Swayze
Feminine
Swayze is given to both — 948 girls and 254 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Swayze is a surname of Norman and then Irish descent, and it reached American naming through one actor whose films defined a decade.
How old is the name Swayze?
Swayze first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Swayze is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 900 people named Swayze are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Swayze most popular?
Swayze peaked in 2024, reaching #2011 nationally. Today it ranks #2036, 25 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Swayze
Our story of Swayze is a story of one name arriving through one man. The surname came to America with Norman-Irish settlers in the seventeenth century and stayed a surname for three hundred years. Patrick Swayze's films of the late 1980s made the sound familiar to everyone, and American families — chiefly in the South — began registering it as a girls' given name in the 2010s. Its entire life as a first name fits in a decade.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The surname's origin is not settled. It is generally traced to the Norman de Sourches or a French place name, carried to Ireland and then America. A Swiss or Swabian origin is also proposed. No reading is established, and the given name descends from the surname rather than any word.
Pronouncing Swayze
SWAY-zee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Said identically in every English accent.
Nicknames for Swayze
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
- 1989
- Most girls named
- 202497 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2011reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −4.1%93 in 2025, from 97
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.
Swayze in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Swayzee in English — spelling variant
- Swaize in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Mississippi, Texas, Utah.
Swayzes among us
people named Swayze are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 17,282 born in 2025 was named Swayze
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Swayze
- #2036
- Swayze on the 2025 chart
- #841
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Swayze went to 93 girls in 2025, but Swayzee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 119, which makes it the 841st most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,195 places above the chart.
- Swayze93
- Swayzee26
About 1 girl in 13,506 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 17,282 for Swayze itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Alixandra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Swayze's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alixandra climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alixandra's path sketches the road Swayze is walking now.
Swayze 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 Swayze is headed
Swayze looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 26% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Swayze beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Swayze in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is genuinely rare and immediately distinctive.
- Sway and Zee are two short forms, both usable.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- The surname's own origin is not settled.
- One actor dominates the association entirely.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Swayze
Feminine · #2036 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Swayzes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Swayze are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Swayze?
- Swayze is the most-used spelling in US records — 93 of the 119 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Swayzee.
- How popular is the name Swayze in 2025?
- Swayze ranks #2036 among US girl names in 2025, with 93 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Swayze?
- About 1 in every 17,282 US girls born in 2025 was named Swayze — 93 in all.
- Will my child share the name Swayze with classmates?
- Swayze will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Swayze
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jude#2036 · Alyanna#2036 · Aysel#2036 · Moira#2036 · Jaycie#2036 · Mayzie#2036 · Marion#2036 · Tania#2036
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Swayze? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Swayze and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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