Timber
Feminine · “wood for building”
Timber is given to both — 1,504 girls and 893 boys since 1880. See Timber as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Timber is the English word for wood cut for building, and its history runs in an unexpected direction — the Old English timber meant the building itself before it meant the material.
How old is the name Timber?
Timber first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Timber is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,500 people named Timber are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Timber most popular?
Timber peaked in 2015, reaching #2236 nationally. Today it ranks #3712, 1,476 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Timber
The word is among the oldest in the Germanic vocabulary and its meaning drifted from the building, to the act of building, to the material — which is why German Zimmer means a room and English timber means a plank. The shout before a falling tree is a nineteenth-century North American logging call. Its use as a girls' given name is very recent and belongs with the other nature words of the last decade.
Meaning
wood for building
From Old English timber, which named a building or the act of building as well as the wood; German kept the older sense and calls a room a Zimmer, and the verb to timber once meant to construct.
Pronouncing Timber
TIM-ber
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation in English.
Nicknames for Timber
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 201584 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2236reached in 2015
- Change vs 2024
- −11.1%40 in 2025, from 45
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.
Timber in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Zimmer in German — related form
- Timmer in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas.
Timbers among us
people named Timber are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 40,182 born in 2025 was named Timber
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Timber
- #3712
- Timber on the 2025 chart
- #903
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Timber went to 40 girls in 2025, but Tymber is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 57, which makes it the 903rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,809 places above the chart.
- Timber40
- Tymber17
About 1 girl in 28,198 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 40,182 for Timber itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Tyonna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Timber's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tyonna climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tyonna's path sketches the road Timber is walking now.
Timber 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 Timber is headed
Timber is easing off slowly — about 17% 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.
Timber beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Timber in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An ordinary English word, so nobody has to be taught to say or spell it.
- A settled meaning with a genuinely interesting history of drift.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- The logging shout means something is falling, which is an odd thing to call out.
- A dating application of a nearly identical name is unavoidable for adults.
- It is used for both sexes, so forms may guess wrong.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Timber to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Timber
Feminine · #3712 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Timbers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Timber are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Timber?
- Timber is the most-used spelling in US records — 40 of the 57 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Tymber.
- How popular is the name Timber in 2025?
- Timber ranks #3712 among US girl names in 2025, with 40 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Timber?
- About 1 in every 40,182 US girls born in 2025 was named Timber — 40 in all.
- Will my child share the name Timber with classmates?
- Timber will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Timber
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Monet#3712 · Barrett#3712 · October#3712 · Aubrianna#3712 · Mishka#3712 · Berkleigh#3712 · Zailey#3712 · Ora#3712
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Timber? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Timber and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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