Warren
Masculine · “either "enclosure”
Warren is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 184,518 boys against 984 girls since 1880. See Warren as a girl name
Warren came into English as a Norman surname, then crossed into first-name use in America alongside a whole crop of family names promoted to the front. It is two syllables that end softly, with no silent letters and nothing to spell out over the phone. Strongly represented among older generations, it has been turning up again on birth certificates in recent years.
How old is the name Warren?
Warren was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Warren alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 89,500 people named Warren are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Warren most popular?
Warren peaked in 1921, reaching #24 nationally. Today it ranks #240, 216 places below that high. See the whole 1921 chart.
Where it comes from
From Warin to Warren
The story of Warren
The name arrived in England with the Normans after 1066, carried by families whose surname pointed back to Normandy — either to a place called La Varenne or to an ancestor named Warin. For centuries it stayed a surname, and a well-established one. In the United States it made the ordinary nineteenth-century journey from last name to first name, helped along by the habit of giving children the surnames of admired public figures and of towns bearing those names, of which there are Warrens in several states. By the early twentieth century it was firmly a boy's given name, and it has stayed one ever since.
Meaningscholars disagree
either "enclosure, game park" or "guard, protect"
Two serious roads lead to the same spelling. One is a place: La Varenne in Normandy, from Old French varenne, an enclosed park where game was kept — the same word that gives English its rabbit warren. The other is the Germanic personal name Warin, built on a root meaning to guard or protect, which came into French as Guarin and Garin. Genealogists have argued for both, and many English Warren families can be traced to one or the other without settling the question for the name as a whole.
Cultural footprint
Warren Buffett (b. 1930) — The "Oracle of Omaha" investor
Warren Beatty (b. 1937) — Bonnie and Clyde star and Oscar-winning director
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Warin
- Guarin
- Warrensurname
- Warrengiven name
Related forms: Guérin · Garin · Guarino · Warin
Pronouncing Warren
WOR-en
Stress on the first syllable. Most American speakers say it so the first part matches the word war; in some regions it comes closer to WAHR-en. Both are unremarkable and neither needs correcting.
Nicknames for Warren
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
- 19217,798 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #24reached in 1921
- Change vs 2022
- +45.1%1,471 in 2025, from 1,014
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.
Warren in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Guérin in French — related form
- Garin in French — related form
- Guarino in Italian — related form
- Warin in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Warrens among us
people named Warren are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,161 born in 2025 was named Warren
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 Lee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Warren's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lee climbed just as high around 1900, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lee's path sketches the road Warren is walking now.
Warren is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Warren is headed
Warren looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 15% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Warren beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Warren in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One standard spelling that English speakers already read and write correctly on first sight.
- A documented record stretching back to Norman England, first as a surname and then, for well over a century, as a given name.
- Works at every age: it sits comfortably on a toddler, a teenager and an eighty-year-old.
- Familiar without being everywhere — recognized instantly, yet a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Related forms exist across French and Italian, so the name is not alien outside English.
- It still reads as a name of older generations to many Americans, since the bulk of living Warrens were born decades ago. That is changing, but a young Warren may be the only one of his age anyone knows.
- Warren is also an ordinary English noun — a maze of rabbit tunnels, and by extension any crowded warren of rooms. Most people never think of it, but the word is there.
- It remains a common surname and has been prominent in American public life as one, which can occasionally cause a beat of hesitation about which name is which.
- Warren resists shortening. Ren works, but if you want a name with a deep bench of nicknames, this is not it.
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What they receive
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Warren
Masculine · #240 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Warrens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 89,500 people named Warren are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Warren in 2025?
- Warren ranks #240 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,471 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Warren?
- About 1 in every 1,161 US boys born in 2025 was named Warren — 1,471 in all.
- Will my child share the name Warren with classmates?
- Warren will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Warren
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Muhammad#239 · Adonis#241 · Dallas#238 · Milan#242 · Kaiden#237 · Ellis#243 · Brody#236 · Mark#244
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Warren? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Warren and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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