Thor
Masculine · “thunder”
Thor is thunder. The Old Norse name and the English word are the same word, several sound changes apart — and the day in the middle of the week still carries it, which almost nobody notices while saying it.
How old is the name Thor?
Thor first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Thor alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 4,200 people named Thor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Thor most popular?
Thor peaked in 1968, reaching #877 nationally. Today it ranks #2833, 1,956 places below that high. See the whole 1968 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From thunraz to Thor
The story of Thor
Thor was the most widely worshipped of the Norse gods — more so than Odin, judging by place-names and by the amulets people actually wore — and he was the god of ordinary people, of weather and of protection rather than of kings and poetry. His name is buried in hundreds of Scandinavian personal names: Thorbjorn, Thorvald, Thora, Torsten. It has stayed in continuous use in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, and it reached the United States with Scandinavian emigration in the nineteenth century, well before any comic book existed.
Meaning
thunder
Old Norse Thorr comes from Proto-Germanic thunraz, which is also the source of English thunder and German Donner. The god and the weather are named with one word. Thursday is Thor's day, translating the Latin dies Iovis — Jupiter's day — because the Romans and the Germanic peoples matched up their thunder gods. The reading is documented and not in dispute.
How the name formed
- thunraz
- Þórr
- Thor
Related forms: Tor · Tor · Þór · Thor
Pronouncing Thor
THOR
One syllable. Old Norse and Icelandic begin it with the unvoiced th of thin; Norwegian and Swedish have dropped the h entirely and say Tor. American English says THOR, which matches the Icelandic.
Nicknames for Thor
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 2011107 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #877reached in 1968
- Change vs 2023
- −38.0%44 in 2025, from 71
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.
Thor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tor in Norwegian — spelling variant
- Tor in Swedish — spelling variant
- Þór in Icelandic — same name
- Thor in Danish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Washington, Minnesota.
Thors among us
people named Thor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 38,820 born in 2025 was named Thor
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 Levie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Thor's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Levie climbed just as high around 1908, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Levie's path sketches the road Thor is walking now.
Thor 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 Thor is headed
Thor is easing off slowly — about 25% 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.
Thor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Thor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, four letters, and known to every English speaker on sight.
- A genuinely ancient name with an unbroken record in four Nordic countries.
- The meaning is a single concrete thing rather than an abstract quality.
- The comic and film association is enormous and will arrive before the child does.
- It is the name of a god, which some families weigh differently than others.
- One syllable leaves nothing to shorten and no longer form to grow into.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Thor to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Thor
Masculine · #2833 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Thors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,200 people named Thor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Thor in 2025?
- Thor ranks #2833 among US boy names in 2025, with 44 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Thor?
- About 1 in every 38,820 US boys born in 2025 was named Thor — 44 in all.
- Will my child share the name Thor with classmates?
- Thor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Thor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bayron#2833 · Odysseus#2833 · Mahlon#2833 · Ward#2833 · Jarvis#2833 · Abriel#2833 · Alain#2833 · Josef#2833
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Thor? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Thor and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
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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