Given name & surname
Forbes
“from the field”
Forbes is used as a given name and a surname. One interpretation is “from the field.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One interpretation is “from the field.”
Where it comes from
Forbes comes from Scottish Gaelic, and ultimately from Scottish Gaelic.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
It entered given-name use through an existing surname.
The story
Its naming history includes the use of a family name as a given name.
Forbes through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 242
- 242 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1918
- 12 babies
- 2025
- 8
- #9,176 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +100%
- Rising fast
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 8 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 9,176 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Its largest published annual count for boys was 12 in 1918. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 309 as a first name in 2020; 33,424 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.
Forbes’s family of names
Forbes has a related form in Forb. Forbes has a related form in Forba. Forbes has a related form in Forbe.
Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 8
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
People named Forbes
- Forbes BurnhamGuyanese politician (1923-1985)
- Forbes MarchCanadian actorborn 1973
- Forbes KennedyCanadian ice hockey player1935–2026
- Forbes Carlile20th-century Australian Olympic swimming coach1921–2016
- Forbes KBBritish actorborn 1965
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Forbes, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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