Stone
Masculine · Old English roots · “stone”
Stone is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 6,676 boys against 155 girls since 1880.
Stone is the English word, worn smooth by a thousand years of use — Old English stān, the same syllable spoken in much the same way then as now. It came to people first as a surname, marking whoever lived beside a boundary stone or a standing one, and only later stepped forward as a first name. One syllable, no silent letters, nothing to explain twice.
How old is the name Stone?
Stone first appears in US birth records in 1919 — 106 years ago. The typical Stone alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 6,500 people named Stone are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Stone most popular?
Stone peaked in 1997, reaching #623 nationally. Today it ranks #915, 292 places below that high. See the whole 1997 chart.
Stone appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From stān (Old English) to Stone
The story of Stone
The word stān is Old English, and it hardened into a surname in medieval England for families living near a landmark stone, a boundary marker, or working the quarries. Spellings drifted through Middle English — Ston, Stan, atte Stone — before settling on the form we use. Stone also served as an anglicization for German Stein and Dutch Steen among immigrant families in America, which is part of why the surname is so widespread here. Its move to the front of the name has been quiet and gradual, alongside other one-syllable word names that started life on mailboxes.
Meaning
stone; from Old English stān
As a surname it was topographic or occupational — someone who lived by a notable stone, or who quarried and cut it.
How the name formed
- stānOld English
- Ston / atte StoneMiddle English
- StoneEnglish surname
- Stonegiven name
Related forms: Sten · Sten · Steinn · Stein · Steen
Pronouncing Stone
STOHN
Rhymes with bone. One syllable, said exactly as the word — no regional variation to speak of in English.
Nicknames for Stone
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
- 1919
- Most boys named
- 1998285 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #623reached in 1997
- Change vs 2024
- +21.7%258 in 2025, from 212
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.
Stone in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sten in Swedish — related form
- Sten in Danish/Norwegian — related form
- Steinn in Icelandic — related form
- Stein in German — related form
- Steen in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Stones among us
people named Stone are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 6,620 born in 2025 was named Stone
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 Collins test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Stone's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Collins climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Collins's path sketches the road Stone is walking now.
Stone 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 Stone is headed
Stone 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.
Stone beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Stone in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way the word is spelled, so it survives phone calls, forms and roll call without correction.
- One syllable, which sits easily in front of longer surnames.
- A documented English surname reaching back to Old English, so it has a real line behind it rather than a recent invention.
- Cognate first names exist across Scandinavia and Germany — Sten, Steinn, Stein — giving it recognizable relatives abroad.
- Common enough as a surname that no one hears it as strange, uncommon enough as a first name that a child is unlikely to share it.
- "Stoned" is unavoidable slang, and older kids will find it. It tends to be a passing joke rather than a lasting problem, but it is worth saying out loud now.
- Because Stone reads first as a surname, expect occasional forms and databases to file it in the wrong column, and the odd "Mr. Stone?" on the phone.
- There is essentially no softer or longer version to fall back on — no formal Stone for a résumé, no diminutive for a toddler. What you choose is what the child has at every age.
- Hard word names pair unevenly with hard surnames; say the full name aloud a few times before deciding.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Stone to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Stone
Masculine · Old English roots · #915 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Stones are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,500 people named Stone are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Stone in 2025?
- Stone ranks #915 among US boy names in 2025, with 258 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Stone?
- About 1 in every 6,620 US boys born in 2025 was named Stone — 258 in all.
- Will my child share the name Stone with classmates?
- Stone will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Stone
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Issac#915 · Leif#917 · Makari#917 · Wesson#917 · Ezrah#913 · Beck#913 · Koah#912 · Shmuel#920
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Stone? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Stone and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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