Eugene

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Boy · Greek

Eugene

Say it: yoo-JEEN

Try it with your surname

Meaning

From Greek eugenēs 'well-born'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Noble

Used by early popes and made fashionable by Prince Eugene of Savoy; common in the US around 1920.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1920s

In the United States

051018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1928per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 382,016 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1928, about 1 in 114 boys
  • 267 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
  2. The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
  3. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  4. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

Early ChristianFrenchRussianEnglishAmerican

The family of the name

GreekEvgenios
FrenchEugène
RussianYevgeny
ItalianEugenio
SpanishEugenio
PolishEugeniusz
EnglishEugene

Famous bearers

  • Prince Eugene of Savoy
  • Eugene O'Neill, American playwright
  • Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepson

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
  • Royal and noble genealogies
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today 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.