Taylor
Feminine · Latin roots · “tailor”
Taylor is given to both — 330,145 girls and 113,541 boys since 1880. See Taylor as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Taylor began as a job: the tailor, the one who cut cloth, a trade name carried in English families for centuries before anyone thought to put it in front of a surname. Two syllables, both open and easy, and no one in an English-speaking country has to ask how to spell it. It traveled from workshop to family name to first name, and it goes to boys and girls alike.
How old is the name Taylor?
Taylor first appears in US birth records in 1951 — 74 years ago. The typical Taylor alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 326,000 people named Taylor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Taylor most popular?
Taylor peaked in 1994, reaching #6 nationally. Today it ranks #403, 397 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Where it comes from
From taliare (Latin) to Taylor
The story of Taylor
Taylor is one of the great English occupational surnames, recorded from the medieval period onward for the tailor — the cutter of cloth — and it comes through Old French tailleur from the Latin verb taliare, 'to cut'. Like Riley, Parker and Harper, it made the ordinary English journey from trade to family name to given name, a pattern that has fed first names steadily for generations. In American use it opened as a boys' name and then found a much larger following among girls, which is why the same spelling now travels comfortably in both directions. It has been strongly represented in the big, populous states of the South and West, and it remains familiar across the wider English-speaking world.
Meaning
tailor — one who cuts cloth
From Old French tailleur, from Latin taliare, 'to cut'.
How the name formed
- taliareLatin
- tailleurOld French
- taillour / TaylorMiddle English surname
- Taylorgiven name
Related forms: Tayler · Taylah · Tayla · Tailleur · Schneider
Pronouncing Taylor
TAY-lur
Stress on the first syllable. One pronunciation everywhere in English; the only real variation is how fully the final -er is sounded.
Nicknames for Taylor
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
- 199321,270 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #6reached in 1994
- Change vs 2024
- −12.2%772 in 2025, from 879
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.
Taylor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tayler in English — spelling variant
- Taylah in English (Australia) — spelling variant
- Tayla in English — spelling variant
- Tailleur in French — related form
- Schneider in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Taylors among us
people named Taylor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,082 born in 2025 was named Taylor
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 Nancy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Taylor's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nancy climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nancy's path sketches the road Taylor is walking now.
Taylor is coming down from a big peak (#6 in 1994). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Taylor is headed
Taylor is easing off slowly — about 29% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Taylor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Taylor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelling and pronunciation are already known to everyone in English — no repeating, no correcting on the phone.
- Works for a boy or a girl with no change of form, and reads the same on a class list either way.
- A documented word history going back through Old French to Latin, unbroken and easy to explain to a child.
- Established short forms already in use: Tay for everyday, the full name for anything formal.
- Recognized across the English-speaking world, so it travels well.
- The girls' side is much the larger one now, so a boy named Taylor will meet the occasional assumption on paper before people meet him. It is easily corrected, and the boys' use is genuinely older than the girls'.
- There are a great many adult Taylors, clustered in one broad generation — the name may read to some ears as belonging to grown-ups rather than to children, though that has ceased to be true of new classrooms.
- Tayler and Taylah exist as spellings, so the occasional form will come back needing a fix.
- The singer Taylor Swift is the loudest association the name carries at the moment; whether that is welcome is a matter of taste rather than a problem.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Taylor to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Taylor
Feminine · Latin roots · #403 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Taylors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 326,000 people named Taylor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Taylor in 2025?
- Taylor ranks #403 among US girl names in 2025, with 772 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Taylor?
- About 1 in every 2,082 US girls born in 2025 was named Taylor — 772 in all.
- Will my child share the name Taylor with classmates?
- Taylor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Taylor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Logan#402 · Raven#404 · Lauren#401 · Carolina#405 · Lana#406 · Briar#400 · Brynn#407 · Melany#398
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Taylor? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Taylor and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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