Scott
Meaning
surname meaning 'a Scotsman', from Latin Scotus
The story
Scott began as a surname, from the Latin Scotus, meaning simply a Scotsman, and for centuries it labeled families rather than babies. Its American life as a first name is a postwar story: only a modest presence in the records before the 1940s, it caught the great midcentury fashion for brisk surname names and shot upward, peaking in the 1960s and 1970s, when it seemed every block had a Scott or two. F. Scott Fitzgerald had already lent the name literary shine, and the astronaut Scott Carpenter gave it space-age glamour in 1962, though the wave was bigger than any one bearer. Since the 1980s it has descended as smoothly as it climbed, settling today into a comfortable middle register: instantly familiar, clearly stamped with its era, and still as crisp as ever to say.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Scott peaked in the 1960s and the 1970s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
172 people · the #28,262 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 26
Among people named Scott living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 21 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Scott
People given the name Scott in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1960 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.
The Scott deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Scott 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 Scott fits with your family’s names and surname.
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