Timothy
Masculine · “honoring God”
Timothy is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,084,192 boys against 4,328 girls since 1880. See Timothy as a girl name
The Reformation brought Timothy out of the epistles. It was almost unknown in medieval England — no popular saint's cult, no royal bearer — and then Protestants who wanted scriptural names rather than legendary ones went through the New Testament and found Paul's young colleague waiting there. It is also, quite separately, a grass.
How old is the name Timothy?
Timothy was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Timothy alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 922,000 people named Timothy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Timothy most popular?
Timothy peaked in 1960, reaching #11 nationally. Today it ranks #203, 192 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Where it comes from
From Timotheos to Timothy
The story of Timothy
Timothy grass takes its name from Timothy Hanson, an eighteenth-century American farmer who promoted it as fodder — one of the very few cases where an ordinary man's first name became a botanical one. So a Timothy carries a Greek compound about honor and a hayfield at the same time. The name has been in steady English use since the Reformation and reached its height in America in the middle of the last century, having spent four hundred years as an unremarkable, entirely respectable choice.
Meaning
honoring God
Greek Timotheos joins time, honor or worth, with theos, god. The compound can be read either way round — honoring God, or honored by God — and Greek does not settle it. The derivation itself is not disputed. Timothy of the epistles was Paul's traveling companion and the recipient of two letters; the name reached English in its Latin form and was anglicized during the sixteenth century.
Cultural footprint
Timothy Dalton (b. 1946) — James Bond of the late '80s
Timothy Olyphant (b. 1968) — Justified's Raylan Givens
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Timotheos
- Timotheus
- Timothy
Related forms: Timothée · Timoteo · Timoteo · Timofey · Timotheus
Pronouncing Timothy
TIM-uh-thee
TIM-uh-thee, three syllables, stress at the front, the middle reduced, the th as in think. Greek said the middle vowel fully and put the weight further back, so the English name has flattened it considerably.
Nicknames for Timothy
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
- 196030,498 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #11reached in 1960
- Change vs 2022
- −6.2%1,734 in 2025, from 1,848
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.
Timothy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Timothée in French — same name
- Timoteo in Spanish — same name
- Timoteo in Italian — same name
- Timofey in Russian — same name
- Timotheus in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Timothys among us
people named Timothy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 985 born in 2025 was named Timothy
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 Willie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Timothy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Willie climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Willie's path sketches the road Timothy is walking now.
Timothy has held the top-100 across 7 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Timothy is headed
Timothy should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Timothy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Timothy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Greek compound is settled and both halves are ordinary, dignified words.
- Tim is a complete working short form that needs no explanation anywhere.
- It has been in continuous English use for four centuries without belonging to one decade.
- Every European language has a version, so it crosses a border without translation.
- A great many people carry it, so a Timothy will rarely be the only Tim in a room.
- It is strongly associated with the middle of the last century in America.
- Almost every Timothy is called Tim, so the full name is largely ceremonial.
- This spelling is recorded for girls too, though so rarely that a girl named Timothy will be read as a boy on every form.
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Timothy
Masculine · #203 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Timothys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 922,000 people named Timothy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Timothy in 2025?
- Timothy ranks #203 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,734 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Timothy?
- About 1 in every 985 US boys born in 2025 was named Timothy — 1,734 in all.
- Will my child share the name Timothy with classmates?
- Timothy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Timothy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kingston#204 · Tatum#202 · Caden#201 · Camden#205 · Finn#206 · Andres#200 · Rory#199 · Riley#207
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Timothy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Timothy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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