Given name & surname
Grim
“masked person”
Grim is a surname. It is used in English and Old English.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Grim probably goes back to a word meaning “masked person.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2017. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Grim through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 34
- 34 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2024
- 7 babies
- 2025
- 5
- #12,686 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 5 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 12,686 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 6,990 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.
Grim’s family of names
In Old English usage, Grim was borrowed from the Old Norse form Grímr. In English usage, Grim as a surname has a related form in GRIME. In German usage, Grim as a surname has a related form in Grimm.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Grim has relatives in 3 languages.
3 related names in 3 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Similar names
If you love Grim, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.