Rankin

Boys' name

Meaning not yet documented

Rankin has been given to 340 babies in the U.S. since 1912. 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 1916, with 12 recorded.

Babies named Rankin, 2024

1 in 334,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

How common is Rankin?

Rankin had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 334,000
10 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 172,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
231,706 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rankin 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 2024 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 231,706 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rankin. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rankins were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rankin was born before 1938 — so the typical Rankin is around 87 today.

Median birth year
1938
About 87 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
19.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
17.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
129
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 19.4% of all recorded uses (66).

Is Rankin 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 1916 (12)
Years since peak
109
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
26.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,228
1913

Spellings of Rankin

Rankin is not the most common spelling — Franklin is, with 64.6% against Rankin's 0.15%.

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.

Rankin around the world

Where Rankin 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
    1962–1964
    #557
    in 1964

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

Rankin 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
#2,228
1913
Peak year
1916
12 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
340
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Rankin

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

Sibling names for Rankin

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 Rankin