Truman
Masculine · “loyal man”
Truman is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 15,947 boys against 26 girls since 1880.
Truman is a loyal man. It is one of the very few English surnames built from an adjective of character rather than a place or a trade, and it means exactly what it looks like.
How old is the name Truman?
Truman was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Truman alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 8,300 people named Truman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Truman most popular?
Truman peaked in 1945, reaching #247 nationally. Today it ranks #1547, 1,300 places below that high. See the whole 1945 chart.
Truman appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From treowe + mann to Truman
The story of Truman
Nickname surnames drawn from character are rarer than those from places or trades, and Truman is among the clearest. It crossed into American given-name use in the nineteenth century — the novelist Truman Capote was named for a family friend — and rose sharply in 1945, when a vice president of that surname succeeded to the presidency. It peaked that year and faded within a decade.
Meaning
loyal man, trusty man
From the Old English treowe, 'true' or 'faithful', and mann, 'man'. Both words survive in modern English, which makes this one of the most transparent surnames there is. It was a nickname surname for someone reliable.
How the name formed
- treowe + mann
- Truman
Related forms: Trueman · Trumann
Pronouncing Truman
TROO-mun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Both elements are ordinary English words.
Nicknames for Truman
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
- 1945540 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #247reached in 1945
- Change vs 2022
- −11.2%111 in 2025, from 125
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.
Truman in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Trueman in English — spelling variant
- Trumann in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Missouri, Texas, Utah.
Trumans among us
people named Truman are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 15,388 born in 2025 was named Truman
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 Elmo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Truman's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elmo climbed just as high around 1909, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elmo's path sketches the road Truman is walking now.
Truman 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 Truman is headed
Truman is easing off slowly — about 20% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Truman beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Truman 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 completely transparent and unambiguously good.
- It is a character surname rather than a place one, which is genuinely uncommon.
- Tru is an unusually pleasant short form.
- The presidential association is very strong in American ears.
- It reads as a surname to many people.
- It is sharply dated to the 1940s in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Truman to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Truman? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Truman
Masculine · #1547 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Trumans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,300 people named Truman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Truman in 2025?
- Truman ranks #1547 among US boy names in 2025, with 111 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Truman?
- About 1 in every 15,388 US boys born in 2025 was named Truman — 111 in all.
- Will my child share the name Truman with classmates?
- Truman will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Truman
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruger#1547 · Lloyd#1547 · Shea#1547 · Chevy#1547 · Nehemias#1547 · Jaylin#1547 · Cypress#1554 · Zayvion#1554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Truman? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Truman 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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle