Name Awesome

Boris

#3,188 in 2025Boys' name

Possibly short

Boris has been given to 4,621 babies in the U.S. since 1911. In 2025 it ranked #3,188 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1970, with 82 recorded.

Babies named Boris, 2025

1 in 89,600

Boris over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Boris: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly short

Slavic languages

What Boris means

Boris may mean “short”.

Origin, language, and formation

Boris is used in English, Azerbaijani, Czech, German, Hungarian, Italian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovak. Its origins include Slavic languages.

Boris comes through Bulgarian Бори́с.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Бори́с and Borbála.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Boris is pronounced /ˈbɔɹɪs/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,621 boys were recorded with the name Boris between 1911 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 82 in 1970; its best national rank was #873 in 1962.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,551 in 2020 to #3,188 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,531 in 2015 to #3,188 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 Boris?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 89,600
37 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 46,200
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#3,188
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
62,106 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Boris 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 62,106 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Boris. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Boriss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Boris was born before 1980 — so the typical Boris is around 45 today.

Median birth year
1980
About 45 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
13.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
27.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,687
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 13.0% of all recorded uses (603).

Is Boris 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
+151
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−637
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−657
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.76×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
45.1%
Peak was 1970 (82)
Years since peak
55
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
13.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#873
1962

Spellings of Boris

Boris is not the most common spelling — Louis is, with 50.1% against Boris's 0.57%.

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 Boris is used

Across 1910–2025, Boris was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 20,000 boys, against 1 in 64,244 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 20,000
  2. 2California1 in 33,333
  3. 3Florida1 in 33,333
  4. 4Alabama1 in 100,000
  5. 5Georgia1 in 100,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in 100,000
  7. 7Mississippi1 in 100,000
  8. 8North Carolina1 in 100,000

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. Boris has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Boris around the world

Where Boris ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #1,406
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2013–2021
    #374
    in 2021
  • Ireland
    2002–2016
    #601
    in 2016
  • France
    1902–2025
    #1,811
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2021
    #454
    in 2021
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #1,817
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1951–2005
    #643
    in 2005

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Boris

People whose public names include Boris, 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.

Boris in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Boris. Linked forms have their own page here.

BorysBorBarysBorissBorris

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Boris by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#3,188
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 637
Best rank ever
#873
1962
Peak year
1970
82 that year
First recorded
1911
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,621
Count in 2025
37

Names similar to Boris

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

IdrisFarisParisBoruchHarisOsirisCrisFarrisFerrisArisDarisDarrisDorisParrisKrisBoraTyrisNorrisHarrisTavarisBornaEdrisJavarisSyris

Names with a curve like Boris

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

LuigiEugenioGenoLinoWillyCorwinCaesarNicolaAbelardoBurkeEnricoDemetrio

Sibling names for Boris

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 Boris

Top names of 1970, Boris's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1962Boys' names starting with BCroatian & Serbian Boy NamesCzech Boy NamesRussian Boy NamesSlovak Boy Names