# Tom (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/tom/  
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 | English |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /tɑm/, 1 syllable |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Thom |
| US babies named this | 140,370 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 139,756 / 614 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 9,853, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Middle English Thomme. Hypocorism of Thomas. The dollar-bill sense is from the portrait of Thomas Jefferson featured on it.

## 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, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 6 | 5,777 |
| 1956 | 10 | 4,148 |
| 1958 | 6 | 6,050 |
| 1959 | 12 | 3,808 |
| 1960 | 11 | 4,157 |
| 1961 | 10 | 4,521 |
| 1962 | 7 | 5,813 |
| 1963 | 6 | 6,538 |
| 1964 | 8 | 5,435 |
| 1965 | 6 | 6,479 |
| 1966 | 7 | 5,769 |
| 1967 | 8 | 5,422 |
| 1971 | 5 | 9,547 |
| 1973 | 6 | 8,356 |
| 1976 | 7 | 8,092 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 83 | 1,768 |
| 2012 | 83 | 1,798 |
| 2013 | 82 | 1,779 |
| 2014 | 77 | 1,903 |
| 2015 | 70 | 2,051 |
| 2016 | 70 | 2,044 |
| 2017 | 88 | 1,765 |
| 2018 | 66 | 2,142 |
| 2019 | 87 | 1,787 |
| 2020 | 58 | 2,346 |
| 2021 | 64 | 2,220 |
| 2022 | 60 | 2,375 |
| 2023 | 50 | 2,653 |
| 2024 | 48 | 2,743 |
| 2025 | 65 | 2,206 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 270 | 197 |
| 2012 | 285 | 196 |
| 2013 | 239 | 218 |
| 2014 | 230 | 240 |
| 2015 | 204 | 252 |
| 2016 | 153 | 314 |
| 2017 | 141 | 338 |
| 2018 | 112 | 387 |
| 2019 | 91 | 445 |
| 2020 | 70 | 535 |
| 2021 | 53 | 676 |
| 2022 | 48 | 699 |
| 2023 | 55 | 645 |
| 2024 | 45 | 757 |
| 2025 | 31 | 976 |

## In other languages

- Chinese: 湯姆 /汤姆
- Latvian: Toms

## People named Tom

- Tom Stoppard, Czech–English playwright (1937–2025)
- Tom Waits, American singer-songwriter and actor (born 1949)
- Tom Felton, British actor, singer and musician
- Tom Wilkinson, English actor (1948–2023)
- Tom Selleck, American actor (born 1945)
- Tom Petty, American musician (1950-2017)
- Tom Welling, American actor, director, and model (born 1977)
- Tom Hooper, British-Australian filmmaker
- Tom Daley, British diver
- Tom Cleverley, English association football player (born 1989)
- Tom Berenger, American actor (born 1949)
- Tom Wolfe, American author and journalist (1930–2018)

## 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.