Name Awesome

Tor

#7,144 in 2025Boys' name

To thunder, through *Þunraz

Tor has been given to 886 babies in the U.S. since 1949. In 2025 it ranked #7,144 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1965, with 30 recorded.

Babies named Tor, 2025

1 in 276,000

Tor over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Tor: meaning, origin, and history

To thunder, through *Þunraz

Old Norse

What Tor means

Tor belongs to the name family reached through Tor → *Þunraz. Its meaning is “to thunder”.

Origin, language, and formation

Tor is used in Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish and Turkish. Its origins include Old Norse.

Tor comes through Old Norse Þórr.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Tord, Tórur, Þór and *Þunraz.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Norwegian Nynorsk, Tor is pronounced /tuːr/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 886 boys were recorded with the name Tor between 1949 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 30 in 1965; its best national rank was #1,425 in 1965.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,949 in 2020 to #7,144 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #7,450 in 2015 to #7,144 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Tor?

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
#7,144
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
191,493 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Tor 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 Tor. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Tors were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Tor was born before 1990 — so the typical Tor is around 35 today.

Median birth year
1990
About 35 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
16.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
34.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
881
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 16.9% of all recorded uses (150).

Is Tor 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
−1,195
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+306
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.09×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
40.0%
Peak was 1965 (30)
Years since peak
60
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,425
1965

Where Tor is used

Across 1910–2025, Tor was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 569,805 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 in —
  3. 3Washington1 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. Tor has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Tor around the world

Where Tor 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.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2022
    #3,450
    in 2022
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #199
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2007–2016
    #2,748
    in 2016
  • South Australia
    1993–1993
    #519
    in 1993

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Tor by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#7,144
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,195
Best rank ever
#1,425
1965
Peak year
1965
30 that year
First recorded
1949
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
886
Count in 2025
12

Names similar to Tor

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

ToriTorenTorynTorrenTorrinToranToreyTorreTorianToryTorbenToribioTorstenTorryTorinTorianoTorresTorrianAstorTorriTorrieTorrynTorieTorrey

Sibling names for Tor

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 Tor

Top names of 1965, Tor's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1965Boys' names starting with TNorwegian Boy Names