Thunder
Masculine · “thunder”
Thunder is a god's name worn down into weather. Old English Thunor was the god the Norse called Thor, and Thursday is still his day; the word for the sound and the name of the god were the same, and English kept the sound after it stopped keeping the god.
How old is the name Thunder?
Thunder first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Thunder alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 600 people named Thunder are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Thunder most popular?
Thunder peaked in 2018, reaching #3607 nationally. Today it ranks #5208, 1,601 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Thunor to Thunder
The story of Thunder
The English weekdays carry four Germanic gods, and Thunor is the loudest of them. His hammer and his name went into Norse as Thor and stayed there in the sagas long after England had forgotten him. As a given name Thunder is recent, American, and belongs to a small group of weather and nature word-names that have been rising for two decades alongside Storm, River and Sky. It is given for the sound and the force rather than the god.
Meaning
thunder
Old English thunor, thunder, which was also the name of the god, cognate with Old Norse Thorr and German Donner. Thursday is Thunor's day, which is why the god survives in the calendar of a country that has not worshipped him for thirteen centuries.
How the name formed
- Thunor
- thunder
- Thunder
Related forms: Thor · Donner
Pronouncing Thunder
THUN-dur
Two syllables, stress in front, exactly as the word. There is no other reading.
Nicknames for Thunder
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 201830 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3607reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- +38.5%18 in 2025, from 13
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.
Thunder in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Thor in Old Norse — related form
- Donner in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Thunders among us
people named Thunder are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was named Thunder
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 Zohaib test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Thunder's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Zohaib climbed just as high around 1990, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Zohaib's path sketches the road Thunder is walking now.
Thunder 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
Thunder beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Thunder in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is one of the most vivid words in the language and needs no explaining.
- The connection to Thursday and to Thor is a genuinely good story to tell a child.
- Everyone can spell it and say it after hearing it once.
- It is a word in constant use, so the child hears his own name in every storm and every forecast.
- A name this emphatic is read as a statement, and the statement is the child's to carry.
- There is no quiet version of it and no traditional short form.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Thunder
Masculine · #5208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Thunders are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Thunder are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Thunder in 2025?
- Thunder ranks #5208 among US boy names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Thunder?
- About 1 in every 94,893 US boys born in 2025 was named Thunder — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Thunder with classmates?
- Thunder will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Thunder
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rodger#5208 · Eusebio#5208 · Boy#5208 · Randal#5208 · Gable#5208 · Jessy#5208 · Kelby#5208 · Jens#5208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Thunder? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Thunder and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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