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Ferdinand

#4,293 in 2025Boys' name

Journey + daring

Ferdinand has been given to 8,909 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #4,293 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1918, with 259 recorded.

Babies named Ferdinand, 2025

1 in 138,000

Ferdinand over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ferdinand: meaning, origin, and history

Journey + daring

Germanic languages

What Ferdinand means

Ferdinand means “journey + daring”, associated with fardiz and nanþaz.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Spanish Ferdinando, from Proto-Germanic *fardiz (“journey”) + *nanþaz (“daring”) (from the root of *ninþaną (“to be daring”)). * (Uranus): The moon is named after a character in Shakespeare's The Tempest. * (Philippines): Named after Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Ferdinand (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Ferdinand is used in English, Albanian, Czech, Danish, Faroese, German, Norwegian and Slovak and additional language sections. Its origins include Germanic languages.

Ferdinand comes through Spanish Ferdinando and Proto-Germanic *fardiz.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Ferdinand is pronounced /ˈfɝdn̩.ænd/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 8,909 boys were recorded with the name Ferdinand between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 259 in 1918; its best national rank was #229 in 1884.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #6,066 in 2020 to #4,293 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #4,768 in 2015 to #4,293 in 2025.

How common is Ferdinand?

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
#4,293
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
95,747 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ferdinand 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 Ferdinand. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ferdinands were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ferdinand was born before 1929 — so the typical Ferdinand is around 96 today.

Median birth year
1929
About 96 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
19.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.2%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,733
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 19.9% of all recorded uses (1,774).

Is Ferdinand 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
−381
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+1,773
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+475
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.20×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
9.3%
Peak was 1918 (259)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
23.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#229
1884

Spellings of Ferdinand

Ferdinand is the most-used spelling, taking 85.6% of the 10,402 babies given a near-identical spelling.

  • Ferdinand85.6%8,909
  • Fernand14.4%1,493

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 Ferdinand is used

Across 1910–2025, Ferdinand was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in 6,667 boys, against 1 in 28,046 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

015 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Louisiana1 in 6,667
  2. 2New York1 in 9,091
  3. 3North Dakota1 in 12,500
  4. 4New Jersey1 in 12,500
  5. 5Wisconsin1 in 16,667
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 in 20,000
  7. 7Massachusetts1 in 25,000
  8. 8Connecticut1 in 33,333

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

Ferdinand around the world

Where Ferdinand 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
    #2,269
    in 2025
  • France
    1900–2025
    #1,127
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #221
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2013–2023
    #3,103
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1956–2013
    #754
    in 2013

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

Notable people named Ferdinand

People whose public names include Ferdinand, 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.

Ferdinand in other languages

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

FernandFernandoHernandoFerdynandFerdinandoFernãoFerdinantFerdinandus

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

Ferdinand by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,293
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 1,773
Best rank ever
#229
1884
Peak year
1918
259 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
8,909
Count in 2025
24

Names similar to Ferdinand

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

FernandCourtlandClevelandRollandFerminHarlandFernandoFerrisCortlandRowlandWaylandGarlandLeelandHollandRylandCopelandArmandBertrandFermanFerrellFernandezNormandOaklandKirkland

Names with a curve like Ferdinand

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

NewtonBusterAlphonseCyrilBertramWaldoPasqualeEarleLymanJuniusElmoAbe

Sibling names for Ferdinand

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 Ferdinand

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