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Morton

Boys' name

Moor, marsh + settlement

Morton has been given to 12,341 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1923, with 482 recorded.

Babies named Morton, 2021

1 in 424,000

Morton over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Morton: meaning, origin, and history

Moor, marsh + settlement

surname transfer

What Morton means

Morton means “moor, marsh + settlement”, associated with mōr and tūn.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Old English mōr (“moor, marsh”) + tūn (“settlement”).

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Morton is used in English. Its origins include surname transfer.

Morton comes through Old English mōr.

Morton is recorded as a surname transferred into given-name use.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Morton is pronounced [ˈmɔɹtn̩].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 12,336 boys were recorded with the name Morton between 1880 and 2021. Its highest annual count was 482 in 1923; its best national rank was #240 in 1888.

In the United States, 5 girls were recorded with the name Morton between 1918 and 1918. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1918; its best national rank was #5,356 in 1918.

How common is Morton?

Morton had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2021
1 in 424,000
8 of 3,389,958 births
Among boys only
1 in 219,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2021
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
293,719 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Morton 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 2021 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 293,719 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Morton. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Mortons were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Morton was born before 1927 — so the typical Morton is around 98 today.

Median birth year
1927
About 98 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
35.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
0.66%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,041
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 35.1% of all recorded uses (4,335).

Is Morton 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 1923 (482)
Years since peak
102
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
46.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#240
1888

Spellings of Morton

Morton is not the most common spelling — Martin is, with 29.5% against Morton's 1.2%.

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 Morton is used

Across 1910–2025, Morton was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 3,125 boys, against 1 in 14,432 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

032 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 3,125
  2. 2Pennsylvania1 in 7,143
  3. 3Maryland1 in 7,692
  4. 4Connecticut1 in 10,000
  5. 5New Jersey1 in 10,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in 11,111
  7. 7Massachusetts1 in 11,111
  8. 8Kentucky1 in 14,286

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

Morton around the world

Where Morton 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
    1996–2011
    #3,300
    in 2011
  • Scotland
    1998–1998
    #422
    in 1998
  • South Australia
    1944–2010
    #754
    in 2010

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Morton

People whose public names include Morton, 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.

Morton in other languages

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

MortMorten

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

Morton 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
#240
1888
Peak year
1923
482 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2021
All-time count
12,336
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,356
1918
Peak year
1918
5 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
1918
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Morton

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

LaytonMorganKentonJaxtonBostonBentonDaxtonDaytonBartonKoltonWiltonNewtonMorrisSuttonHiltonKeatonBurtonKeltonPaytonWaltonSheltonTristonPaxtonDenton

Names with a curve like Morton

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

LaverneClairPatsyIrwinCleoWilburnSeymourJohnieMaynardElmoNorbertElwood

Sibling names for Morton

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 Morton

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