Bird Names
Bird names run from the barely-noticed (Wren was a rarity twenty years ago) to the fully mythical (Phoenix). Some name the bird outright; others — Callum, Paloma, Corbin — carry a bird hidden inside another language.
| Save name | Name & connection | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The red-breasted herald of spring. | 400#704 | Up 197 rank positions in five years | 1961 | ||
The bold blue screecher. | 809#392 | Down 12 rank positions in five years | 1960 | ||
The eagle-lion of heraldry. | 1,627#222 | Up 19 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
The clever black bird of myth — and of Poe. | 771#404 | Up 13 rank positions in five years | 1993 | ||
From French corbeau — 'raven'. | 586#512 | Down 165 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
French for 'blackbird'. | 33#3,484 | Down 98 rank positions in five years | 1925 | ||
The firebird that rises from its own ashes. | 1,027#329 | Down 93 rank positions in five years | 2020 | ||
An old country word for the song thrush. | 537#561 | Up 280 rank positions in five years | 1927 | ||
Latin for 'bird', plain and simple. | 6#13,413 | Down 4,945 rank positions in five years | 1920 | ||
Scottish Gaelic for 'dove', from the Latin Columba. | 2,995#118 | Up 218 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
A flapper-era pet name back in fashion. | 422#670 | Up 331 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Britain's tiny, loud songbird — now a modern favorite. | 1,331#231 | Up 129 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
A raptor's grip. | 175#1,181 | Down 392 rank positions in five years | 2006 | ||
Spanish for 'dove' — Picasso gave it to his daughter. | 343#793 | Up 147 rank positions in five years | 2009 | ||
'Bird' in Hebrew. | 449#644 | Up 145 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
The songbird of daybreak. | 32#4,415 | Down 1,610 rank positions in five years | 1950 | ||
The small duck that named a color. | 13#8,306 | Down 2,248 rank positions in five years | 1994 | ||
The bird of peace itself. | 144#1,487 | Up 1,618 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Small, quick, and everywhere. | 35#4,156 | Down 1,199 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
The raptor, unadorned. | 19#5,098 | Down 2,651 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
The patient wader. | 16#5,691 | Down 586 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Irish 'dove' — novelist Colm Tóibín's name. | 12#6,877 | Up 2,017 rank positions in five years | 2007 | ||
The hunting bird of kings. | 5#12,619 | Down 8,947 rank positions in five years | 2020 | ||
The fastest animal alive — and a very old English first name. | 35#3,358 | Up 347 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
The hovering falcon of open fields. | 16#6,983 | Up 1,211 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
Welsh 'raven' — the giant king of the Mabinogi. | —Unranked | — | 2021 | ||
The murmuration bird. | 8#11,802 | Down 3,448 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Darwin's little workhorse — and Atticus's surname. | 15#5,942 | Down 415 rank positions in five years | 2022 |
Page 1 of 1
Sources & methodology
Meaning summaries use Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and referenced name histories. Each name’s detail page includes its sources.
Membership on this list is editorial — we chose names that genuinely fit the theme. Every number is from official birth data: "—" means the name had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, which makes it a genuinely rare pick today, not an invalid one. The dot marks whether the stats shown are for the girls' or boys' use of the name.