Name Awesome

Chip

#4,273 in 2025Boys' name

Diminutive of Charles

Chip has been given to 3,493 babies in the U.S. since 1942. In 2025 it ranked #4,273 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1962, with 171 recorded.

Babies named Chip, 2025

1 in 138,000

Chip over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Chip: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Charles

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Chip means

Chip is a diminutive of Charles.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Chip → Charles. The family’s meaning is “free man”, recorded in English with the source elements karilaz.

Origin, language, and formation

Chip is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Charles and Christopher.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Chip is pronounced /t͡ʃɪp/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,493 boys were recorded with the name Chip between 1942 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 171 in 1962; its best national rank was #593 in 1962.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,664 in 2020 to #4,273 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #6,050 in 2015 to #4,273 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 Chip?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 138,000
24 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 71,200
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,273
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
95,747 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Chip 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 95,747 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Chip. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Chips were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Chip was born before 1965 — so the typical Chip is around 60 today.

Median birth year
1965
About 60 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
35.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
12.4%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,355
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 35.2% of all recorded uses (1,229).

Is Chip 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
−993
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,609
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,777
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.71×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
14.0%
Peak was 1962 (171)
Years since peak
63
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
30.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#593
1962

Spellings of Chip

Chip is not the most common spelling — Chad is, with 50.3% against Chip's 0.73%.

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 Chip is used

Across 1910–2025, Chip was most concentrated in Georgia — about 1 in 50,000 boys, against 1 in 119,356 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Georgia1 in 50,000
  2. 2North Carolina1 in 50,000
  3. 3Ohio1 in 50,000
  4. 4Alabama1 in 100,000
  5. 5California1 in 100,000
  6. 6Colorado1 in 100,000
  7. 7Florida1 in 100,000
  8. 8Illinois1 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. Chip has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Chip around the world

Where Chip 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.

  • South Australia
    1989–2001
    #581
    in 2001

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Chip

People whose public names include Chip, 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.

Chip in other languages

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

ChickCharlesChristopher

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

Chip by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,273
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,609
Best rank ever
#593
1962
Peak year
1962
171 that year
First recorded
1942
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,493
Count in 2025
24

Names similar to Chip

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

ChiChiefChicoChikeChisomChipperChineduChiragChimaChinChironChidiChiaChidubemChistopherChinoChicagoChingChickChibuezeChivasChideraChisumChilton

Names with a curve like Chip

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

KirtTimmieRitchieDerwinFaronRussKennthDarcyRichMitchDirkLes

Sibling names for Chip

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 Chip

Top names of 1962, Chip's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1962Boys' names starting with CCharles Variations & Nicknames