Amber

← Back to The Colonial Americas

Girl · Arabic, through English

Amber

Say it: AM-ber

Try it with your surname

Meaning

From the English word for fossilized tree resin, which comes via Medieval Latin from Arabic ʿanbar (originally 'ambergris').

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

One of the Victorian jewel names, it became common after the 1944 novel Forever Amber and was a US top-20 name in the 1980s.

Its wave through time

A fashion of the 1980s

In the United States

051018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1986per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 372,832 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1986, about 1 in 101 girls
  • 584 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  2. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

EnglishAmerican

The family of the name

Other spellings: Ambar

FrenchAmbre
SpanishÁmbar

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Well-known works of literature
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.