Girl · Old English
Whitney
Say it: WIT-nee
Meaning
From an English surname and place name, Old English (æt þǣm) hwītan ēge 'at the white island'.
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
Used for men earlier, it became a popular American girls' name in the 1980s.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1980s
In the United States
- 102,343 babies given this name since 1884
- At its height in 1986, about 1 in 180 girls
- 284 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Whitny, Whitnie
Famous bearers
- Whitney Houston, American singer
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- 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.