King

About King

King is an English word name taken from the title for a male ruler. Its history as a personal name includes film director King Vidor and inventor King Camp Gillette. It also has a separate surname tradition, familiar through civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Meaning and form

The English word developed from Old English cyning. King preserves the complete modern word, with one syllable and the familiar pronunciation KING. Its final ng is a single blended sound, as in “sing.”

As a surname, King comes from the same word. That gives the modern given name more than one route: the royal title itself or an established family name. Martin Luther King's surname supplies an important cultural association, while Vidor and Gillette demonstrate older use of King in the given-name position.

The spelling is already brief and generally needs no shortening. Names such as Prince and Royal share its connection with titles and status, although they are separate names with different histories.

King Vidor and The Crowd

Director King Vidor worked in American cinema during its transition from silent films to sound. One of his notable silent films is The Crowd, released in 1928.

The story follows John Sims, a clerk who expects life to bring him exceptional success. Marriage and family responsibilities confront those hopes with ordinary work, financial strain, and personal loss. John's struggles place an individual life against the scale and anonymity suggested by the film's title.

That focus on an ordinary worker creates an interesting association for a filmmaker whose own given name sounds regal. Vidor received an honorary Academy Award at the 1979 Oscars, recognizing a career extending far beyond this one film.

King Camp Gillette and an everyday invention

King Camp Gillette connects the name with an object used in daily life. On November 15, 1904, he received a patent for a safety razor designed around thin, replaceable steel blades.

Earlier blades required repeated sharpening. Gillette's design aimed to make replacements inexpensive enough that a dull blade could be discarded instead. His razor also included a safety guard and adjustment for different beard lengths.

The invention's importance lay partly in that combination of a durable holder and a replaceable cutting edge. The Smithsonian's collections preserve examples of shaving equipment, including Gillette equipment carried by astronaut Michael Collins on Apollo 11. This gives King's industrial association a history reaching from an early twentieth-century patent to spaceflight.

Popularity in the United States

King rose from seventy-four boys in 2000 to 706 in 2010. Its largest annual count and best ranking came in 2017, with 2,696 boys at #147.

Use subsequently declined, though it remained much more familiar than at the start of the century. In 2025, 786 American boys received King, ranking #405. The recent rise belongs to a name that already had earlier bearers in film and invention.

How popular is King?

In 2025, King ranked #405 among boys in the United States, with 786 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1880; its largest annual count was 2,696 in 2017. 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.