# Forbes (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/forbes/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Scottish Gaelic |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /fɔɹbz/, 1 syllable |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Fawbush, Fobbs, Forbus, Forbush, Furbush |
| US babies named this | 242 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 242 / 0 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 15, 1996 to 2025 |

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 7 | 3,166 |
| 1952 | 5 | 3,924 |
| 1957 | 6 | 3,699 |
| 1972 | 5 | 5,227 |
| 1990 | 6 | 7,474 |
| 1997 | 5 | 9,748 |
| 2006 | 7 | 9,905 |
| 2015 | 5 | 12,688 |
| 2018 | 7 | 10,012 |
| 2019 | 5 | 12,774 |
| 2020 | 6 | 11,048 |
| 2022 | 5 | 12,971 |
| 2023 | 8 | 9,186 |
| 2024 | 5 | 12,922 |
| 2025 | 8 | 9,176 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 3 | 2,859 |
| 1999 | 3 | 2,943 |
| 2008 | 3 | 4,432 |
| 2015 | 3 | 4,747 |
| 2016 | 3 | 4,810 |

## People named Forbes

- John Forbes Nash, American mathematician and economist (1928–2015)
- Forbes March, Canadian actor
- William Forbes Gatacre, British Army general (1843–1906)
- Forbes Kennedy, Canadian ice hockey player
- John Kerry, American politician and diplomat (born 1943)
- Jim Chapin, American musician (1919–2009)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.