Conrad

About Conrad

Conrad is a Germanic name meaning “brave counsel,” formed from elements referring to courage and advice. Its two firm syllables have a long history among European rulers and saints. Cinematographer Conrad Hall and hotel founder Conrad Hilton give it substantial modern associations in filmmaking and hospitality.

Meaning and medieval history

The older elements are kuoni, meaning “brave,” and rat, meaning “counsel” or “advice.” Conrad brings them together in the traditional Germanic pattern of a two-part personal name.

The name was carried by a tenth-century bishop of Konstanz and by several medieval German kings and dukes. Conrad II was the first Holy Roman emperor of the Salian dynasty, giving the name a particularly prominent place in medieval political history.

It appeared occasionally in medieval England, then became more familiar after being reintroduced from Germany in the nineteenth century. Konrad preserves a common German spelling, while Kurt and Cord are related shorter forms.

English Conrad is usually KON-rad, with the stress at the beginning. The middle nr remains audible, giving it a different structure from names with a single consonant between their syllables. The full name has enough brevity to work without an everyday shortening.

Conrad Hall and the moving image

Conrad Hall won three Academy Awards for cinematography across more than thirty years. His first came at the 1970 ceremony for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

He received another for American Beauty at the 2000 Oscars and a third for Road to Perdition in 2003. The sequence links his name with films from very different periods rather than one isolated success.

Cinematography concerns the photographed image, including how light, framing, and camera work give a film its visual form. Hall's recognition therefore places Conrad within the craft of making screen images, alongside the more visible names of actors and directors.

The three winning films supply a particularly memorable cultural connection: the same first name appears behind the images of a western, a suburban drama, and a crime story.

Conrad Hilton and the first hotel

In 1919, Conrad Hilton bought the forty-room Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas. He had traveled to the oil-boom town intending to buy a bank, but negotiations broke down when its owner raised the price.

Hilton turned instead to the hotel, whose customers included oil-field workers renting rooms in eight-hour shifts. The purchase became the beginning of his hotel business.

That episode gives Conrad a business association rooted in a specific place and decision. It also provides a different kind of professional namesake from Hall, whose work belonged to the film set rather than the management of accommodation.

American popularity

Conrad's strongest American male ranking was #213 in 1931. Its largest annual count came in 2025, when 770 boys received it and it ranked #417.

The count had been 248 in 2000 and 292 in 2010. Its recent increase therefore represents renewed visibility for a name with an older American and European history.

How popular is Conrad?

In 2025, Conrad ranked #417 among boys in the United States, with 770 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1880; its largest annual count was 770 in 2025. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.