Boy · English surname
Howard
Say it: HOW-urd
Meaning
From an English surname of uncertain origin: proposals include Germanic hug 'heart, mind' and hard 'hard', or Old Norse ha 'high' and vardr 'guardian'.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
A surname of the English Dukes of Norfolk, used as a first name from the 1800s and common in the US to the 1950s.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1910s
In the United States
- 347,222 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1915, about 1 in 139 boys
- 194 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
Famous bearers
- Howard Hughes, American aviator and businessman
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- 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.