Granville
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Meaning
large settlement, big town; famously borne by Granville Woods, prolific inventor nicknamed the 'Black Edison' for innovations including the multiplex telegraph
The story
Granville was a place before it was a person: an Old French name meaning large settlement, big town, carried into England as a Norman surname and worn by centuries of aristocrats before Americans began using it as a first name. Its most remarkable bearer was Granville T. Woods, the largely self-taught engineer born in Columbus, Ohio in 1856, who earned nearly sixty patents and the nickname the Black Edison, most famously for the multiplex telegraph, which let moving trains communicate with stations down the line and made rail travel far safer; he defended his inventions in court and, as the story is often told, prevailed even against Edison. The name itself has never chased fashion in American records, keeping a quiet, steady undercurrent decade after decade, an heirloom presence rather than a wave. It sounds like an estate and works like a workshop.
How popular is Granville around the world?
In the United States, 16 babies were named Granville between 2020 and 2025.
Granville is on the official records of the United States.
United States
1 in 1.4M
In the United States, 16 babies were named Granville between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Granville has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
South Australia
last on record 1946
Granville 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, England and Wales, Canada, 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 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 Granville
People given the name Granville in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1940 to 1989. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Keep exploring
The Granville deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Granville 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 Granville fits with your family’s names and surname.
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