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Stanford

#7,127 in 2025Boys' name

Stone + ford

Stanford has been given to 7,727 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #7,127 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1954, with 135 recorded.

Babies named Stanford, 2025

1 in 276,000

Stanford over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Stanford: meaning, origin, and history

Stone + ford

surname transfer, English and Old English

What Stanford means

Stanford means “stone + ford”, associated with stān and ford.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Various placenames from Old English stān (“stone”) + ford (“ford”). * (The university): Named after the son of railroad magnate Leland Stanford.

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Stanford is used in English and Cebuano. Its origins include surname transfer, English and Old English.

Stanford comes through Old English stān.

Stanford is recorded as a surname transferred into given-name use.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Stanford is pronounced /ˈstænfəɹd/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7,727 boys were recorded with the name Stanford between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 135 in 1954; its best national rank was #505 in 1931.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #6,569 in 2020 to #7,127 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,257 in 2015 to #7,127 in 2025.

How common is Stanford?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 276,000
12 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 142,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#7,127
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
191,493 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Stanford 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 191,493 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Stanford. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Stanfords were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Stanford was born before 1950 — so the typical Stanford is around 75 today.

Median birth year
1950
About 75 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
15.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
5.2%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
3,919
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 15.4% of all recorded uses (1,191).

Is Stanford 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
+556
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−558
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,870
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.67×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
8.9%
Peak was 1954 (135)
Years since peak
71
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
41.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#505
1931

Spellings of Stanford

Stanford is not the most common spelling — Sanford is, with 55.5% against Stanford's 28.5%.

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 Stanford is used

Across 1910–2025, Stanford was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 4,545 boys, against 1 in 50,563 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

022 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Hawaii1 in 4,545
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 16,667
  3. 3Pennsylvania1 in 20,000
  4. 4Georgia1 in 33,333
  5. 5Virginia1 in 33,333
  6. 6Alabama1 in 50,000
  7. 7California1 in 50,000
  8. 8Illinois1 in 50,000

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

Stanford around the world

Where Stanford 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
    1945–2008
    #726
    in 2008

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

Notable people named Stanford

People whose public names include Stanford, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Stanford in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Stanford. Linked forms have their own page here.

Stratford

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Stanford by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#7,127
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 558
Best rank ever
#505
1931
Peak year
1954
135 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
7,727
Count in 2025
12

Names similar to Stanford

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

StaffordStantonCrawfordStarlingStaceyWilfordRayfordSanfordBradfordStavrosRexfordBufordStanStacyMilfordGaylordStanislawRockfordWinfordWoodfordRadfordStandfordStanislavHartford

Names with a curve like Stanford

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Stanford, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

FeltonStantonArtisBernieNapoleonHiltonIvoryRayfordRogersWardellLorinHayward

Sibling names for Stanford

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 Stanford

Top names of 1954, Stanford's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1931Boys' names starting with S