Bristol
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Meaning
“English place name meaning site of the bridge”
The story
Bristol is a city before it is a name: the port in southwestern England whose name means the site of the bridge. Two crisp syllables, and the meaning sits right on the surface. As an American girl's name it is strikingly recent. The record shows 6 girls in the 1970s, 84 in the 1980s, 136 in the 1990s, a first real stirring at 710 in the 2000s, and then the leap: 6,767 in the 2010s, with 3,340 so far this decade. A scattering of boys appears across the record too, 26 of them back in the 1910s. It joined the wave of place names in the American record, and it carries the plainest meaning of the group: no borough, no river, just the site of the bridge.
How popular is Bristol around the world?
In the United States, 3,406 babies were named Bristol between 2020 and 2025.
Bristol is on the official records of the United States and Canada.
United States
1 in 6,400
In the United States, 3,406 babies were named Bristol between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Bristol peaked in the 2010s.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Canada
1 in 30,000
In Canada, 12 girls named Bristol were born in 2024, ranked 1,854th among girls 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)
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 South Australia record for 1944 to 2017: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. 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 Bristol
Most people given the name Bristol 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 Bristol deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Bristol 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 Bristol fits with your family’s names and surname.
Does Bristol fit YOUR family?
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