Pastor

Boys' name

Shepherd

Pastor has been given to 146 babies in the U.S. since 1929. 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 1981, with 8 recorded.

Babies named Pastor, 2008

1 in 786,000

Pastor over time, 1880–2025

Boys

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Pastor: meaning, origin, and history

Shepherd

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Pastor means

Pastor means “shepherd”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Pastor is used in Spanish and Late Roman.

Another recorded pronunciation is /pas.ˈtoɾ/ for Pastor.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 146 boys were recorded with the name Pastor between 1929 and 2008. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1981; its best national rank was #3,419 in 1955.

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.

U.S. Social Security Administration: national name data and limitations

How common is Pastor?

Pastor had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2008, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2008: 1 in 786,000; 5 of 3,930,727 births
Among boys only: 1 in 408,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2008: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 544,916 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Pastor 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 2008 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 544,916 children born in 2008 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Pastor. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Pastors were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Pastor was born before 1991 — so the typical Pastor is around 34 today.

Median birth year: 1991; About 34 years old
Biggest decade: 1990s; 36.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 63.7%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 135; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1990s — 36.3% of all recorded uses (53).

Is Pastor 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 1981 (8)
Years since peak: 44; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 18.0% average annual change
Best rank ever: #3,419; 1955

Spellings of Pastor

Pastor is not the most common spelling — Easton is, with 52.2% against Pastor's 0.10%.

Easton52.2%79,440
Paxton18.5%28,194
Payton16.2%24,739
Nestor6.9%10,430
Gaston2.7%4,053
Aston2.0%3,040
Patton1.1%1,664
Caston0.36%555

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 Pastor is used

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

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

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

Pastor 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: #3,419; 1955
Peak year: 1981; 8 that year
First recorded: 1929
Last recorded: 2008
All-time count: 146
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Pastor

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

Pasha Heitor Castor Aitor Pascal Rector Hektor Alastor Pasco Astor Vitor Paschal Pasqual Doctor Paskel Pason Gator Wiktor Proctor Pascual Viktor Vicktor Ector Kastor

Sibling names for Pastor

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Shamika Kandi Fawn Joi Jessi Jenelle Charissa Latrice

For a brother

Chauncey Leopoldo Jerod Dusty Jamaal Wilfredo Antwan Donnell

Explore around Pastor

Top names of 1981, Pastor's peak year The 1980s in full Other names that peaked in 1955 Boys' names starting with P