Name Awesome

Moss

#5,332 in 2025Boys' name

Form of Moses

Moss has been given to 519 babies in the U.S. since 1891. In 2025 it ranked #5,332 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2023, with 20 recorded.

Babies named Moss, 2025

1 in 184,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Moss: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Moses

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Moss means

Moss is a form of Moses.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Moss → Moses. The family’s proposed meaning is “to give birth to”, recorded in English with the source elements msj.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Moses.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 519 boys were recorded with the name Moss between 1891 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 20 in 2023; its best national rank was #1,024 in 1901.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #7,344 in 2020 to #5,332 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #10,267 in 2015 to #5,332 in 2025.

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 Moss?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 184,000
18 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 94,900
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#5,332
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
127,662 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Moss 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 127,662 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Moss. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Mosss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Moss was born before 1972 — so the typical Moss is around 53 today.

Median birth year
1972
About 53 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
18.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
43.4%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
329
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 18.3% of all recorded uses (95).

Is Moss 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
+755
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+2,012
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+4,935
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.57×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
90.0%
Peak was 2023 (20)
Years since peak
2
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,024
1901

Spellings of Moss

Moss is not the most common spelling — Jose is, with 66.9% against Moss's 0.06%.

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 Moss is used

Across 1910–2025, Moss was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 597,456 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Kentucky1 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. Moss has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Moss around the world

Where Moss 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
    1997–2025
    #2,440
    in 2025
  • France
    2016–2016
    #6,429
    in 2016
  • South Australia
    1981–2009
    #708
    in 2009

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

Moss by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#5,332
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 2,012
Best rank ever
#1,024
1901
Peak year
2023
20 that year
First recorded
1891
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
519
Count in 2025
18

Names similar to Moss

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

BossDossJossMosiahMosaMostafaMoseMosiHossCrossKrossMosieMosheMoshaMosleyMoshehDelossMoseseVossMosesMosbyMossesMossimoRoss

Sibling names for Moss

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 Moss

Top names of 2023, Moss's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1901Boys' names starting with M