Baylor
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Meaning
traditionally explained as an English occupational surname linked to horse-training or bailiffs
The story
Baylor is a surname our records explain, with tradition duly hedged, through horse-training or bailiff work, but its American life is collegiate: the Texas university has carried the name since 1845, and the given-name curve rides the era when campus names became first names. The record: about 440 in the 1990s, 1,400 in the 2000s, 4,000 in the 2010s, and already 6,800 so far this decade, past the full 2010s with years to run. The split is the genuinely shared kind: about 2,000 girls to 4,800 boys this decade, thirty percent girls, the Lennox pattern of real minority share rather than token. In our records the all-time count runs about 9,000 boys to 3,700 girls. A bailiff, a horse trainer, or a Waco campus: the readings differ, but the trajectory is one line, and it points up.
How popular is Baylor around the world?
In the United States, 6,787 babies were named Baylor between 2020 and 2025.
Baylor is on the official records of the United States and Canada.
United States
1 in 3,200
In the United States, 6,787 babies were named Baylor between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Baylor peaked in the 2020s.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Canada
1 in 33,000
In Canada, 11 boys named Baylor were born in 2024, ranked 1,817th among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
South Australia
last on record 2016
Baylor is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
When you meet Baylor
Most people given the name Baylor in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Keep exploring
The Baylor deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Baylor truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Baylor fits with your family’s names and surname.
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