Boston
Meaning
place name, from the English town tied to Saint Botolph (read as "Botolph's town" or "Botwulf's stone")
The story
Boston has been a boys' name longer than it looks: a dozen in the 1890s, over a hundred in the 1920s, a thin thread through midcentury, then the 2000s carried it to about 2,600, the 2010s to about 4,500, and about 2,700 so far this decade. The city's name walked a long road to the nursery: Boston, Massachusetts took it from Boston in Lincolnshire, England, and there the sources split politely. Behind the Name reads the old town as Botwulf's stone, while the 1911 Britannica derives it from Saint Botolph, whose monastery there dates to 654, Botolph's town. Stone or town, a seventh-century abbot hides inside a name that now reads pure Americana, and the records say families noticed the name a full century before the boom.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Boston peaked in the 2000s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
When you meet Boston
Most people given the name Boston 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.
The Boston deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Boston 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 Boston fits with your family’s names and surname.
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