Name Awesome

Arch

#2,766 in 2025Boys' name

Pure, holy, genuine, precious + strong, bold, through Archibald

Arch has been given to 2,572 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #2,766 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1880, with 61 recorded.

Babies named Arch, 2025

1 in 72,100

Arch over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Arch: meaning, origin, and history

Pure, holy, genuine, precious + strong, bold, through Archibald

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Arch means

Arch belongs to the name family reached through Arch → Archibald. Its meaning is “pure, holy, genuine, precious + strong, bold”.

Origin, language, and formation

Arch is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Archibald and Archie.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,572 boys were recorded with the name Arch between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 61 in 1880; its best national rank was #199 in 1880.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #8,797 in 2020 to #2,766 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Arch?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 72,100
46 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 37,100
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,766
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
49,955 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Arch sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 49,955 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Arch. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Archs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Arch was born before 1923 — so the typical Arch is around 102 today.

Median birth year
1923
About 102 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
16.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.7%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
557
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 16.8% of all recorded uses (431).

Is Arch rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+453
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+6,031
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
75.4%
Peak was 1880 (61)
Years since peak
145
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
45.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#199
1880

Spellings of Arch

Arch is not the most common spelling — Marc is, with 27.8% against Arch's 0.51%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Arch is used

Across 1910–2025, Arch was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 220,030 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Kentucky1 in 100,000
  2. 2Missouri1 in 100,000
  3. 3Oklahoma1 in 100,000
  4. 4Tennessee1 in 100,000
  5. 5West Virginia1 in 100,000
  6. 6Arkansas1 in —
  7. 7Georgia1 in —
  8. 8Illinois1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Arch has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Notable people named Arch

People whose public names include Arch, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Arch by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,766
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 6,031
Best rank ever
#199
1880
Peak year
1880
61 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,572
Count in 2025
46

Names similar to Arch

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ArcadioArcherBirchArchibaldArchieArchyArchitArcangelBurchMarchArcenioArcadiusArcaiusArchivaldoArcieArchimedesChurchArcelioKarchArcelArcturusArcusArcoArchi

Names with a curve like Arch

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Arch, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

GreenOlePearlWashingtonAllieDockOraEddGeneralElzaGarfieldGustave

Sibling names for Arch

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Arch

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