Torsten
Masculine · “Thor's stone”
Torsten means Thor's stone, and both halves are exactly what they look like. Norse naming built compounds from the god's name freely, and stone was one of the commonest second elements — a name meaning something like the god's rock, or firmness under the god's protection. Its American peak is 1968.
How old is the name Torsten?
Torsten first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Torsten alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 700 people named Torsten are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Torsten most popular?
Torsten peaked in 1968, reaching #2576 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 3,567 places below that high. See the whole 1968 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Thorsteinn to Torsten
The story of Torsten
Thorsteinn is one of the commonest names in the Icelandic sagas and appears throughout the medieval Norse world. Christianisation removed most pagan god-names from European naming, but the Thor names in Scandinavia survived, partly because they were so numerous and partly because the element had become a building block rather than an invocation. The modern forms are Torsten and Thorsten in Sweden and Germany, Torstein in Norway, Thorsteinn in Iceland. American records show it with Scandinavian and German migration, peaking in the late 1960s.
Meaning
Thor's stone
Old Norse Thorsteinn joins Thorr, the thunder god whose name is simply the word for thunder, to steinn, 'stone'. The compound is transparent and the derivation is settled. Stone as a name element carried a sense of firmness and endurance rather than mere rock, and it appears in Steinar, Halstein and Bergstein as well. About a quarter of recorded Icelandic settlement-period names contain the Thor element.
How the name formed
- Thorsteinn
- Torsten
Related forms: Torsten · Thorsten · Torstein · Thorsteinn
Pronouncing Torsten
TOR-stun
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ending reduced. Swedish and German say it the same way; German writes it with an h that changes nothing. English readers produce it correctly on sight.
Nicknames for Torsten
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
- 1962
- Most boys named
- 200933 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2576reached in 1968
- Change vs 2024
- −22.2%14 in 2025, from 18
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.
Torsten in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Torsten in Swedish — same name
- Thorsten in German — spelling variant
- Torstein in Norwegian — related form
- Thorsteinn in Icelandic — related form
Torstens among us
people named Torsten are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Torsten
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 Chilton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Torsten's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Chilton climbed just as high around 1945, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Chilton's path sketches the road Torsten is walking now.
Torsten 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
Torsten beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Torsten 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 transparent and expressible in two words.
- Tor and Sten are both complete Scandinavian names available as short forms.
- The pronunciation is obvious to any English reader.
- Torsten and Thorsten both circulate, so records will drift.
- It is easily heard as Thurston or Carsten.
- Its American curve is mid-century, which places a bearer's generation.
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Torsten
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Torstens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Torsten are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Torsten in 2025?
- Torsten ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Torsten?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Torsten — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Torsten with classmates?
- Torsten will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Torsten
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Torsten? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Torsten and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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