time when plants spring up. The older English name for the season was lencten, which survives as Lent and is related to a word for lengthening, describing the days. The season's modern name is therefore about four hundred years old, while summer and winter are several thousand.
How the name formed
- lencten
- springing time
- spring
Related forms: Primavera · Primavera · Printemps
Pronouncing Spring
SPRING
One syllable, identical to the English word in all three of its senses: the season, the water source and the coil.
Nicknames for Spring
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
- 1951
- Most girls named
- 1977182 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #622reached in 1976
- Change vs 2023
- −10.5%17 in 2025, from 19
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.
Spring in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Primavera in Spanish — related form
- Primavera in Italian — related form
- Printemps in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Virginia, New York.
Springs among us
people named Spring are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Spring
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 Annabell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Spring's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Annabell climbed just as high around 1906, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Annabell's path sketches the road Spring is walking now.
Spring 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
Spring beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Spring in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A single clear image that needs no explanation in any English-speaking country.
- One syllable, six letters, and impossible to mispronounce.
- Sits with Summer and Autumn, both long established as names.
- It is an ordinary English noun with three unrelated meanings.
- It reads as a 1970s American name, which is exactly its period.
- Unlike Summer and Autumn it never became common, so it always draws comment.
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What they receive
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Spring
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Springs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Spring are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Spring in 2025?
- Spring ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Spring?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Spring — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Spring with classmates?
- Spring will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Spring
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Spring? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Spring and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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