Forrest
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Meaning
woodsman, one who lives near the forest; immortalized by Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump (1994)
The story
Forrest began as an English surname for someone who lived or worked near a forest. In the United States, however, it arrives with two very different historical shadows. Some families used it in honor of Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest, a legacy that deserves to be recognized rather than softened into scenery. Much later, the novel and film Forrest Gump attached the name to a fictional man whose decency carries him through a turbulent American century. Neither association owns every Forrest, but together they show why a woodsy surname can hold more history than its surface suggests. The spelling with two r's keeps the surname character, while Forest points more directly to the landscape word. For a family drawn to nature, that distinction may matter. Forrest can sound gentle and outdoorsy, yet honesty requires the whole frame: trees, family surnames, a painful American inheritance, and a beloved screen character all meet in the same six letters.
How popular is Forrest around the world?
In the United States, 4,648 babies were named Forrest between 2020 and 2025.
Forrest is on the official records of the United States, New Zealand, Canada, England and Wales, Scotland and South Australia.
United States
1 in 4,700
In the United States, 4,648 babies were named Forrest between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Forrest peaked in the 2020s. In US birth records Forrest has stayed between 1,746 and 6,639 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
New Zealand
1 in 4,800
In New Zealand, 12 boys named Forrest were registered in 2025.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from New Zealand birth registrations, grouped by registration year; any name under 10 in a year is excluded at source. Shares divide by Stats NZ’s count of births registered to mothers living in New Zealand, under 1% below the registry’s own count. Source: Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand), baby name popularity over time
Canada
1 in 5,800
In Canada, 63 boys named Forrest were born in 2024, the 479th 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 6,700
In England and Wales, 82 boys named Forrest were born in 2025, the 474th 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
Scotland
1 in 7,600
In Scotland, 6 boys named Forrest were registered in 2024, the 478th most common name among boys that year.
The count never rose above 6 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
South Australia
1 in 9,2002017
In South Australia, 2 boys were registered as Forrest in 2017.
The count never rose above 2 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
Ireland
last on record 2019
Forrest is not on the 2025 record for Ireland, where names under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 3 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico 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
Names like Forrest · Iconic movie character names · Familiar but never popular
The Forrest deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Forrest 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 Forrest fits with your family’s names and surname.
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