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Festus

Boys' name

Joyful, merry

Festus has been given to 371 babies in the U.S. since 1883. 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 1916, with 16 recorded.

Babies named Festus, 2023

1 in 663,000

Festus over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Festus: meaning, origin, and history

Joyful, merry

Latin

What Festus means

Festus means “joyful, merry”, associated with fēstus.

Origin, language, and formation

Festus is used in English. Its origins include Latin.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 371 boys were recorded with the name Festus between 1883 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 16 in 1916; its best national rank was #695 in 1883.

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 Festus?

Festus had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
459,528 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Festus 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 2023 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 459,528 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Festus. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Festuss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Festus was born before 1924 — so the typical Festus is around 101 today.

Median birth year
1924
About 101 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
27.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
4.0%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
72
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 27.5% of all recorded uses (102).

Is Festus 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 1916 (16)
Years since peak
109
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
20.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#695
1883

Spellings of Festus

Festus is not the most common spelling — Jesus is, with 95.8% against Festus's 0.15%.

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 Festus is used

Across 1910–2025, Festus was most concentrated in North Carolina — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 988,020 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Carolina1 in —

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

Festus around the world

Where Festus 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
    2011–2015
    #4,747
    in 2015

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Festus 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
#695
1883
Peak year
1916
16 that year
First recorded
1883
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
371
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Festus

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

QuintusLotusVentusAgustusErastusTytusRastusEstusAlbertusCleatusCletusJustusBrutusKirtusAltusBertusVirtusKurtusFeltusFesterLeonitusCurtusVitusTitus

Sibling names for Festus

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 Festus

Top names of 1916, Festus's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1883Boys' names starting with F