Given name & surname
Little
“small, (ironic) big, not much, younger”
Little is a surname.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Little goes back to a word meaning “small, (ironic) big, not much, younger.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1883. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Little through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 1,791
- 1,573 boys · 218 girls
- Most popular year
- 1975
- 41 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 boys is 5 in 2017. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 32 in 1975. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 2,521 as a first name in 2020; 101,061 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.
Little’s family of names
In English usage, Little as a surname shares a linguistic root with the Polish form Mały. In English usage, Little as a surname has a related form in LYTLE. In English usage, Little as a surname has a related form in LIGHTLE.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Little has relatives in 4 languages.
8 related names in 4 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 6
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 7
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Little
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Little, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Lamonte
“a man of the law”
>99% boys
Lucan
“a man from Lucania”
>99% boys
Lemar
“from the renowned land” · “of the sea”
>99% boys
Lamont
“a man of the law”
>99% boys
loan
loan is a feminine given name from Chinese. It is used in Vietnamese.
>99% boys
Tito
“of the giants” · “a great defender”
>99% boys
Torrence
“from the little hills”
89% boys · 11% girls
Torrance
“from the little hills”
70% boys · 30% girls