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Boy · Brittonic or Latin (uncertain)
Arthur
Say it: AR-thur
Meaning
Uncertain. Often linked to Welsh arth 'bear' or the Roman family name Artorius; neither is proven.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Revived strongly in 19th-century England, helped by the fame of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, and Tennyson's Arthurian poems.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1880s
In the United States
- 536,669 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1881, about 1 in 64 boys
- 2,319 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Artur
| Breton | Arzhur |
|---|---|
| Italian | Artù |
| Spanish | Arturo |
| Polish | Artur |
Famous bearers
- Arthur, legendary British king
- Arthur of Brittany
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The medieval Arthurian romances
- Early Welsh tales, poetry and genealogies
- Royal and noble genealogies
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
- 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.