Graham
Meaning
gravelly homestead
The story
Graham starts as a place in Lincolnshire, recorded in the Domesday Book as Grantham and traditionally read as the gravelly homestead. A Norman family carried it north in the twelfth century, where it became one of the great Scottish surnames, which is why the name feels Scottish today despite being English underneath. English speakers also eat it: the graham cracker is named for Sylvester Graham, a nineteenth century American preacher of plain food, so a whole aisle of the supermarket quietly carries a Lincolnshire village. In US records Graham is almost entirely a boys' name, about 61,400 to 235. It held near a thousand babies a decade from the 1920s through the 1960s, then climbed steadily: 4,976 in the 1980s, 7,652 in the 2000s, and more than 19,300 in the 2010s.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Graham peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
29 people · the #96,655 first name in Brazil · median age 47
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Graham
Most people given the name Graham 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 Graham deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Graham 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 Graham fits with your family’s names and surname.
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