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Hamish

#6,236 in 2025Boys' name

Supplanter, heel-grabber, through James

Hamish has been given to 364 babies in the U.S. since 1981. In 2025 it ranked #6,236 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2017, with 25 recorded.

Babies named Hamish, 2025

1 in 237,000

Hamish over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Hamish: meaning, origin, and history

Supplanter, heel-grabber, through James

Scottish Gaelic

What Hamish means

Hamish belongs to the name family reached through Hamish → James → James → Iacomus. Its meaning is “supplanter, heel-grabber”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Anglicized spelling of Scottish Gaelic Sheumais, vocative case of Seumas, from English James (see for more). Doublet of James etc.

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Hamish is used in English. Its origins include Scottish Gaelic.

Hamish comes through Scottish Gaelic Sheumais and English James.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include James and Iacomus.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Hamish is pronounced /ˈheɪmɪʃ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 364 boys were recorded with the name Hamish between 1981 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 25 in 2017; its best national rank was #4,148 in 2021.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,538 in 2020 to #6,236 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,603 in 2015 to #6,236 in 2025.

How common is Hamish?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 237,000
14 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 122,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#6,236
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
164,137 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Hamish 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 164,137 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Hamish. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Hamishs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Hamish was born before 2015 — so the typical Hamish is around 10 today.

Median birth year
2015
About 10 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
39.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
92.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
364
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 39.8% of all recorded uses (145).

Is Hamish 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
−235
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−698
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,633
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.67×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
56.0%
Peak was 2017 (25)
Years since peak
8
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
44.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,148
2021

Spellings of Hamish

Hamish is not the most common spelling — Anish is, with 27.8% against Hamish's 3.3%.

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 Hamish is used

Across 1910–2025, Hamish was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 3,486,540 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 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. Hamish has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Hamish around the world

Where Hamish 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
    #484
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1974–2025
    #62
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2023
    #395
    in 2023
  • Ireland
    1999–2019
    #402
    in 2019
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #2,550
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1944–2013
    #58
    in 2013
  • New South Wales
    1997–2022
    #83
    in 2022

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Statistics Canada, Consumer and Business Services (South Australia) and NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages. ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA, NSW BDM data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Hamish by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#6,236
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 698
Best rank ever
#4,148
2021
Peak year
2017
25 that year
First recorded
1981
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
364
Count in 2025
14

Names similar to Hamish

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

HamdanHamletHammadHameedHamadHamedAarishKavishDanishHamzahBerishTanishHamidTavishArishParishHamzehHammondNamishLeibishHarishAadishHamsaManish

Sibling names for Hamish

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 Hamish

Top names of 2017, Hamish's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2021Boys' names starting with HScottish Boy Names