Thoreau
Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Thoreau has been given to 32 babies in the U.S. since 2013. 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 2019, with 9 recorded.
Babies named Thoreau, 2021
1 in 484,000
Thoreau 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Thoreau?
Thoreau had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 2021
- 1 in 484,000
- 7 of 3,389,958 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 250,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2021
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 335,678 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Thoreau sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2021 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 335,678 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Thoreau. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Thoreaus were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Thoreau was born before 2018 — so the typical Thoreau is around 7 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 78.1% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 100.0%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 32
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 78.1% of all recorded uses (25).
Is Thoreau 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 2019 (9)
- Years since peak
- 6
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 80.0% average annual change
Thoreau by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Thoreau
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Thoreau
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.