Triton
Masculine · “either the third”
Triton is a sea name before it is anything else: the son of the sea god in Greek myth, blowing a twisted shell to raise the water or calm it. Astronomy borrowed him for the largest moon of Neptune, and the name has kept that double life ever since, half salt water and half telescope.
How old is the name Triton?
Triton first appears in US birth records in 1990 — 35 years ago. The typical Triton is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,500 people named Triton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Triton most popular?
Triton peaked in 2014, reaching #1714 nationally. Today it ranks #4707, 2,993 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Where it comes from
From Triton to Triton
The story of Triton
Triton appears in the oldest Greek poetry as a merman, human above and fish below, with a conch horn that could stir the sea or still it. Later writers multiplied him into a whole class of sea creatures, tritons in the plural, and Renaissance sculptors put them on fountains all over Europe. The astronomers arrived last, giving the name to Neptune's largest moon in the nineteenth century, so a boy called Triton carries both an ocean and a moon.
Meaningscholars disagree
either the third, or an old water word shared with Amphitrite
Ancient writers connected it with tritos, third, in the sense of a third-born god. Modern scholarship more often reads it as a pre-Greek word for water, since the same element appears in Amphitrite, the sea goddess who is his mother in the standard telling. Neither reading is secure, and the name may well be older than Greek itself.
How the name formed
- Triton
- Tritonis
Related forms: Τρίτων · Tritone · Tritón · Triton
Pronouncing Triton
TRY-tun
Stress on the first syllable, with the i long as in try. The Greek and Spanish forms put the weight at the end instead, tree-TOHN.
Nicknames for Triton
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
- 1990
- Most boys named
- 201589 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1714reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- −27.6%21 in 2025, from 29
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.
Triton in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Τρίτων in Greek — transliteration
- Tritone in Italian — same name
- Tritón in Spanish — same name
- Triton in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California, Texas.
Tritons among us
people named Triton are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 81,337 born in 2025 was named Triton
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 Mcdonald test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Triton's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mcdonald climbed just as high around 1932, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mcdonald's path sketches the road Triton is walking now.
Triton 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
Triton beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Triton in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A mythological name that needs no explaining: the story arrives with it.
- It is spelled the way it sounds, and the spelling is fixed across several European languages.
- It sits beside Orion and Atlas in the small set of classical names now coming back into use.
- Triton is also a moon, a shellfish, a submarine and a mascot; the name is shared with a great many objects.
- There is no traditional short form, so a family that wants one will be inventing it.
- Names taken straight from myth can feel heavy on a very small child, and this one arrives with a conch horn.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Triton
Masculine · #4707 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tritons 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 Triton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Triton in 2025?
- Triton ranks #4707 among US boy names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Triton?
- About 1 in every 81,337 US boys born in 2025 was named Triton — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Triton with classmates?
- Triton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Triton
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ole#4707 · Shelton#4707 · Constantino#4707 · Adel#4707 · Cord#4707 · Zalman#4707 · Montez#4707 · Homer#4707
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Triton? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Triton and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
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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