Boy Names That Start With U
Boys' names beginning with U, ranked by how many babies actually got them — not by editorial preference — plus which ones are climbing and how the letter itself has moved.
- Share of boys, 2025
- 0.16%
- vs 0.09% in 2000
- Names in use
- 49
- 169 recorded since 1880
- Letter peaked
- 2025
- at 0.16% of names
- Rank among 26 letters
- #25
- by 2025 share
How U has fared since 1880
Share of all listed U.S. births given a name starting with U, year by year. Plotted as a share rather than a count — raw counts track how many babies were born, so every letter would appear to peak in 1957.
| Save name | Name & meaning | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 708#446 | Up 21 rank positions in five years | 2008 | |||
| 169#1,201 | Down 133 rank positions in five years | 1999 | |||
| 427#650 | Down 13 rank positions in five years | 2014 | |||
| 213#1,043 | Down 165 rank positions in five years | 2006 | |||
| 44#2,875 | Down 1,221 rank positions in five years | 2009 | |||
| 18#5,372 | Down 1,111 rank positions in five years | 1924 | |||
| 180#1,164 | Up 444 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 127#1,424 | Up 469 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 11#7,637 | Down 2,955 rank positions in five years | 2003 | |||
| 106#1,607 | Up 806 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 43#2,935 | Down 676 rank positions in five years | 2018 | |||
| 8#9,634 | Down 2,637 rank positions in five years | 1998 | |||
| 16#5,826 | Up 129 rank positions in five years | 1999 | |||
| 78#1,974 | Up 1,157 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 42#2,983 | Up 737 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 64#2,225 | Up 189 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 46#2,791 | Up 4,667 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 30#3,744 | Up 939 rank positions in five years | 2008 | |||
| 35#3,374 | Up 347 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 17#5,586 | Down 153 rank positions in five years | 2016 | |||
| 7#10,591 | Down 72 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 17#5,585 | Up 371 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 16#5,827 | Down 2,182 rank positions in five years | 2014 | |||
| 8#9,632 | Down 1,632 rank positions in five years | 2004 | |||
| 9#8,853 | new | 1921 | |||
| 22#4,690 | Up 3,983 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 25#4,239 | Up 287 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 8#9,633 | new | 2004 | |||
| 11#7,640 | Down 2,433 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 8#9,636 | new | 2007 | |||
| 10#8,199 | Up 2,319 rank positions in five years | 2005 | |||
| 8#9,635 | Up 886 rank positions in five years | 2019 | |||
| 10#8,200 | Up 5,700 rank positions in five years | 2011 | |||
| 6#11,884 | new | 2014 | |||
| 10#8,201 | Down 744 rank positions in five years | 2003 | |||
| 11#7,638 | Down 2,206 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 14#6,419 | Up 5,498 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 5#13,742 | new | 2023 | |||
| 8#9,637 | Up 4,266 rank positions in five years | 2012 | |||
| 5#13,740 | Down 1,826 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 6#11,885 | Down 2,391 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 11#7,639 | new | 2024 | |||
| 5#13,741 | Down 1,826 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 10#8,198 | Up 5,700 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 6#11,887 | new | 2004 | |||
| 7#10,592 | new | 2019 | |||
| 7#10,590 | new | 2025 | |||
| 5#13,739 | new | 2023 | |||
| 6#11,886 | new | 2025 |
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U names climbing fastest
Biggest U names of all time
By total applications since 1880 — a different list from the one above, because it counts every generation, not just this one.
Every other letter
Sources & methodology
Rankings and counts come from official birth card-application data, 1880–2025. Counts are card applications rather than births, and any name given to fewer than 5 babies of one sex in a year is not published — so “—” means genuinely uncommon, never invalid. The “climbing fastest” row ranks by five-year rank movement as a ratio, and a name must be inside the top 1,000 with at least 200 applications in 2025 to qualify — a looser gate than the site-wide trending list uses, because inside a single letter the stricter one leaves some letters empty. Letter shares are measured over listed names only, and the 25-year comparison is a generation rather than five years because letter fashion moves far more slowly than any one name.