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Plato

Boys' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Plato has been given to 216 babies in the U.S. since 1914. 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 1928, with 13 recorded.

Babies named Plato, 1977

1 in 635,000

Plato over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Plato: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Ancient Greek

What Plato means

Plato has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: “broad, wide”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Middle English Plato, Platon, from Latin Platō, Platōn, from Ancient Greek Πλάτων (Plátōn), from πλατύς (platús, “broad, wide”), either because of Plato's robust body, or wide forehead or the breadth of his eloquence.

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Plato is used in English. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Plato comes through Middle English Plato,Platon, Latin Platō,Platōn and Ancient Greek Πλάτων.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Plato is pronounced /ˈpleɪ.toʊ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 216 boys were recorded with the name Plato between 1914 and 1977. Its highest annual count was 13 in 1928; its best national rank was #2,234 in 1914.

How common is Plato?

Plato had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1977, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1977
1 in 635,000
5 of 3,176,294 births
Among boys only
1 in 329,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1977
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
440,329 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Plato 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 1977 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 440,329 children born in 1977 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Plato. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Platos were born

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

Median birth year
1927
About 98 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
42.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
12.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
26
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 42.1% of all recorded uses (91).

Is Plato 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 1928 (13)
Years since peak
97
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
41.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,234
1914

Spellings of Plato

Plato is not the most common spelling — Pat is, with 87.7% against Plato's 0.71%.

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 Plato is used

Across 1910–2025, Plato was most concentrated in North Carolina — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 652,284 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Carolina1 in —
  2. 2New York1 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. Plato has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Plato around the world

Where Plato 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.

  • South Australia
    1982–2011
    #784
    in 2011

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Plato 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
#2,234
1914
Peak year
1928
13 that year
First recorded
1914
Last recorded
1977
All-time count
216
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Plato

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

PlatonMinatoMatoCatoKatoHayatoAmatoYamatoMasatoPlacidoChatoDonatoAyatoRenatoLiberatoPlattAtoDamatoPlasSabatoPlacideFortunatoPlayfordStaccato

Sibling names for Plato

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 Plato

Top names of 1928, Plato's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1914Boys' names starting with P