Purpose
#5,064 in 2025UnisexGirls' nameBoys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Purpose has been given to 209 babies in the U.S. since 2008. In 2025 it ranked #5,064 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 26 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 67% girls, 33% boys all-time.
Babies named Purpose, 2025
1 in 128,000
Purpose over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Purpose over time
In 2025, Purpose went to 58% girls and 42% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Purpose?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 128,000
- 26 of 3,315,165 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 61,800
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2025
- #5,064
- of 17,293 girls’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 88,382 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Purpose sits on the popularity scale
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.
Put another way: gather 88,382 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Purpose. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Purposes were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Purpose was born before 2022 — so the typical Purpose is around 3 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2020s
- 78.7% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 100.0%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 141
- People you could plausibly meet
2020s — 78.7% of all recorded uses (111).
Is Purpose 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
- +684
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- +4,331
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- +10,902
- Places climbed
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 4.33×
- More babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 100.0%
- Peak was 2025 (26)
- Years since peak
- Peaking now
- At its all-time high
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 32.5% average annual change
Where Purpose is used
Across 1910–2025, Purpose was most concentrated in Georgia — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 905,058 across all states with data.
Most concentrated
- 1Georgia1 in —
Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Purpose has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Purpose by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a girl's name
Names similar to Purpose
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Purpose
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.