Thorin
Masculine · “bold”
Thorin comes out of a list of dwarf names in the Old Norse poem Völuspá, copied into an Icelandic manuscript in the thirteenth century, and it sat there quietly for seven hundred years until Tolkien read the list and borrowed from it. It is two syllables with the weight on the first, opening on the same unvoiced th as thorn and thunder, and closing softly. Short, hard-edged at the front, and easy for an English mouth to say on the first try.
How old is the name Thorin?
Thorin first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Thorin is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,300 people named Thorin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Thorin most popular?
Thorin peaked in 2015, reaching #1185 nationally. Today it ranks #1376, 191 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Thorin appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Þórr to Thorin
The story of Thorin
The name is Þorinn, one of dozens of dwarf names cataloged in the Dvergatal section of Völuspá, part of the Poetic Edda preserved in medieval Iceland. It stayed a piece of literary and antiquarian knowledge rather than a name people gave babies. Tolkien, a philologist by trade, mined that same catalog for The Hobbit in the 1930s, and Thorin Oakenshield carried the name into modern English. American use follows from there, gathering pace after the story reached the screen — which is why the name is overwhelmingly worn by children and young people rather than spread evenly across the generations.
Meaningscholars disagree
bold, daring — or connected to the god Thor
Two serious readings compete. The commonest derives Þorinn from the Old Norse verb þora, 'to dare', giving 'bold one' or 'the daring'. The other links it to the Þór- element behind Þórr (Thor), which begins a whole family of Norse names: Þórir, Þorsteinn, Þorvaldr. The two are not always cleanly separable in the old material.
How the name formed
- Þórr
- Þorinn
- Thorin
Related forms: Þorinn · Torin · Þórir · Torstein · Torvald
Pronouncing Thorin
THOR-in
Stress the first syllable. The th is the unvoiced one in thorn, not the one in this. Some families say THOH-rin with a longer first vowel; both are heard.
Nicknames for Thorin
High
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
- 1968
- Most boys named
- 2023167 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1185reached in 2015
- Change vs 2024
- −3.6%134 in 2025, from 139
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.
Thorin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Þorinn in Old Norse — same name
- Torin in English — spelling variant
- Þórir in Icelandic — related form
- Torstein in Norwegian — related form
- Torvald in Swedish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Washington, Texas.
Thorins among us
people named Thorin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 12,747 born in 2025 was named Thorin
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 Neill test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Thorin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Neill climbed just as high around 1940, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Neill's path sketches the road Thorin is walking now.
Thorin 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 Thorin is headed
Thorin 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.
Thorin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Thorin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two ready-made short forms, Thor and Rin, one bold and one quiet — useful range in a name of only two syllables.
- Spelled the way it sounds for English speakers, and short enough to fit any form or signature.
- Documented in writing for roughly eight centuries, which is a longer paper trail than most names that feel this new.
- Sits inside a real Norse name family — Thorstein, Thorvald, Torin — so it travels in Scandinavian countries without translation.
- Almost no chance of a second Thorin in the classroom.
- The association with Tolkien's dwarf king is strong and specific, and for many people it will be the only Thorin they have heard of. That connection is not going anywhere, so it is worth being at peace with it.
- Torin, Thoren and Thorne are all real spellings people will reach for instead. Expect to spell it aloud fairly often.
- The Thor short form pulls toward the thunder god and the comics built on him — which some families like and others would rather steer around.
- A name this uncommon means no built-in familiarity: teachers, doctors and coaches will meet it for the first time each year, though it is short enough that the first correction usually sticks.
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What they receive
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Thorin
Masculine · #1376 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Thorins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Thorin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Thorin in 2025?
- Thorin ranks #1376 among US boy names in 2025, with 134 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Thorin?
- About 1 in every 12,747 US boys born in 2025 was named Thorin — 134 in all.
- Will my child share the name Thorin with classmates?
- Thorin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Thorin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kashmir#1376 · Kamryn#1376 · Zabdiel#1376 · Coen#1376 · Zael#1376 · Baron#1370 · Jakob#1370 · Rolando#1370
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Thorin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Thorin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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