Free baby name finder

What this baby name finder is for

Most baby name lists give you fifty names somebody liked. This gives you the whole lot. Every name we hold, which is every name given to five or more babies in the United States or three or more in England and Wales, with the official figures next to it. You choose what matters to you and the list narrows until it is short enough to argue about.

It is free. Not free for the first ten searches, not free with an account, free. We make our money from the adverts on the site, so the finder costs you nothing and always will.

When you find one you like, click Vote on it and it goes straight into a head-to-head on the voting page. That is how the rankings are made: parents picking between two names, thousands of times a day.

The filters, and what they mean

Girl, boy or unisex. Girls and boys both include unisex names, so a search for girls' names still shows you Riley and Rowan. Choose Unisex only for names given to both in real numbers.

How popular. Top 100, top 500 and top 1000 use the current charts in either country. Uncommon is outside the top 1000 but still given every year. Rare is fewer than ten babies a year in England and Wales and fewer than sixty in the US, which is where you look for a name the rest of the class will not have.

Meaning. Type a word and you get every name whose meaning contains it. Names that mean light, names that mean gift, names that mean strong. Or pick a theme: the sea, the moon, a warrior, a flower. A name only appears here if we hold a meaning for it that we can stand behind. Plenty of names, especially modern coinages, have no traceable meaning, and the finder says nothing rather than making one up.

Origin. Irish baby names, Hebrew baby names, Arabic, Sanskrit, Yoruba, Welsh, Greek, Latin and more. A name with two roots, Latin and Germanic say, appears under both. Every origin also has its own page.

First letter, last letter. Names starting with A, names ending in -a, names ending in -n. Pick as many letters as you like. There is a separate avoid filter for a first letter you do not want, which is useful when your surname starts with an S and you would rather not have two.

Length. By syllables, one to four or more, and by letters. Short names of four letters or fewer, or long ones of seven or more. A one-syllable first name sits well with a long surname and the other way round.

Era. When the name was at its most popular, from the US records going back to 1880. Old-fashioned peaked before 1950, which is where the grandparent names live. Peaking now is a name that has never been bigger than it is today.

Britain or America. We hold both countries' records side by side, so we can tell you whether a name is far more British than American, the other way round, or given at a similar rate in both. Alfie is 442 times more common per baby in England and Wales than in the US. Kingston is 42 times more common in the US.

Rising or falling. Climbed or dropped the chart in the latest year, in either country. For England and Wales we only count movement for names given to at least fifty babies, because below that the official rank is a tie and says nothing.

Sounds like. Type a name and get the ones said the same way with a different spelling. Aidan brings up Aiden, Ayden and Aden. Handy when you like a sound and want to see every way it is written.

Where the numbers come from

England and Wales figures are from the Office for National Statistics for 2025. US rankings are from the latest Social Security Administration release, and US birth counts from the SSA national file for 2017. Meanings and origins come from the site's catalogue and are only shown where we are confident of them. The same figures appear on every name's own page, so you can check the working.

Questions people ask

Is the baby name finder free?

Yes. Every filter, every name and every figure on Baby Names Arena is free to use, with no account and no sign-up. The site is paid for by advertising, not by charging parents.

How many baby names can I search?

35,000+ names, from the top of the current charts down to names given to a handful of babies a year. Every name has its own page with its popularity history in both countries.

Can I find baby names by meaning?

Yes. Type a word such as light, gift or strong and you get every name whose meaning contains it, or pick a theme like the sea, a warrior or a flower. Only names with a meaning we can stand behind take part, so a name with no traceable meaning is never dressed up with one.

Can I search girl names, boy names or unisex names separately?

Yes. Choose girls, boys or unisex only. Girls and boys both include unisex names, because a parent looking for a girl’s name would still want to see Riley or Rowan.

Where do the popularity figures come from?

From the official birth records. England and Wales figures are from the Office for National Statistics for 2025, US rankings from the latest Social Security Administration release, and US birth counts from the SSA national file for 2017. Nothing is estimated.

Can I find rare or unique baby names?

Yes. Set popularity to Rare and you get names given to fewer than ten babies a year in England and Wales and fewer than sixty in the US. Add an origin or a meaning and you are down to names almost nobody else will choose.

What does "sounds like" do?

It finds names that are said the same way as the one you typed, even when they are spelled differently. Type Aidan and you get Aiden, Ayden and Aden. It works from the sounds of the letters, not the letters themselves.

Other ways in

Browse every name A to Z, see names by origin, read what parents are choosing on the rankings, or read the blog, where we dig into the records for the names that disappeared, the ones that came back, and the ones Britain and America cannot agree on.