Starling
Masculine · “starling”
Starling is given to both — 1,001 boys and 225 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Every starling in North America descends from a small release in New York in the early 1890s. An American named Starling in 1908 was therefore naming a child after a bird that had been on the continent for less than twenty years and was already spreading across it at speed.
How old is the name Starling?
Starling was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Starling alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 400 people named Starling are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Starling most popular?
Starling peaked in 1908, reaching #744 nationally. Today it ranks #6446, 5,702 places below that high. See the whole 1908 chart.
Where it comes from
From staer to Starling
The story of Starling
Starlings were introduced to North America by a group who released around a hundred birds in Central Park in 1890 and 1891; a widely repeated story attributes the project to a wish to bring every bird mentioned by Shakespeare to America, and while the release is documented the motive is disputed. Within a century the descendants numbered in the hundreds of millions, coast to coast. The name Starling in American records is mostly a surname turned given name, following the ordinary pattern, and it peaks in 1908, which places it exactly in the years when the bird was becoming a familiar sight in eastern cities for the first time.
Meaning
starling, a small dark songbird
Old English staerlinc, a diminutive of staer, the older word for the bird; the -ling suffix is the same one in duckling and yearling and marks a small or young one. The word is therefore literally little star-bird, though the star in it is the bird's own old name rather than the object in the sky. As a surname it is either the bird used as a nickname or a variant of Sterling.
How the name formed
- staer
- staerlinc
- Starling
Related forms: Sterling · Star
Pronouncing Starling
STAR-ling
Two syllables with the stress on the first. Identical to the bird, and one consonant from Sterling, which is the name it is most often confused with.
Nicknames for Starling
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
- 191619 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #744reached in 1908
- Change vs 2023
- −7.1%13 in 2025, from 14
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.
Starling in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sterling in English — related form
- Star in German — related form
Starlings among us
people named Starling are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 131,390 born in 2025 was named Starling
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
Starling 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
Starling beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Starling in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A real English word with a documented thousand-year-old etymology.
- Star is available as a short form and stands alone.
- Extremely rare as a given name while being completely familiar as a word.
- Sterling is far more common as a name and will be written instead.
- The starling is regarded as an invasive pest across most of North America.
- A well-known thriller character shares the surname, which is the association many adults will have.
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What they receive
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Starling
Masculine · #6446 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Starlings are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Starling are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Starling in 2025?
- Starling ranks #6446 among US boy names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Starling?
- About 1 in every 131,390 US boys born in 2025 was named Starling — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Starling with classmates?
- Starling will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Starling
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rollie#6446 · Billie#6446 · Worth#6446 · Blas#6446 · Alvis#6446 · Elwyn#6446 · Sal#6446 · Rollin#6446
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Starling? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Starling and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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