Meaning & origin
What it means
Down goes back to Irish dún, meaning “fortress, stronghold.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1963. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Down through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 17
- 0 boys · 17 girls
- Most popular year
- 1966
- 7 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 5 in 1970. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for girls was 7 in 1966. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 170 as a first name in 2020; 1,258 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Down’s family of names
In English usage, Down as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the Russian form Даун.
The ring: across languages.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Similar names
If you love Down, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Diedre
“a brokenhearted or raging woman”
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Doreen
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>99% girls
Deirdre
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Sheilagh
Sheilagh is a feminine given name from Irish.
>99% girls
Colleen
“a young peasant girl”
>99% girls
Meegan
“descendant of Miadachán”
>99% girls
Rhonda
“wielding a good spear”
>99% girls
Treacy
“one who is warlike”
>99% girls