Thurman
Masculine · “Thor's protection”
Thurman is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 16,392 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Thurman carries a god's name into the twentieth century. The Norse Thor gave a set of personal names — Thormund, Thorbjorn, Thorstein — and Thurman is an English surname built on one of them.
How old is the name Thurman?
Thurman was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Thurman alive today was born around 1936, making them about 89 years old. About 5,900 people named Thurman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Thurman most popular?
Thurman peaked in 1888, reaching #204 nationally. See the whole 1888 chart.
Where it comes from
From Thormundr to Thurman
The story of Thurman
Danish settlement in eastern and northern England left a deep layer of Norse names, and several survived the Conquest as surnames when they had stopped being given names. Thurman is one of them. American families took it as a given name in the nineteenth century — one of many surnames that made that move — and it held a place in the top three hundred for boys around 1920 before fading.
Meaning
Thor's protection
From the Old Norse Thormundr — Thor, the thunder god, and mundr, 'protection'. English-speaking descendants of Danish settlers carried the name into the surname system as Thurman, Thurmond and Thurstan. Names invoking Thor were extremely common in the Norse world and survived the conversion to Christianity by centuries.
How the name formed
- Thormundr
- Thurmond
- Thurman
Related forms: Thurmond · Þórmundr · Thurstan
Pronouncing Thurman
THUR-mun
Two syllables, stress on the first, th as in 'thin'. No variation between English accents.
Nicknames for Thurman
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1918359 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #204reached in 1888
- Change vs 2021
- −37.5%5 in 2024, from 8
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.
Thurman in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Thurmond in English — spelling variant
- Þórmundr in Norse — related form
- Thurstan in English — related form
Thurmans among us
people named Thurman are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Thurman has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- A documented Norse origin invoking one of the best-known figures in northern mythology.
- Two firm syllables that stand up well against a short surname.
- The meaning is coherent and both elements are well attested.
- It reads as a surname to many people, which is what it was for eight hundred years.
- It is strongly period-coded to the early twentieth century.
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Thurman
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Thurmans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,900 people named Thurman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Thurman in 2025?
- Thurman is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Thurman with classmates?
- Thurman will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Thomas#34 · Timothy#203 · Tyler#219 · Terry#1115 · Theodore#4 · Travis#434 · Todd#1609 · Tony#783
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Thurman? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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