Quentin
Meaning
from Quintus/Quintinus, traditionally 'fifth'
The story
Quentin descends from the Roman Quintinus, a diminutive of Quintus, fifth, carried by a third-century missionary martyred in Gaul; the French town where he died still bears his name, Saint-Quentin. The name's American story runs in two acts. President Theodore Roosevelt's son Quentin, killed in World War I, put it before the public: 1,307 boys in the 1910s, 1,612 in the 1920s, then a slide to 746. The second act built slowly, 4,312 in the 1970s, more than double the decade before, and 8,396 in the 2000s, while France, by its own records, gave it most often in 1997. Quentin Blake illustrated eighteen Roald Dahl books; Quentin Tarantino turned the name into a brand of cinema. A saint started it; an aviator and an auteur have kept it company since.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Quentin peaked in the 2000s and the 2010s in nearly equal measure.
When you meet Quentin
Most people given the name Quentin in the United States were born between 1980 and 2009. The Quentin you meet today is most often in his 20s or 30s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Quentin deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Quentin 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 Quentin fits with your family’s names and surname.
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