Name Awesome

Curtiss

Boys' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Curtiss has been given to 5,074 babies in the U.S. since 1896. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1959, with 126 recorded.

Babies named Curtiss, 2024

1 in 669,000

Curtiss over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Curtiss: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Curtiss means

Curtiss is a given name.

The naming story behind Curtiss

Wikidata records Curtiss as a given name. The entity identifier is Q28436251, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,074 boys were recorded with the name Curtiss between 1896 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 126 in 1959; its best national rank was #674 in 1943.

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.

How common is Curtiss?

Curtiss had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 669,000
5 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 345,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
463,412 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Curtiss 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 2024 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 463,412 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Curtiss. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Curtisss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Curtiss was born before 1955 — so the typical Curtiss is around 70 today.

Median birth year
1955
About 70 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
18.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.2%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,974
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 18.7% of all recorded uses (947).

Is Curtiss 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1959 (126)
Years since peak
66
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#674
1943

Spellings of Curtiss

Curtiss is not the most common spelling — Curtis is, with 91.5% against Curtiss's 1.8%.

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 Curtiss is used

Across 1910–2025, Curtiss was most concentrated in Illinois — about 1 in 50,000 boys, against 1 in 116,288 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Illinois1 in 50,000
  2. 2Minnesota1 in 50,000
  3. 3Mississippi1 in 50,000
  4. 4Ohio1 in 50,000
  5. 5South Carolina1 in 50,000
  6. 6Wisconsin1 in 50,000
  7. 7Alabama1 in 100,000
  8. 8California1 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. Curtiss has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Curtiss around the world

Where Curtiss 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
    1996–1996
    #2,863
    in 1996
  • France
    2002–2008
    #4,371
    in 2008
  • South Australia
    1973–2002
    #606
    in 2002

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Curtiss

People whose public names include Curtiss, 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.

Curtiss in other languages

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

Curtis

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

Curtiss by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#674
1943
Peak year
1959
126 that year
First recorded
1896
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
5,074
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Curtiss

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

CurranCurleyCurryCurrenPrentissArlissChrissCurvinCurleeCurtisCurtCrissCorlissIdrissCurrieCurlieKurtissCurtiesBlissCurlyReissCurtezKrissCurtice

Names with a curve like Curtiss

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

GlynnLeighDouglassLesleyArtisDennieDwaineWardellJameVernellWallyLorin

Sibling names for Curtiss

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 Curtiss

Top names of 1959, Curtiss's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1943Boys' names starting with C