Given name & surname
Modest
Modest is a given name from Latin. It is used in Polish.
Original LatinModestus
Meaning & origin
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Late Latin.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1911. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Modest through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 65
- 0 boys · 65 girls
- Most popular year
- 1921
- 11 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 6 in 1927. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for girls was 11 in 1921. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 300 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.
Modest’s family of names
Modest has an affectionate form in Desya. Modest shares a linguistic root with Modesto. In Polish usage, Modest has a conventional equivalent in the Latin form Modestus.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Modest has relatives in 4 languages. Lines run from its Latin roots to each of them.
Latinwhere Modest comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 4
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 1
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Modest
- Modest MussorgskyRussian composer (1839–1881)
- Bobbejaan SchoepenBelgian musician, performer (1925–2010)
- Modest Ilyich TchaikovskyRussian dramatist, opera librettist and translator (1850–1916)
- Modest UrgellCatalan artist (1839-1919)
- Modest Ivanovich BogdanovichRussian general and historian (1805–1882)
- Modest BogdanovRussian zoologist, botanist, explorer and writer (1841–1888)
- Modest IlyinRussian (Soviet) botanist (1889-1967)
- Modest AltschulerRussian-American cellist, orchestral conductor, and composer (1873–1963)
- Modest Andreyevich Korffhistorian (1800-1876)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Modest, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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“lady”
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“crown” · “a crowned woman”
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“resembling the lily”
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Clarice
“fame”
>99% girls