Forest
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Meaning
vocabulary name meaning 'woodland', from Old French/Latin 'forestis'
The story
Forest begins as landscape: an English word for wooded country and a surname for someone connected with such a place. Forest Whitaker carries it into a very different kind of public work. Known first as an actor and director, he also became a UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation. His organization works with young people in communities affected by conflict, treating education and local leadership as practical tools for peace. The woodland meaning did not shape that career, and Whitaker's achievements are not traits hidden inside the name. The association is valuable for another reason. A forest is not one heroic tree but a living system of roots, shelter, competition, and renewal. Peace work likewise depends on people building capacity together rather than waiting for one rescuer. That comparison is an image, not an etymology. It gives Forest a story with depth and human purpose while letting the bearer remain fully his own person.
How popular is Forest around the world?
In the United States, 2,184 babies were named Forest between 2020 and 2025. In Scotland, 5 boys named Forest were registered in 2024, the 535th most common name among boys that year.
Forest is on the official records of the United States, Scotland, Canada and England and Wales.
United States
1 in 10,000
In the United States, 2,184 babies were named Forest between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Forest peaked in the 2020s. In US birth records Forest has stayed between 657 and 2,184 births in every decade since the 1950s: a name everyone knows and few children get.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Scotland
1 in 9,200
In Scotland, 5 boys named Forest were registered in 2024, the 535th most common name among boys that year.
The count never rose above 5 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in Scotland; different spellings count separately but accents are merged at source, and any spelling under 3 in total is suppressed. Source: National Records of Scotland, babies' first names
Canada
1 in 13,000
In Canada, 29 boys named Forest were born in 2024, the 886th most common name 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)
England and Wales
1 in 14,000
In England and Wales, 37 boys named Forest were born in 2025, the 856th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
South Australia
last on record 2016
Forest 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, Ireland, New Zealand 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.
Keep exploring
The Forest deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Forest 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 Forest fits with your family’s names and surname.
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